If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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These pages are designed to aid study or investigation for Christian discipleship through individual Bible study, Cell groups, Home groups, or meeting one to one. The questions could be used alone allowing each person to use their own Bible.
Introduction
The Cross of Christ is central to understanding the Christian faith. It is the means by which the Father is reconciled to us, His rebellious people. It was the reason Jesus came to the world and lived among us. The cross, along with the resurrection, is the focal point of the evidence that Jesus is the Son of God.
Bible Zone
The zone below looks at three passages.
- Cross Prophesied - Isaiah predicts the cross, 600 years before Jesus.
- Victory at the Cross - Through the Cross there is victory over death.
- One Sacrifice for all - Jesus’ death is the sacrifice that takes away sin for all.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born Isaiah wrote a prophecy of the death of Jesus.
Reading Isaiah 53:1-12 opens up the mysterious ways God works. Since God prophesied the cross He shows it was not an accident.
- What was to be experienced by Jesus, God’s servant?
- What was Jesus achieving through these experiences?
- How has this servant brought about reconciliation between God and His people?
- What is the final outcome for Jesus?
Isaiah 53:1-12 1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm? 2 My servant grew up in the LORD's presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. 3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows* that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away.* No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream.* But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. 9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave.
10 But it was the LORD's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD's good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. 12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
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 the linked texts from the gospels, consider the following questions.
- Who is being driven by events and who has a purpose?
- How does Jesus behave given the degree 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 - (Note circumcision was a requirement in the Jewish religion for entering into a covenant with God. It was performed on boys at age 8 days.)
- What has Jesus’ death freed us from? And the power of God given us?
- What is a person’s condition without Jesus?
- What do we do and what does God do for us to benefit from Jesus’ death?
Colossians 2:11-15 11 When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.*12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.15 In this way, he disarmed* the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
The book of Hebrews shows us a new twist to the cross: God reconciled to us through Jesus’ choice to go to the cross. First Hebrews 9:12-15
- What consequences of Jesus death are explained here?
- How does this affect the way we live with God?
Hebrews 9:12-15 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurity.14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds* so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
Second Hebrews 9:24-28
- How is Jesus’ sacrifice contrasted with those of priests?
- What is the benefit to us?
Hebrews 9:24-28 24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.25 And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age* to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.
27 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,28 so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.
THE CROSS
