Cross of Salvation
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Cross of Salvation

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Table of Contents

  • The Cross Is ...
  • The Background Of The Cross
  • God's Plan Of Salvation
  • The Cross
  • THE INSCRIPTIONS
  • Articles with the subject of Cross Of Christ by Oswald Chambers

    • The Cross Is ...

  • The cross is the hope of Christians
  • The cross is the resurrection of the dead
  • The cross is the way of the lost
  • The cross is the savior of the lost
  • The cross is the staff of the lame
  • The cross is the guide of the blind
  • The cross is the strength of the weak
  • The cross is the doctor of the sick
  • The cross is the aim of the priests
  • The cross is the hope of the hopeless
  • The cross is the freedom of the slaves
  • The cross is the power of the kings
  • The cross is the water of the seeds
  • The cross is the consolation of the bondsmen
  • The cross is the source of those who seek water
  • The cross is the cloth of the naked.

    We thank you, Father, for the cross.

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    The Background Of The Cross

    We are fortunate to be able to look back to the cross and see it in perspective. The first disciples of Christ were not so privileged. For them the crucifixion came as a terrible, heart-rending tragedy. Their beloved Leader was dead. Their hopes of a messianic kingdom had evaporated. Their enemies were cheering. They were stunned by the unexpected twist of events. Only later, when Christ surprised them with His resurrected presence, did the disciples begin to understand that the Old Testament pointed to a cross as well as to a kingdom. Only then did they begin to see that Christ had to fulfill the picture of a suffering Servant before He could return as the promised King.

    The resurrected Jesus explained to His astonished followers how the cross was part of the plan of God. First, He showed them His wounds. Then He said, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me" (Luke 24:44).

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    God's Plan Of Salvation

    "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

    Grace is all that God is free to do for mankind on the basis of the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Faith is a nonmeritorious system of perception based on confidence in the authority, veracity, and ability of God to provide salvation. Grace is the gift of salvation; faith is the means. The object of faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, has all the merit. As Jesus Christ hung between heaven and earth, God the Father imputed our sins to Him and judged them.
    He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross. (1 Pet. 2:24a)

    Jesus Christ paid the penalty of sin and spiritual death. He became our substitute.He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf [as our substitute], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21)

    Because of the work of Jesus Christ, salvation is available to everyone. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten [uniquely born] Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

    And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved," (Acts 16:31a)

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    The Cross

    In the New Testament, the instrument of crucifixion, and hence used for the crucifixion of Christ itself (Eph. 2:16; Heb. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:17,18; Gal. 5:11; 6:12,14; Phil. 3:18)

    The word "cross" is also used to denote any severe affliction or trial (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; 10:21). The forms in which the cross is represented are these: 1. The crux simplex (I), a "single piece without transom." 2. The crux decussata (X), or St. Andrew's cross. 3. The crux commissa (T), or St. Anthony's cross. 4. The crux immissa (t), or Latin cross, which was the kind of cross on which our Savior died. Above our Lord's head, on the projecting beam, was placed the "title."

    After the conversion, so-called, of Constantine the Great (A.D. 313), the cross first came into use as an emblem of Christianity. He pretended at a critical moment that he saw a flaming cross in the heavens bearing the inscription, "In hoc signo vinces", i.e., By this sign thou shalt conquer, and that on the following night Christ himself appeared and ordered him to take for his standard the sign of this cross. In this form a new standard, called the Labarum, was accordingly made, and borne by the Roman armies. It remained the standard of the Roman army till the downfall of the Western empire. It bore the embroidered monogram of Christ, i.e., the first two Greek letters of his name, X and P (chi and rho), with the Alpha and Omega.

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    THE INSCRIPTIONS

    Does the fact that all four Gospels contain different versions of the inscription on the Cross indicate error? By no means. Both Luke and John tell us that the inscription on the Cross of Jesus was written in three languages, Greek, Latin and Hebrew. It is therefore a reasonable assumption that three of the Gospel writers each chose to quote a different language, and that one writer chose to quote the words common to the other three.
  • Can this assumption be justified?
  • If so, can it be said with any certainty who chose to quote what?
  • And why?

    THE INSCRIPTIONS
    Let us begin with the way each writer prefaces the inscription(s).

  • Matthew 27:37 says, 'And [they] set up over his head his accusation written'.
  • Mark 15:26 says, 'And the superscription of his accusation was written over'.
  • Luke 23:38 says, 'And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew'.
  • John 19:19 says, 'And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross'.

    Notice that all these prefaces differ. Mark tells us that a superscription was written; Matthew, that it was set up over his head; Luke, that it was written in three languages; and John, that Pilate was the writer. All these statements are correct, even though each writer says something different! The four accounts of the inscription are arranged below so the similarities and differences are easily discerned:

  • Matthew 27:37 THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS
  • Mark 15:26 THE KING OF THE JEWS
  • Luke 23:38 THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS
  • John 19:19 JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS

    What was the significance of using three languages? It was the custom of the Romans to use gypsum letters written on a rough board affixed to a cross to proclaim the reason why a person was being executed, although three languages were not always used. Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire; it represented human government, power, and conquest. Greek was the international language of culture; it represented human wisdom, art, and commerce. Hebrew was the religious language of the Jews; it represented the Covenant Race, the Law of God, and the means by which God made Himself known to man. In the providence of God, all of these human and divine institutions were addressed when Jesus was crucified. How did this come about?

