These pages are designed for use to aid discipleship among Christians through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or for meeting one to one. If you wish, you could use the questions, while leaving the group to choose their own translation of the Bible.
Introduction
The Cross of Christ is central to understanding what the Christian faith is all about. It is the focal point of the evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. It is the means by which the Father is reconciled to us, His rebellious people. It was the reason that Jesus came to live among us, and the purpose from which He would not be dissuaded.
Bible Zone
The zone below looks at three passages.
- Isaiah looks at how the Bible predicts the cross, from 600 years before Jesus.
- Colossians looks at the spiritual consequences of the Cross.
- Hebrews looks at some of the subtler consequences of Jesus death for us.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born Isaiah wrote this prophecy of the death of Jesus.
Reading Isaiah 53:3-11 (NCV) opens up to us some of the mysterious ways in which God works. There is a considerable mismatch between what He is doing and the way He is understood. It seems that He is content with this. The fact that the cross was prophesied by God is an indication that it was not an accident.
- What was to be experienced by the one prophesied about?
- Given this experience, how would you respond?
- What was God’s purpose in these experiences?
3 He was hated and rejected by people. He had much pain and suffering. People would not even look at him. He was hated, and we didn't even notice him.
4 But he took our suffering on him and felt our pain for us. We saw his suffering and thought God was punishing him.
5 But he was wounded for the wrong we did; he was crushed for the evil we did. The punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of his wounds.
6 We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way. But the Lord has put on him the punishment for all the evil we have done.
7 He was beaten down and punished, but he didn't say a word. He was like a lamb being led to be killed. He was quiet, as a sheep is quiet while its wool is being cut; he never opened his mouth.
8 Men took him away roughly and unfairly. He died without children to continue his family. He was put to death; he was punished for the sins of my people.
9 He was buried with wicked men, and he died with the rich. He had done nothing wrong, and he had never lied.
10 But it was the Lord who decided to crush him and make him suffer. The Lord made his life a penalty offering, but he will still see his descendants and live a long life. He will complete the things the Lord wants him to do.
11 "After his soul suffers many things, he will see life and be satisfied. My good servant will make many people right with God; he will carry away their sins.
12 For this reason I will make him a great man among people, and he will share in all things with those who are strong. He willingly gave his life and was treated like a criminal. But he carried away the sins of many people and asked forgiveness for those who sinned."
Read the account of Jesus’ trial and death. How does the text above relate to the death of Jesus? The text above was written about six hundred years before Jesus was born.
In looking at these texts, consider the following questions.
- Who is being driven by circumstances and who has a purpose?
- How does Jesus’ behaviour match up with this level of torture?
Jesus’ death on the cross in some mysterious way deals with all that is wrong between us and God. Paul brings this out very clearly in Colossians 2:11-15 (NCV) - (Note circumcision was a requirement in the Jewish religion for entering into a covenant with God. It was performed on boys at age 7 days.)
- How do we participate in Jesus’ death? - And resurrection?
- What has Jesus’ death freed us from? (Don’t be content with one answer here!)
- What do all these freedoms say about our condition without Jesus?
- What has God done for those who join with Jesus?
11 Also in Christ you had a different kind of circumcision, a circumcision not done by hands. It was through Christ's circumcision, that is, his death, that you were made free from the power of your sinful self.12 When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him through your faith in God's power that was shown when he raised Christ from the dead.13 When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins.14 He cancelled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross.15 God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless.
The book of Hebrews shows us a couple of new twists to the cross. Each of these is a new light on God’s reconciliation with ourselves through Jesus’ choice to go to the cross. The first is Hebrews 9:12-15 (NCV)
- What consequences of Jesus death are explained here?
- What are the consequences for the way we live with God?
Christ entered the Most Holy Place only once—and for all time. He did not take with him the blood of goats and calves. His sacrifice was his own blood, and by it he set us free from sin forever.13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a cow are sprinkled on the people who are unclean, and this makes their bodies clean again.14 How much more is done by the blood of Christ. He offered himself through the eternal Spirit as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will make our consciences pure from useless acts so we may serve the living God.
15 For this reason Christ brings a new agreement from God to his people. Those who are called by God can now receive the blessings he has promised, blessings that will last forever. They can have those things because Christ died so that the people who lived under the first agreement could be set free from sin.
The second is Hebrews 9:24-28 (NCV)
- How is Jesus’ sacrifice contrasted with sacrifices that people have made?
- What is the consequence for the way we live with God?
24 Christ did not go into the Most Holy Place made by humans, which is only a copy of the real one. He went into heaven itself and is there now before God to help us.25 The high priest enters the Most Holy Place once every year with blood that is not his own. But Christ did not offer himself many times.26 Then he would have had to suffer many times since the world was made. But Christ came only once and for all time at just the right time to take away all sin by sacrificing himself. 27 Just as everyone must die once and then be judged, 28 so Christ was offered as a sacrifice one time to take away the sins of many people. And he will come a second time, not to offer himself for sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
The Cross
(Jesus the Saviour)