At the beginning of this Passion Week, it’s fitting that we turn our eyes to the cross. No tragedy could be greater than God’s blameless Son being slaughtered without mercy in horrid crucifixion. Yet as a result of His suffering, countless people will spend eternity with God in joyful celebration and endless pleasure. Jesus Himself will be forever exalted, and all will recognize Him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Eternal benefits are ours, all because He suffered.
May these verses and quotes (excerpted from my book It’s All About Jesus) fill your heart with gratitude and worship as you consider Christ’s sacrifice for us.
He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Isaiah 53:5-7 NIV
When they came to the place called “The Skull,” they crucified Jesus there, and the two criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Luke 23:33 GNT
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25 NIV
There is no doctrine more excellent in itself or more necessary to be preached and studied, than the doctrine of Christ, and him crucified. John Flavel
My entire theology can be condensed into four words, “JESUS DIED FOR ME.” Charles Spurgeon
To know Jesus and Him crucified is my philosophy, and there is none higher. Bernard of Clairvaux
The gentle, compassionate Jesus is also the Jesus who drove the merchant-thieves from the Temple and spoke condemnation against self-righteous religious leaders. Were Jesus as meek and mild and utterly tolerant as many think, He never would have been crucified. But His less popular qualities so outraged people that they nailed Him to a cross. Randy Alcorn
Jesus was crucified not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves. George F. MacLeod
The crucifixion was the shocking answer to the prayer that God’s kingdom would come on earth as in heaven. N.T. Wright
Though many recent writers have spoken of God’s vulnerability and weakness demonstrated on the cross, we must see this truth in the context of God’s sovereignty. Christ chose this “weakness.” His obedient death on the cross demonstrates it. “The reason my Father loves me,” Jesus said, “is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” ( John 10:17-18). He willingly chose to suffer as a victim. Scripture portrays a God so strong He can take on weakness to overpower all opposition and accomplish His eternal purposes. Randy Alcorn
It was not the people or the Roman soldiers who put Jesus on the cross—it was your sins and my sins that made it necessary for Him to volunteer His death. Billy Graham
The true Son left his home with the Father and went to the cross so that we who had run from the Father could be welcomed as sons. Trevor Laurence
When God sent His only Son, Jesus, to this earth to bear your sin and mine on the cross, He put a price tag on us—He declared the value of our soul to be greater than the value of the whole world. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
When Jesus went to the cross He didn’t fall into Satan’s trap—Satan fell into His. Randy Alcorn
Satan’s motive in Jesus’ crucifixion was rebellion; God’s motive was love and mercy. Satan was a secondary cause behind the Crucifixion, but it was God who ultimately wanted it, willed it, and allowed Satan to carry it out. Joni Eareckson Tada
What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of Goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by Goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world. John Stott
God on a cross. Humanity at its worst. Divinity at its best. Max Lucado
Jesus knew He was being betrayed by one of His best friends at that very moment. He knew He was facing imminent arrest, trials, torture, crucifixion, and death. He bore the eternal weight of responsibility for fully completing His Father’s will and redeeming mankind from sin. If ever there were multiple reasons for praise being interrupted, Jesus had them on that Thursday night. Yet Matthew 26:30 says that He sang! Anne Graham Lotz
Photo by John Thomas on Unsplash