    The most probable scenario is that the Roman governor, Pilate, dictated the title in Latin and the centurion in charge of the execution implemented the edict and its translation into the other languages. The words 'King of the Jews' were a public sneer at the Jews by Pilate, and this was compounded by his additional taunt that their 'king' came from Nazareth, i.e. that he was a despised Galilean.

    JOHN

    As John is the only Gospel writer who mentions Pilate, or Nazareth, or who calls the inscription a 'title' (Latin titulus), it is abundantly evident that John is quoting the Latin which read:
    IESUS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM
    (Latin used 'I' and 'V' where English uses 'J' and 'U'.) That this is the Latin is further confirmed by the fact that the Early Church adopted as a symbol the Latin letters 'INRI', which are the first letters of this inscription (only), and this symbol appears in many early paintings of the crucifixion.

    LUKE

    Luke was a highly educated man (a physician- Colossians 4:14) and he addressed his Gospel to a Greek nobleman (the 'most excellent Theophilus' of Luke 1:3). It is therefore very reasonable to suppose that Luke gives us the Greek inscription:
    OUTOS ESTIN O BASILEUS TWN IOUDAIWN

    MATTHEW

    Matthew wrote for the Jews and used many quotations from the Old Testament to show that Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. It is therefore most likely that Matthew quotes the Hebrew inscription (see drawing below).

    MARK

    This leaves Mark, whose Gospel is shorter than the other three, and who gives us a somewhat abbreviated account of the life of Jesus, as his purpose is to tell us more about what Jesus did than what Jesus said. For example, he omits the birth of Jesus, as well as the whole of the sermon on the mount and several other discourses. True to his style, Mark abbreviates the inscription to the words common to the three languages used, namely 'THE KING OF THE JEWS'.

    THE BOARD

    Now comes the most interesting part! The Latin title, being the official indictment, would undoubtedly have been written first on the board. This then would have determined the length of the board and/or the size of the letters required to fit the inscription into one line and for it still to be readable by the crowd from a distance (John 19:20). In those days they did not use spaces between the words in any of the languages as we do now, and so John's Latin 'title' contained just 26 letters and no spaces. Luke's Greek 'superscription' contained 30 letters, and so must have been written in slightly smaller letters than was the Latin. It is easy to see that there would not have been room for 16 more letters for the words 'Jesus of Nazareth' (i.e. 'Jesus the Nazarene') in Greek. Matthew's 'accusation' in Hebrew contained just 19 letters, which is rather fewer than the two other languages, because the Jews did not write vowels in Hebrew. Whoever translated the title into Hebrew apparently did not think it worth adding 'of Nazareth'. Perhaps he thought that to have lived in Nazareth was not an indictable offense! If we put all of this together, it is highly probable that the board with the inscriptions looked as shown below, with the Latin written first, probably at the top, and then either the Greek or the Hebrew.

    JESUS, KING OF THE JEWS

    Crucifixion was a common mode of punishment among heathen nations in early times. It is not certain whether it was used by the ancient Jews; probably it was not. The modes of capital punishment according to the Mosaic law were, by the sword (Exodus 21), strangling, fire (Lev. 20), and stoning (Deut. 21). This was regarded as the most horrible form of death, and to a Jew it would acquire greater horror from the curse in Deut. 21:23. This punishment began by subjecting the sufferer to scourging. In the case of our Lord, however, his scourging was before the sentence was passed upon him, and was inflicted by Pilate for the purpose, probably, of producing pity to avoid a demand for further punishment. The condemned person carried his own cross to the place of execution, which was outside the city, in some conspicuous place set apart for the purpose. Before the nailing to the cross took place, a medicated cup of vinegar mixed with gall and myrrh (the sopor) was sometimes given, for the purpose of deadening the pangs of the sufferer. Our Lord refused this cup, that his senses might be clear (Matt. 27:34). The spongeful of vinegar, sour wine, posca, the common drink of the Roman soldiers, which was put on a hyssop stalk and offered to our Lord in contemptuous pity (Matt. 27:48; Luke 23:36). He tasted it probably to allay the agonies of his thirst (John 19:29). The accounts given of the crucifixion of our Lord are in entire agreement with the customs and practices of the Romans in such cases. He was crucified between two "criminals" (Isa. 53:12; Luke 23:32), and was watched by a party of four soldiers (John 19:23; Matt. 27:36, 54), with their centurion. The "breaking of the legs" of the crucified was intended to hasten death, and put them out of misery (John 19:31); but the unusual rapidity of our Lord's death (19:33) was due to his previous sufferings and his great mental anguish. The omission of the breaking of his legs was the fulfillment of a symbol (Ex. 12:46). He literally died of a broken heart, a ruptured heart, and hence the flowing of blood and water from the wound made by the soldier's spear (John 19:34). Our Lord uttered memorable words from the cross, including "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (23:43), as well as John 19:26, Matt. 27:46, Mark 15:34, John 19:28, Luke 23:46, and John 19:30 ("It is finished.").

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