continuation:
The pathway to becoming a righteous person is the key journey in Judaism. This journey is torturously portrayed in the book The Chosen by Chaim Potok. In the book, a Jewish boy named Reuven befriends a boy genius named Danny. Danny is a genius of memory, with a perfect photographic memory. But he is arrogant. Danny's father is a tzaddik, a "righteous one." He is also an Orthodox rabbi. The story unfolds about how this supposed tzaddik set about to raise his son Danny as a tzaddik. He raises him for years in absolute silence from his father. The only time they talk is when they study Talmud. That book is a tragedy: man's way of making a tzaddik, a righteous one, is by a father's silence; God's way of infusing His righteousness into us was by sending His Son to die on a cross for us, then raising His Son again, that He might give His Son's righteousness to us as a free gift when we believe. Man's way is to make another man walk the path of pain; God's way is to walk the path of pain Himself, that He might make the treasure of His righteousness a gift freely given to believers!! This is why we sing:
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Not only can we find real righteousness at the cross of Christ, but we find there the first thing we need before all other things: we find forgiveness.
While Jesus was on the cross, He spoke seven words. The first word was "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Forgiveness is the first thought of Christ on the cross and the first need of humanity. But what was happening when Jesus uttered these words? He was in the process of being crucified. At the crucifixion, the Creator God who made the tree from which the cross was hewn had chosen to lay His bleeding back on its unplaned roughness. It was an ironic end for a carpenter who had spent the greater part of His life working with wood. That main vertical board was about 7-9 feet in length, the cross board slightly less long. Jesus was tied to both so He wouldn't writhe in pain and unsettle the nails as they were being driven through Him and into the wood. Once He was tied down, the horrible nailing began. Long iron nails like railroad spikes were taken out of a bag held by a Roman footsoldier. The nail was placed on the palm of the hand, and was hammered down. Through His hands which the night before had gently washed the feet of His disciples were driven hard, cold spikes of iron. I wonder if maybe Jesus' words were uttered in the brief moments between the falls of the hammer. "[Hit -- the first hammer blow] Father, [hit] forgive them; [hit] for they [hit] know not [hit] what they do [hit.]" A cadence of ultimate cruelty and greater kindness, one answering the other. But the sound of His forgiving voice rings still through this first word of the cross, while the vicious hammering rang out only once in time.
The glory of the cross is that Jesus offers forgiveness to any and all who come to Him at the cross. Think about all the weight of guilt carried around by those who don't yet know our Jesus!! It is a terrible burden, and we sleep with it, rise with it, eat with it, and carry it all day, being unable of ourselves to be rid of it. If only we would come, just as we are, to Him, and hear Him forgive us as He forgave the nailers. Any who come will never be turned away. This is why we sing:
Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bidds't me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
May any who are here who carry the load of guilt, any who have not yet found the healing power of God's forgiveness, come to Jesus Christ right now!!
But the good news of the cross does not end with forgiveness. The cross brings peace between God and man. Paul tells us in Rom. 5:1 the first result of believing in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross: "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
When I think of the peace purchased by the cross, I think of my trip to Israel. Now Jerusalem is supposedly a city of peace, according to its name, but we all know that is one of the great ironies of the world. It is far from a city of peace; recently it has been a war zone. But when we went into Israel, we learned something fascinating: that if you wish to travel in the war zones of the West Bank, Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem, where tensions between Jews and Arabs run highest, you will be endangered unless you are a Christian pilgrim wearing a clearly visible wooden cross around your neck. The Arabs will respect you as a Christian pilgrim and leave you be, and the Jews will respect you as a tourist, given the fact that tourism is a major source of revenue for the country. I remember walking through the war zones bearing the sign of the cross, and walking in peace. This is a parable to me: I can walk anywhere in this world experiencing total peace with God, because I have believed in Jesus Christ and what He did for me on His cross. This is why we sing:
I saw the cross of Jesus, When burdened with my sin;
I sought the cross of Jesus, To give me peace within;
I brought my soul to Jesus, He cleansed it in his blood;
And in the cross of Jesus I found my peace with God.
