The Real Meaning of the Crucifixion

My brother Chris has just emailed me several articles from some liberal Christians who are attacking what the real meaning of the crucifixion is all about. After reading some of their attacks, I felt I had to write this article so as to give you the specific verses from our Bible that will tell us what the real meaning of the crucifixion is really all about. Some of you may either have some liberal Christian friends or you may run across some of these people in the future.

Should you ever find yourself in any kind of debate on what the real meaning of the crucifixion is all about, I thought I would give you 17 of the most powerful verses from the Bible that will specifically tell us, without any other possible interpretation, what the real meaning of Jesus' physical death on the cross is really all about.

Liberals within the Christian Body are like a cancer, and they are attacking and trying to change many of the basic tenants of true Christianity. They are for abortion and a woman's right to be able to choose to kill her unborn baby. They support the homosexual agenda and have no problems with their own pastors and ministers living and marrying into a gay lifestyle.

They are trying to take the "He" out of the description of who God is, and are trying to make Him gender neutral. They are trying to take out the literal interpretation of many of the stories in the Bible such as the creation of Adam and Eve and the flood of Noah. They are trying to say these stories have never really occurred and that they are just made up stories that are trying to teach us some valuable lessons.

Liberalism has now come into many of the mainline denominations. There are many liberal Catholic priests and protestant ministers who are literally starting to teach pure heresy. I could go on and on as to all of the garbage they are starting to release, but I will keep this article to the point on what some of them are saying about what they feel the crucifixion is all about.

Before I get into the specifics on this issue, I want to make one comment about Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ."

From some of the clips and interviews I have seen, I believe that this movie is highly anointed by God the Father Himself. I've always wondered if God would arrange to have some kind of big Hollywood production made, depicting with as much realism as we could possibly stomach, showing exactly what His Son Jesus went through when He was crucified.

I believe God has now done that, and this movie may go down as the greatest God-movie we will ever see on the big screen. It is one thing to read about what the ordeal of the crucifixion was like when reading about it in our Bibles, but it is going to be quite another thing to actually see this event visually portrayed on the big screen with as much realism as Hollywood could do with the special effects.

Jesus' physical death on the cross is the central message - the central key from which all true Christianity is based on. Without Jesus' physical death on the cross, there is no Christianity, there is no eternal salvation for any of us, and there is no heaven or any meaningful afterlife after we die and cross over. There would only be hell left on earth or hell left in hell. There would be no heaven for any of us to be able to enter into once we die and cross over.

What I believe God the Father is doing with this movie is bringing the full details of exactly what His Son went through during this entire horrific ordeal. I believe that once you see exactly what Jesus went through, the mental images will be forever etched into your memory banks, and you will never, ever forget the price that God and Jesus paid to save our souls from eternal damnation.

As horrible and brutal as this movie is going to be for all of us to watch, I feel it is something that every Christian needs to see. This movie will literally show you the extent and the intensity of the LOVE that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have for all humanity. That God the Father would be willing to allow His one and only Son to come down upon this earth to go through such a bloody, horrible and barbaric death in order to get all of us saved is really beyond anything that any human words can ever attempt to try and describe.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this movie will bring that saying to full light. This movie will bring us images that we could never receive from just reading about this ordeal from the Bible. They say "seeing is believing." Seeing this event portrayed on the big screen is going to bring the entire Gospel accounts of the crucifixion to life in a way that you could have never imagined. This will literally be truth in your face.

For Christians, it should bring them that much closer to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It may cause many of them to get back into their Bibles to get the rest of the story as to what God has done in the past.

Bottom line - Jesus' physical death on the cross will go down as the greatest story ever told. There will never, ever be another story with this importance and with this significance that we will ever see again - either in this life or in the next life to come!

As such, God the Father has now arranged for all of His children to visually see, with as much realism as we can possibly bear, the full story as to what really happened that day to His Son. For the first time ever, we will visually see how much God really does love all of us when we see, in very graphic detail, the horrible agony and brutality that His Son went through in order to bring us back to Himself. For those of you who want real truth, this movie is going to bring it to you!

