Scripture Reference: Galatians 6:11-14

The Cross – A Sign of Our Hope of Heaven

Third, the cross is a sign and an emblem of our atonement and our salvation, our hope of glory. Christ died. How did He die? Why did He die? Did He die like Socrates, drinking the hemlock, a martyr to philosophical truth? Did He die like Julius Caesar, a hero in the senate before the cruel daggers of Brutus and Cassius? Did He die like the Agamemnon in Aeschylus carrying out the heroic assignment of the Greek nation against the Trojans? Did He die like Shakespeare’s tragedy of King Lear? Did He die like Abraham Lincoln under the assassin’s bullet in Ford’s Theater in Washington? How did He die?

We know from the Word that there is a divine meaning in the death of Christ. This is God’s plan for our salvation. There is no pardon and peace apart from atonement. There is no remission of sins apart from the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22), and there is no reconciliation without the payment of death. This is our atonement, our propitiation, our sacrifice for sin. This is our means of reconciliation to God. The cross to the Apostle Paul and to us is the same thing as the brazen serpent raised in the wilderness was to Moses and the children of Israel. It is a sign of universal love, mercy, forgiveness, and healing from the hands of God.

The cross is a sign of our atonement. It is a sign of our forgiveness, once and for all. It is a sign of God’s inviting love, His invitation to pardon and forgiveness. It is an invitation to life. The cross has an upraised beam. Raised toward the sky, it points toward God in Heaven. It has a lower part that touches the earth. God, reaching out His loving hand, extends it down even to us. It has crossarms and they go in either direction as far as the East goes East and as far as the West goes West (Psalm 103:12). The arms of the cross are extended to the limits of the earth. It is the open invitation to all men everywhere to find life, liberty, forgiveness, mercy, and salvation in the atoning love, sobs, tears, suffering death of the Son of God. We are all welcome.

The arms of the cross extend to all mankind, to the Greek and to the Barbarian, to the Roman and to the unsophisticated, to the Jew and to the Greek, to the bond and to the free, to the lettered and to the unlearned, to the rich and to the poor, to the wise and to the unwise, to the old and to the young, to the near and to those who are far off, to the good and to the not so good, to all of us does God extend wide His invitation. The world could never be the same again because our Lord died in it. It was this planet upon which Jesus spilled His sacred blood.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
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