Finally, not only can I find peace with God at the cross of Christ, but I can find at the cross the model for how human relationships are supposed to work. Good human relationships are based on self-sacrificing yielding, the giving of God's love and not the taking from another to meet my needs. The cross of Christ is the ultimate model of a loving relationship: that God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. And the cross is to be the model for all relationships between disciples of Christ in the church, according to the command Jesus gave to the disciples just before He went to the cross, that they love one another just as He loved them. The cross is also the model of loving husbanding, the husband laying down his life for his wife. The cross is the model of loving relationships with the world, in the church, and in the home.
I have never read a better story outlining this than in Chuck Colson's book The Body. It is the story of Father Maximilian Kolbe. For years he had presided over the largest friary in the world, gently but strongly shepherding the other 762 priests and lay brothers there. Then, on Feb. 17, 1941, Father Kolbe was arrested by the Nazis, and in May 1941 was sentenced to Auschwitz. He was told that life expectancy for priests was about one month. He labored there until one night in July, when news spread that a man had escaped from Barracks 14, where Father Kolbe lived. Unlike many other escapees, the man was not caught. So, Camp Commandant Fritsch forced all the men in Barracks 14 to stand all day at attention. At the evening roll call, he announced, "Ten of you will die for the fugitive in the starvation bunker. Next time, 20 will be condemned." The exhausted prisoners swayed with terror. For out of all the gruesome tortures of Auschwitz, the starvation bunker was the worst. Death on the gallows, a bullet in the head at the Wall of Death, even the grisly gas chambers, were humane when compared to Nazi starvation, where both food and water were denied the prisoners. In there, the prisoners ceased to look human after even a day or two. Their throats became like paper, their brain turned to fire, and their intestines dried up and shriveled within them. Even the guards were frightened by the prisoners who dried to death in the starvation bunker.
The prisoners anxiously awaited the random selection of the ten men who would die. Commandant Fritsch went through the lines, looking at teeth, tongues, etc. to choose the weakest breed of prisoner, like horses for the glue factory. Soon ten men were chosen. One man, #5659, was crying out, "My poor wife! My poor children!! What will they do?" But like the others, he had to take off his shoes and fall in line. But suddenly, an older prisoner did something unheard of: he broke ranks and walked right up to Commandant Fritsch. Instead of immediately shooting him, Fritsch barked out, "Halt! What does this Polish pig want of me?" Father Kolbe calmly told the Nazi butcher, "I would like to die in place of one of the men you condemned." Fritsch stared at him in disbelief ... he didn't seem to be insane. "Why?" snapped Fritsch. Sensing the need to use tried and true Nazi logic, Kolbe replied, "I am an old man, sir, and good for nothing. My life will serve no purpose." Fritsch then asked, "In whose place do you want to die?" "For that one," Kolbe responded, pointing to #5659. Fritsch agreed, and number #16670 replaced #5659 on the death ledger.
Father Kolbe then took off his shoes to join the other condemned men. As he did so, #5659 passed by him at a distance, wearing an expression of pure astonishment that had not yet become gratitude. But Kolbe wasn't looking for gratitude. If he was to lay down his life for another, the fulfillment had to be in the act of obedience itself. The joy must be found in submitting his small will to the will of One more grand. The men reached the starvation bunker. "Remove your clothes!" shouted an officer. Christ died on the cross naked, Father Kolbe thought as he took off his shirt and pants. It is only fitting that I suffer as He suffered. The ten men were herded into a dark, windowless cell. The door was shut and locked.
Gradually, the camp became aware of something extraordinary happening in the starvation bunker. Usually there were howls of pain and panic, the sounds of screams and fighting between the prisoners, but this time it was different. There was heard the sound of singing. A gentle shepherd was leading these men through the valley of death, pointing them to the Great Shepherd. Father Kolbe was the last of the men to die."
That is how powerfully the crucifixion love of Jesus flowing through us in our relationships can impact our world for good. That is why we sing:
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down Beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.
Thus, the cross of Christ is the central and only solution to the human problem. At the cross, sin is faced and erased for all who believe. At the cross, suffering is salved by a suffering Son. At the cross, self-righteousness is silenced. At the cross, real righteousness is infused into the believer as a free gift. At the cross, we find forgiveness from the One who even forgave the nailers. At the cross, we find peace with God in a warring world. And at the cross we find a wondrous love that is the model for all loving relationships we yearn to have.
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