We have already spoken of the manifestation of God’s Love and Holiness in redeeming the human race as one decisive act. Let us examine this statement a little more closely. Would it not seem probable that if He undertook the settlement of the sin-question it would be completed in a single act, rather than to take the form of a process extending through centuries?
But the question might be asked, “How could He deal judicially with sinners of all ages and dispensations in a moment of time?” Only by dealing with their Federal Head, whose representative acts they would individually ratify through their power of choice. Therefore, after Jesus Christ, in His earthly walk, had manifested a dependent, holy, victorious life as the Last Adam, living in the sphere of Uncreated (Eternal) Life, He was ready to act representatively in connection with the race of the First Adam, with whom He had identified Himself. He, the Sinless One, who lived in the sphere of Life, Holiness, Peace, Love, voluntarily permitted His humanity to descend to the sin-poisoned atmosphere of the sphere in which the descendants of the First Adam dwelt. Personally, He was without sin. Representatively, the sin of the whole race was laid upon Him, and thus His humanity came within the operation of “the law of sin and death,” which we have found to be absolutely inflexible. Representatively then, He must bear the stroke, the doom, the penalty that the sinful race deserved-that God’s Holiness demanded.
It is evident that the sinlessness of the Sin-bearer magnifies the Holiness of God. Sinners deserved the stroke. The Sinless One did not; therefore, “the death of Jesus was a more splendid vindication of righteous rule than the death of all the sinners would have been” (Dr. Mabie, in The Meaning and Message of the Cross).
Let us now consider the mode of this judgment-death. We find this stated in Acts 2:23: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” Was this mode of death indicated in the Old Testament Scriptures? The Passover lambs were offered on Jewish altars, but death by crucifixion is not a Jewish mode of putting to death. We know that at this time Rome was the proud mistress of the world and Palestine was under her domination; therefore God’s Lamb was crucified upon a Roman Cross which all the world could see, figuratively speaking. Had He been put to death in earlier times, before the conquest of Rome or during the rule of the Maccabees, His death would have been less spectacular and would have made less outward impression. God had chosen a fitting time in the history of our race for the execution of His Redemptive Plan; therefore even the mode of Christ’s death was such as most adequately met the requirements in connection with the execution of the same.
Note: The teacher who would look into this subject would do well to obtain a copy of The Gospel in the Stars by Seiss. *Wonderfully the whole redemption story has been written in the starry sky. Long before the creation of man, the constellations spoke of the serpent, the virgin, the child, and, brighter than all, blazed the Cross in the Southern sky.
It would seem that God gave many intimations of the Cross during the hundreds of years before the actual rugged beams were placed upon Calvary. Never did an Israelite prepare the Passover lamb without looking upon the cross formed by the wooden spits upon which the body of the lamb was placed before roasting. The longer of these extended vertically the length of the body; the shorter was placed horizontally from side to side. Startling indeed to our eyes would be the resemblance, although we cannot tell what impression was made upon the people of old.
We observe the form of the Cross in the arrangement of the furniture of the Tabernacle, while the serpent upon the pole also speaks of the Cross. (See Exo. 40:20-30; Num. 21:8-9.)
Psalm 22 is described by Dr. Scofield as a “graphic picture of death by crucifixion.” Have the class read this psalm and note that every detail of Christ’s crucifixion is described almost as perfectly as if the writer were an eyewitness of that scene, instead of writing hundreds of years before. Dr. Scofield adds, “When it is remembered that crucifixion was a Roman, not Jewish form of execution, the proof of inspiration is irresistible.” We plainly see, then, that the Cross, as well as the Lamb, was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, which is entirely consistent with the foreknowledge of God mentioned in Acts 2:23.
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