Matthew: The Cross of Christ

Today we see the cross of Christ and how the love, justice, and victory of God collide.

Matthew 27:32-66

“From beginning to end, the Holy Scriptures testify that the predicament of fallen humanity is so serious, so grave, so irremediable from within, that nothing short of divine intervention can rectify it.” - Fleming Rutledge

“Wit and cruelty were in combination…to make death in the highest degree terrible and miserable.” - Martin Hengel

“Crucifixion as a means of execution in the Roman Empire had as its express purpose the elimination of victims from consideration as members of the human race. It cannot be said too strongly: that was its function”. - Fleming Rutledge

And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed, indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say..He who suspended the earth is suspended, he who fixed the heavens is fixed, he who fastened all things is fastened to the wood, God is murdered. - Melito of Sardis

Jesus’ last sentence before death was a question, not an affirmation. Jesus could have ended his life much more triumphantly with a noble exclamation—“God is love!” or “Love one another!” or “I triumph!” But when he died asking questions, we learn that Jesus not only took on our flesh and blood but also our nervous systems. He came not only giving us answers; he also came asking our questions, and questions seem weaker than exclamations. Jesus has been redefining strength his whole life. - Dale Bruner

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have very different angles on things, but they all converge on this: When Jesus is crucified something happens, and the result is the powers that have locked up the world in corruption, decay and death are overthrown. And Jesus is, from now on, running the show—even though it doesn’t look like it because we have the wrong idea of what power is and how it works. If we take the New Testament seriously, we ought to see that the crucifixion of Jesus is the means by which God’s Kingdom is actually launched on earth as in heaven—because the powers are defeated, and this new world comes to birth. - NT Wright

Romans 5:6-8
1 Peter 3:18

“The wrath of God, which plays such a large role in both the Old and New Testaments, can be embraced because it comes wrapped in God's mercy..The wrath of God falls upon God himself, by God's own choice, out of God's own love. The 'justice connection' may not be clear to those who are accustomed to privilege, but to oppressed and suffering Christians in the troubled places of the earth, there is no need to spell it out. God in Christ on the cross has become one with those who are despised and outcast in the world. No other method of execution that the world has ever known could have established this so conclusively.” Fleming Rutledge

“The concept of substitution may be said to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God. While the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.” - John Stott

Romans 5:9-11 
2 Corinthians 5:21

“The cross is the means by which God’s kingdom is actually launched on earth as in heaven—because the powers are defeated and this new world comes to birth.” - NT Wright
Colossians 2:13-15

Fake freedom: Be true to yourself.
Real freedom: Be true to your God. - Matt Smethurst 

Galatians 5:1, 13-15

The Devil loves a bloodless cross. He doesn’t mind a shiny trinket around your neck so long as it’s not a shining treasure in your heart. Satan is afraid of the blood. He knows it washes sinners clean. He knows that the bloody cross spells his doom. And he knows the blood of Christ pays the wrath owed sinners, thereby forever making his accusations against God’s people null and void. Which is why Satan would love for you to keep your gospel nice and respectable. - Jared C. Wilson