The Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross

In this article, we investigate the idea of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. His victory is not that He died on a cross, for thousands of people have died on crosses.

His unique victory was in the supreme value of His death. When the Apostle Peter died on the cross [according to tradition he was hung upside down], he died. When Christ died on the cross, He provided the basis for the salvation of the entire world. The victory is not in the awful manner of His death but in the magnitude of blessing that comes from His death.

We must admit that to the unbelieving world our Lord Jesus Christ who was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, and forsaken by the other disciples, except John; hung on the cross, bleeding, bruised, mocked, it's hard to picture His death as a VICTORY. Furthermore, death by crucifixion was designed by the Romans to bring about a painful and humiliating death. Even the Scripture states that it was a shameful way to die. Regarding our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit reveals that "He despised the shame of it." (Hebrews 12:2)

So how can it be a victory? Paul throughout his ministry faced the cynics mantra "ridiculous." He mentions this in his letter to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 1:23-25

23) but we preach Christ crucified [hanging on a cross], to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

24) but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Man says, "I have to do this before I die." Death ends man's plans! Whatever plans you have made, your death will end those plans. Mr. Death will stop you. So God starts with death and turns it upside down, inside out, and His message to man is "Christ crucified." Death frustrates all our plans to the maximum, and now through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ our Heavenly Father's plan begins with death.

WE CELEBRATE THE VICTORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HISTORICALLY BY CONSIDERING WHAT HE SAID ABOUT IT ON THE CROSS.

While our Lord Jesus Christ hung upon the Cross, He spoke on seven different occasions during the six hours.

The first time He spoke of FORGIVENESS.

Luke 23:34 Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

The second time He spoke of PARDON.

To the thief who was trusting in Jesus as His very own savior, He said: "Today, you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:39-43)

The third time He spoke of LOVE for his mother.

Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to the Apostle John. To his mother he said "Woman, behold your son!" and to his disciple, he said, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:26-27) At this point, our Lord Jesus Christ had been on the cross for about three hours. It was 12-noon Roman time, the 6th hour in Jewish time. When the day should be the brightest, an unusual darkness fell upon the land. (Matthew 27:45)

The fourth time He spoke of SEPARATION.

He cried out, "My God, My God, Why has thou forsaken me." (Matthew 27:46). He was paying the penalty for our sins. He was being made the sin offering for us all. He was being judged for our sins, but not ours only, but the sins of the whole world. Jesus was judged for our sins so that the love of God could be demonstrated though the grace of God.

The fifth time He spoke of HUMAN NEED.

He said, "I thirst." (John 19:28) God has become one of us to die for us. God cannot die for He is eternal. So our Lord Jesus Christ became a man.

The sixth time He spoke of TRIUMPH.

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)

When our Lord said "It is finished" he used the word TETELESTAI which means "to finish, to bring something to an end, or bring something to completion." It is a word that means "to reach a goal." It is a very positive word; in fact the original Greek it is even stronger.

The Perfect Tense is used:

He uses the perfect tense which looks at the progress of an action coming to the point of completion, and then the results continue forever. "It is finished with the result that it keeps on being finished." This is an intensive perfect which lays greater stress on the existing result. It remains finished forever.

The expanded translation of His words are "It is finished with the result that it remains finished forever. He was saying "MY FATHER HAS GIVEN ME A PLAN TO FOLLOW, A MINISTRY TO FULFILL, A CUP TO DRINK, A BAPTISM TO PERFORM, AND I HAVE BEEN PERFORMING IT, AND IT STANDS COMPLETED FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD AND FOREVER. Our Lord often spoke of the Father's plan for His life:

My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish [to bring to completion] His work. (John 4:34)

I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished (Aorist tense - up to this moment) the work which You have given Me to do. (John 17:4)

These are His words of triumph, and they give us the reason to celebrate.

Secondly, We CELEBRATE THE VICTORY by considering what He accomplished on the cross.

There are two Biblical explanations of the our Lord’s work on the cross:

First, He was our Sin-bearer:

and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (1 Corinthians 15:3)

On the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ paid in full the penalty for all of the sins of the world.

and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

During that period of darkness when no one could see Christ on the cross, He suffered God's penalty for the sins of the world.

Secondly, He was our substitute:

But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9)

Literally "But while he was made inferior to angels for a brief time."

The Dispensation of the hypostatic union is the period when Christ was on the earth. During His life on the earth, from birth to resurrection, he was inferior to the angels because of his human nature. When our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected, ascended into heaven, and was seated at the right hand of the Father, that changed. Our Lord was superior to angels and will remain so forever

Literally "we see Jesus who now has been crowned with glory and honor."

Please note the change in the translation. This is a better rendering of the Greek text. I apologize for taking you though this, but for the sake of accurate teaching of the Word of God, we often have to resort to exegesis.

Literally "because of the suffering of the death so that by the grace of God He (Jesus Christ) might taste death as a substitute for everyone without exception.

There is an important idiom found in this passage. No English translation has this idiom correct. The documentation for this is found in a special edition of Arndt and Gingrich, the second edition revised and augmented by Gingrich and Donker from Walter Bauer's fifth edition of the Lexicon of 1958, Printed by the University of Chicago Press, p.632. ¹

Dr. Walter Bauer was a lexicographer; someone who compiles a dictionary. What Webster did for the English language, Dr. Bauer did for Greek study. He found that when PAS, an adjective, was used as a substantive, that is a noun, without the article, it is an idiom which means." all without exception." This construction is found in the passage. PAS is the object of the preposition, therefore used as a substantive, there is no article, so we have the idiom. The grace of God has provided salvation for everyone. Does anyone have an advantage over someone else? No! Is limited atonement a legitimate Biblical doctrine? No! That is the significance of this phrase. The idiom is also found in 2 Corinthians 2:14, 15 [first phrase], 1 Timothy 2:6; Romans 5:6, 8; Mark 9:39; Luke 16:16.

Jesus tasted death for us all without exception. He was our substitute. He took our place. He said the work of salvation is done, there is nothing left to do but believe. The debt is paid in full, and now the offer of salvation can be made to everyone without exception.

Thirdly, We CELEBRATE THE VICTORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS practically.

The work of salvation is completed. He accomplished everything necessary to provide our so great salvation, but one thing He did not do on the cross and that is "believe for you." This is your part. You must believe that His work on the cross was for you. As the Scripture says:

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. (Acts 16:31)

He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey [the command to believe in] the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

For salvation to be effective you must believe. It requires faith in Christ, faith alone in Christ alone. Faith is the absence of works. Faith is the absence of merit. Faith is depending entirely on someone else for salvation. It is not believe and be baptized, believe and take communion, believe and keep the Ten Commandments, or believe and live a good life. It is just believe in Jesus as you Savior. It doesn't have anything to do with you, how bad you are or how good you are. Praise the Lord. He did it. He did it alone. He did it for us. He is the Savior. He is my Savior! This is my testimony. What about you?

You can celebrate the victory of the cross when you understand that God turned the cursing of that cross into salvation for all who will believe in our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you trusted in Him? ²

ENDNOTES

¹ Arndt, William, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: A Translation and Adaption of the Fourth Revised and Augmented Edition of Walter Bauer's Griechisch-Deutsches Worterbuch Zu Den Schrift En Des Neuen Testaments Und Der Ubrigen Urchristlichen Literatur. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, c1979. P632 "a. without the α. πᾶς everyone without exception Lk 16:16."

² If you need further help on the matter of salvation, read the article on this site "How To Get To Heaven From Here."