What The Liberal Christians Are Saying

I have heard this before from some of them, but they are really starting to come out in droves, and you will probably see a lot more of this coming out after this movie has been released. What they are saying is that Jesus' physical death on the cross really did not save us - that it did not bring us any type of redemption or pardon from God the Father.

Many of them are saying that this was simply the way Jesus ended His life here on earth - that He got caught up in the politics of that time and that He ended up being at the wrong place at the wrong time. They say if there were any redemptive acts done by Jesus while He was living down here on this earth, that it was done through His teachings and the way He lived His life.

Granted, all of Jesus' teachings were awesome and profound. But none of His teachings would have saved any of us by themselves. The Bible specifically tells us, as you will see in the Scripture verses listed below, that it was Jesus' physical death on the cross that gives us eternal salvation with God the Father. The Bible clearly tells us that no man can enter into heaven by any good works that he may try and do, no matter how good or how holy those works may be.

If good works could get us into heaven, then the liberals would be right. We could all learn from Jesus' teachings what good works really are, carry all of them out and they would then grant us entrance into heaven. But God the Father specifically tells us that this is not the case. The following 4 verses clearly spell all of this out:

• "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8)
  
  
• "... knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ ... for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." (Galatians 2:16)
  
  
• "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin ... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:20,23)
  
  
• "But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." (Romans 5:8)

Put all 4 of those verses together and the message comes through loud and clear. We are not saved by any works that we could possibly do - but only through the physical blood that Jesus shed that day on the cross. There is no other way into the Kingdom of God. We either come through the blood and the cross, or we don't come through at all!

Why Jesus Had to Specifically
 Go Through a Crucifixion

The big argument that liberals are using to try and downplay the importance of the crucifixion is that they simply can't believe that God the Father could possibly send His one and only Son down here to die in such a horrible and brutal fashion. They can't believe that if God is all-loving and all-merciful, that there is any way that He could have allowed this to happen, especially to His one and only Son.

At first glance, this does appear to be a very logical argument. However what they are missing is the deeper truth as to why all of this had to happen as it did.

When I first made real contact with the Holy Spirit and found out that God can really communicate with you and impart knowledge and revelation - one of the first things I did was ask Him why Jesus had to specifically die by being crucified with nails. There was a second way that some criminals were crucified back in those days, and that was being crucified by having ropes tied around their arms. Nails were not used.

I asked God why He didn't have Jesus crucified with just the ropes. And if His physical death was what was going to bring us eternal salvation - why Jesus could not have died by some other less painful way such as a heart attack, a stroke, old age or if it had to be violent in some way, a lance from a Roman soldier. Why did it have to be by the worse form of physical death that the Romans were using back at that time to kill criminals - crucifixion by using nails?

Most Christians know that the physical death of Jesus on the cross is what gives us eternal salvation, but many Christians do not know exactly why it had to be a crucifixion by using nails.

Here is what I feel God has conveyed to me. When Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, they were immediately cast out and the earth became cursed as a result of their disobedience. As part of that curse, God tells them that they and everyone who would be born after them would have to work and sweat in order to make a living. There are now certain physical and spiritual laws that are now in operation on our earth.

One of those laws now in operation as a result of this curse is that there is now going to be a PRICE TO PAY for anything that we will want on this earth. In order to get something, we have to buy it. In order to be able to buy that something, we have to have the money to buy it. In order to get the money to buy that something, we have to work for that money.

And the bigger and better the thing that we are wanting to buy, the more money it will take to buy that thing, and the longer and harder we will have to work to earn that money to be able to buy that more expensive thing.

The law that is now in operation is the bigger and better the thing we want to buy - the stiffer and more expensive is the price tag to buy that thing.

