I Believe Jesus Was Crucified (The Creed, Part 9)

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Galatians 3:13, 6:14

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I believe Jesus was crucified. As we pause today to think about Jesus crucifixion, I have to ask, what does the cross mean to you? Because honestly, today many people are offended by the cross and are offended by the picture or the image of Jesus being crucified on the cross. There are many Christian worship centers and campuses today that have no cross because it’s offensive. Other Christians will say that I won’t turn the cross into an idol. Even more tragically, more and more sermons on Sunday mornings around the globe are intentionally doing everything they can to cut Jesus’ crucifixion out of the message on Sunday morning. What does the cross mean to you?

Well, back in Jesus’ day, we have to say that the cross was absolutely an offensive image. If you go back in the ancient world, it was oftentimes a common practice that when someone had died as a result of a crime, their body would be displayed by being nailed up to a tree. And that was this public incentivizer to encourage people to not do what that person did to end up this way. Eventually, the Persian Empire took this a step further. They thought to themselves, if we want to deter people from doing things, it would send a much stronger message to nail that person up to that tree while they are still alive.

Now, when the Roman Empire came across this practice, they applied their scientific minds and their understanding of medical knowledge to take that torturous, awful death a step further. They studied how they could extend the human life as long as possible, while also being nailed up to a tree or a cross. In fact, this death was so horrific, the Roman philosopher Cicero had to come up with a word to describe it. They didn’t have a word in language for it. So he came up with a word excruciating, which literally means out of crucifixion. The cross was offensive to Roman culture because it embodied everything that they feared. It embodied horrific suffering, it embodied shame, sin, punishment for sin, and judgment. And when we think about the cross today, it’s true. It does represent all those things that people fear the most, namely suffering, death, and judgment.

But when it comes to fear, how do you overcome fear? Well, you’ve probably heard the advice before. You have to face your fears. You have to face it head on. Look at it in the face in order to overcome that fear. That’s what’s truly interesting. When God had a serpent hung on a pole in the wilderness and the Israelites were being bitten and killed by serpents. God had them stare at that serpent on the pole, and only by looking at fear in the face. In faith they were saved and delivered from the venom of the snakes. God has done the same thing for us. When Jesus hung on the cross. Paul says in Galatians chapter three,

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)

Do I fear suffering? Well, there’s Jesus taking suffering in my place. Do I fear feared death. Well, there is Jesus dying in my place. Do I fear sin and its dreadful, dreadful curse? Yes. But there is Jesus taking the curse in my place. Do I fear God’s wrath and God’s judgment and sentence against sin? Well, there’s Jesus taking that in my place.

You see, we don’t worship the cross. We worship the God who use the cross to deliver us, to save us. Yes, the cross was a powerful tool, but more than that, the cross is a symbol of your and my victory over sin, death, and the devil. And just as the Apostle Paul says, I will boast in nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (Galatians 6:14) So too the cross and the Savior on the cross is our boast when we confess He was crucified. Amen.