The place where the Son of God was stripped naked and crucified. People, religious people, mocking Him, pointing their bony, self-righteous fingers and laughing at Him. Him. Jesus, the Son of the Most-High God. He had told them who He was. He did miracles, signs and wonders. He had delivered people from demonic possession and healed their sicknesses. He had made the lame to walk and the dumb to talk. He opened ears to hear. He made the blind to see.
Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
And yet the religious leaders hung Him on a Cross to die. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 “22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: 23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”
If a man has committed a sin worthy of death. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:22 “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:”, talking about Jesus. I’m not a Bible scholar. I can’t really say that I’m all that smart when it comes to figuring out the Bible. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Cross was a place that was meant to punish, to cause shame and humiliation, to put one to death.
The Bible says Jesus was not guilty. He had committed no sin, and He had done nothing worthy of death. Galatians 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” He was willing to die for our sin and to take our punishment.
He took something that was meant as a sign of guilt and death, and He turned it into victory. He took the punishment for our sin. We are guilty. If our lives were made to be a movie, with the truth of everything that we have done, we would be found guilty of just about every sin that Satan could possibly imagine. We are guilty. Most of us know that Jesus died on the Cross for our sin. But do you truly realize how Jesus took a symbol of death, and turned it into a place of victory? I have to be honest that I didn’t truly understand that before.
God told me that I had never really wanted to live for Him. I went to church for years. I’ve taught the Bible; I taught an adult Sunday school class and home Bible studies. I’ve read the Bible multiple times over and I’ve even memorized quite a few Scriptures. God has even spoken into my life and told me about the calling He has had for my life. But I’ve been so broken. I’ve fought God because I didn’t understand why He would allow such horrible things to happen to me. Truth is, He has given us a free will to choose how we want to live and what we want to do, and how we choose to treat other people.
The abuse in my life caused me to see the Cross as a place of shame and punishment and pain. After God told me I’ve never really wanted to live for Him, I started asking Him to show me the truth. You ask and He will. I never saw the Cross as a place of victory. It seems to be a contradiction. How can that be?
Jesus was hung on a tree to die, but he turned the tables on the devil and defeated him. 1 John 3:8 “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
I’ve read that many times before. The Bible also tells us to pick up our cross and die daily. Because of all the pain and hurt and shame in my life, that is how I saw the Cross. And I’d already had enough of that in my life. Most times it frustrates me and not wanting to look like an idiot, I don’t like having to be real and to be honest. I think most of us are like that. We’d rather have people look at us, seeing us all put together, nice and shiny. Instead, God calls us sheep.
Sheep are not very smart. They would wander around lost and confused and not really thinking about where they are going, sometimes putting themselves in danger if not for a shepherd. We have one. When we are broken and hurting and lost, He puts us back together again. He did it through the Cross.
If we will choose to live for Him, it means dying to our ways and giving up our plans and choosing to live a life that isn’t always easy. But it isn’t just a pain-filled, defeated life. There is victory on the Cross. The devil has been defeated and had to give back the keys he stole. He thought he had us caged and defeated. But if we choose to live as Jesus has commanded us, we can be overcomers by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.
I lived a defeated life for many years, even while going to church. Jesus, through His death on the Cross has given us victory and we don’t have to live like the devil wants us to. Maybe this is a simple concept that I’ve made difficult through unbelief and distrust. If God will use this to help somebody realize that the abuse or painful circumstances in your life doesn’t define who He meant for you to be, and that you can have victory, then it will make all that I’ve had to go through worth it.
During all the years of abuse in my life, I finally got to the place where I quit just lying down and accepting what was being done to me. I decided that even if it meant me being hurt even more, I was going to go down swinging. While that wasn’t the smartest thing to do, I can apply it to my life now in a way that makes me an overcomer of all the devil would try to do to me. By choosing to see the Cross as a place of victory, it means that I don’t have to just accept the hand that I was dealt in this life. By choosing to pick up the cross Jesus has given me to carry, I can now see the promises of God come alive in my life.
Don’t waste your whole life letting the devil win. He wants to keep us locked up in bitterness, unforgiveness, distrust, jealousy and not knowing the power of God, the power of the Cross that gives us life, hope, joy and victory. Stop looking at the Cross as a place of defeat. Jesus turned the tables on Satan and used the Cross as a place of victory over all that the enemy wants to do to us. We don’t have to lay down and just take it anymore. Jesus gave us a way out. Take that instead.
The Cross of Christ