So when all of humanity became lost as a result of what Adam and Eve did, God had to do something in order to try and get us back to Himself. The only problem was - is that we are all stuck living in a cursed earth and there will now be some kind of price tag to pay to get us back to Himself.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, what did they really lose? Maximum life! They lost their physical and spiritual connection to God the Father, and they lost their perfect paradise by being cast out of the Garden of Eden. They literally lost everything as a result of their one disobedient act!

So here was the 50 million dollar question. What is the price tag that God the Father is going to have to pay to get us back to Himself? If maximum life is what we lost - then the price tag has to be some kind of maximum death! Maximum death for maximum life!

That is why Jesus had to specifically die by being crucified with nails. Back at the time that He came to our earth, being crucified by nails was the worst form of physical death that the Roman government could impose on any criminal.

Jesus therefore had to die a maximum kind of death. This was the price tag that God had to pay to get us back to Himself. That is why it could not have been a crucifixion by just using plain ropes.

That is why He could not just die of old age, or of a heart attack, or by some type of violent attack by being stabbed to death, etc. It had to be by the worst form of physical death that was being used back in those days - and being crucified by nails was the worst form of capital punishment that anyone could undergo.

So when you watch Mel Gibson's brutal portrayal showing all of the physical suffering that Jesus had to undergo within this crucifixion - remember one thing - Jesus had to undergo a maximum form of death in order to save us and bring us back to Himself and His Father. There was no other way! It had to be maximum death for maximum life!

That was the price tag that God the Father had to pay to get us back. There was no other kind of price tag that God could have used to save us. God Himself had no other choice but to have His Son crucified in this specific manner.

The other question I asked the Lord is that if someone had to undergo a crucifixion by nails in order to pay the price to get us back again - why didn't He pick another human being rather than send down His one and only Son Jesus, who was already God Himself. Why did One of Them have to undergo this sacrifice? After all, Jesus was born into our earth and incarnated into a human flesh body just like what we have while we live down here on this earth. Why couldn't God have picked one of us to undergo this sacrifice?

The Bible gives us the answer. This sacrifice had to be by someone who was perfect and spotless. Since the Bible tells us that every single one us has sinned and falls way short of the glory of our God - that meant there was no human being that could have ever been called to take this sacrifice upon himself, since we are all flawed and imperfect in some way due to the sinful nature that we have all been born into this world with.

This now meant only one thing. One of the Persons in the Godhead had to come down and take this sacrifice upon Himself. Only God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are perfect and sin-free in Their actual natures. The Bible tells us that there is no darkness in any of the Tree of Them. So One of Them had to come down, and Jesus was the One to take up the call.

That is why Jesus had to first pass the test in the wilderness with the devil tempting Him trying to get Him to sin. The Bible specifically tells us that Jesus did not sin during the entire time He was down here. If He would have sinned even one time, God would have had to call off the whole thing and Jesus could not have gone to the cross to save us.

But because Jesus came down in a human flesh body and did not commit one sin while living down here, He was qualified to go to the cross as the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for all of us.

Part of the price tag of the maximum death was that whoever was called upon to pay it had to be perfect and spotless within His very nature and personality. Obviously only God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit could qualify on that part of the price tag.

When you really stop to think about this story - that God Himself, Jesus Christ, would incarnate Himself into a human physical body to undergo the most brutal form of physical death known to mankind to save all of us from the fires of a real live living hell - and to rescue and bring us back to Himself just blows the human mind!

If this doesn't show us how much God really does love all of us, nothing does! This is true love beyond anything we can ever imagine. When you see the intensity of the suffering that Jesus had to undergo to rescue and deliver us as portrayed in this movie - you will really appreciate the sacrifice He made for all of us and you will be forever eternally in His debt.

The liberals are obviously not seeing this deeper truth and that is why they cannot understand how God the Father could have allowed something like this to happen to His Son.

Once you understand why God had no other choice but to have His Son crucified in this manner - you won't have to wonder if God the Father is mean or vindictive in any way. Both God the Father and the Holy Spirit were bleeding with Jesus that day when He was dying on the cross. I felt like the Holy Spirit conveyed to me that both He and God the Father almost died that day with Him while watching Him slowly die on that cross.

What He meant by that was not that They literally were going to die, but that the pain They were both going through was so severe while watching Jesus slowly die over a 9 hour period - that they felt like they were dying right along with Him. Just think of the pain and agony the Father and the Holy Spirit were going through as they were watching all of this unfold with their Jesus!

I'll never forget a word one of my friends had received as she was watching one of the earlier crucifixion movies on TV. When she got to the part when Jesus was being nailed to the cross, she said she felt and heard these words come up right out of her belly. She said she knew these were not her words, but were words coming directly from the Holy Spirit. As she was watching the recreation of the crucifixion, the words that came up on her were - "Not My Jesus, not My Jesus!"

She said the pain and sadness she felt coming in from God and the Holy Spirit as He was transmitting those words to her was so extreme, that she broke down bawling as hard as she could for about 10 minutes. She said she has never felt that kind of sadness or pain like she did that day after receiving those words from the Holy Spirit.

Some of you may receive this kind of manifestation from the Holy Spirit while watching this movie. If you do, all I would say is to try and go with it, and allow God to share the pain that He and the Holy Spirit were experiencing that day while watching Their Jesus slowly die on the cross.

I believe any Christian who is willing to watch this movie without turning away will literally have an experience they will never ever forget.

The Scripture Verses

I'll end this article with 17 very powerful verses from the Bible that will specifically tell us, without any other possible interpretation, that the physical death of Jesus on the cross is what brings us eternal salvation, forgiveness of all of our sins, and full entrance into heaven when we die and cross over.

1. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood ... for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul." (Leviticus 17:11)
   
   
2. "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures ..." (1 Corinthians 15:3)
   
   
3. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." (Ephesians 1:7)
   
   
4. "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ." (Ephesians 2:13)
   
   
5. "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13)
   
   
6. "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matthew 26:28)
   
   
7. "... and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." (Ephesians 2:14)
   
   
8. "But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins ... By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10:3,10)
   
   
9. "... who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness - by whose stripes you were healed." (1 Peter 2:24)
   
   
10. "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed ... (Isaiah 53:5)
    
    
11. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)
    
    
12. "... that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil ..."(Hebrews 2:14)
    
    
13. "... and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father ..." (Revelation 1:5)
    
    
14. Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations ..." (Luke 24:46)
    
    
15. "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." (Colossians 1:19)
    
    
16. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
    
    
17. "... He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself ... so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many." (Hebrews 9:26,28)

After reading all of these specific verses, I do not think there is any other possible interpretation other than the physical death of Jesus on the cross is what gives us full forgiveness and remission of all our sins, eternal salvation with God the Father, and full entrance into heaven when we die and cross over.

Notice the specific words in some of these verses:

• That Jesus "died for our sins."
• That we are redeemed "through His blood."
• That we have been reconciled back to God "through the blood of His cross."
• That our sins have been put away by the "sacrifice of Himself."

Any liberal who tries to interpret these verses any other way is really treading on extremely dangerous ground with God the Father. After watching the horrible death of His Son on that cross, and going to the extreme lengths to which He went to send and sacrifice His one and only Son in order to deliver and save all of us from eternal damnation - I do not think there is any slack with God the Father on this issue if any liberal tries to take away what the real meaning of the crucifixion is all about!

These verses are as plain as day, and there is no other spin or interpretation that you can possibly put on them. They mean exactly what they are saying!

I once again rest my case for Jesus.

P.S. After typing out all of the above, I went and saw "The Passion of the Christ." I think you could sum up this movie in one simple statement. I believe this movie will go down as "THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE ON THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD."

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Scripture taken from New King James Version.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2008 by Michael Bradley.


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