The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 1 -
Phi 2:8 In fact, although having being discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of spiritual death, even death on a cross.
1Co 1:18 “For the doctrine concerning the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Josephus described crucifixion as “the most wretched of deaths” - suicide was preferable to the cruel fate of being put on the cross.
It originated several centuries before the Common Era and continued into the fourth century AD when the practice was discontinued by Constantine.
The brazen serpent being lifted up on a pole, Num 21:9. People would watch Him as He was suffering publicly, Psa 22:7-8.
His hands and feet would be pierced, Psa 22:16. Not one of His bones would be broken, Psa 34:20.
They would offer the Lord Jesus Christ gall and vinegar, Psa 69:21.
The prophecy of His crucifixion, Isa 53:12. The piercing of Jesus’ side, Zec 12:10.
Death by crucifixion was invented by the Persians which is now Iran.
Later it was adopted by the Phoenicians (Canaanites, a perverted people) and the Carthaginians (North Africa).
Only one word can describe death by crucifixion: agony.
“On the cross there are only two things, pain and eternity. They tell me I was only on the cross twenty-four hours, but I was on the cross longer than the world existed. If there is no time, then every moment is forever.”
Mass executions in which thousands died, such as the crucifixion of 6,000 followers of Spartacus as part of a victory celebration in 71 BC, appear in literature.
Alexander the Great had 2,000 survivors from the siege of Tyre crucified on the shores of the Mediterranean.
During the times of Caligula, AD 37-41, Jews were tortured and crucified in the amphitheater to entertain the inhabitants of Alexandria.
Many researchers have believed death occurred as the result of a ruptured heart - Joh 19:34 - the water and blood flowing out of the wound.
Other scholars have regarded asphyxiation or suffocation as being the cause of death.
If the victims are hanging with their hands extended over their heads, death can occur within an hour, or in minutes if the victim’s legs are nailed.
For exhaling to occur in a normal manner two sets of muscles are needed - the diaphragm and the intercostalis muscles between the ribs.
As a deterrent in the ancient world, many of its victims were crucified where the criminal event took place.
It was common to have a procession through the streets of Jerusalem where the criminal, along with a statement of his crime, could be publicly displayed.
Mar 15:20 And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.
Mar 15:21 And they pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.
He carried the patibulum - the crossbeam.
Around our Lord’s neck hung the titulus on which were inscribed the charges for which He was being executed.
To add further humiliation to the process the victim was stripped completely naked.
Once stripped, the victim would be thrown on his back upon the patibulum, the crossbeam.
The long, square-headed spikes would inevitably pass through or close to the median nerve of the hands or the wrists so the nerve was severely damaged.
The crossbeam would drop into place with such force that the victim’s shoulders would often be dislocated, increasing the suffering and torture.
Isa 53:6
Rom 8:31
Heb 11
Heb 12
Psa 22:14 “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002
1. The Cross Appears, GEN 3:15.
1. The Cross Appears, GEN 3:15.
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
2. The Foreshadowings of the Cross in Abel’s Lamb, Gen 4.
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 2 The victim was given thirteen stripes on the left shoulder, thirteen stripes on the right shoulder, and thirteen stripes across the thighs. The Roman scourging was much more severe and was known as “halfway death.” This trained man used a whip called a flagellum, with a stubby wooden handle to which was attached a bundle of leather whips. At the tip of the whips, bits of bone or chain or lead weights shaped like small dumbbells were fastened. As each whip hit, the bits of bone, chain, or the dumbbells would dig in deeply into the flesh and even into the muscle. This veil has to do with the glory of the cross of Christ throughout the Scriptures. The cross was a shock to Satan - it was God’s masterpiece in the universe. “Calvary marked the greatest hour in the entire meritorious history of Deity.” Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. At the cross, God found a way to justify the ungodly, and yet remain just, Rom 3:26. The central theme of the Bible is the cross. At the cross, God found a way justify the ungodly, and yet not compromise with sin, Rom 3:26, Hab 1:13. Rom 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; Rom 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Rom 5 - At the cross, God declares the wicked, righteous, without a shadow of blame or unrighteousness falling upon His righteous character. At the cross He provided a forgiveness which satisfies all the demands of the Law and has power to transform the wicked into saints. 1. The Cross Appears. Gen 3:15 The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, Rev 13:8. Act 2:23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002
3. The Flood Is a Type of the Cross, Gen 6-8.
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 3 John 19:1 Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him. The victim was severely beaten about the back, shoulders, and sides of the chest until he was raw and bleeding profusely from thousands of small gashes. After this happened to our Lord and Savior, He was punched and beaten in the face, spit upon, had a crown of thorns forced upon His head and then mocked. Mar 15:19 And they kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting at Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. He was paraded through Jerusalem with a crossbeam tied to His back to face one of the cruelest and most humiliating forms of punishment in the ancient world, crucifixion. Only one word can describe death by crucifixion: agony. It was humiliating, tormenting, slow, and public. Psa 22:14 “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” “Calvary marked the greatest hour in the entire meritorious history of Deity.” Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. At the cross, the meritorious attributes of God come to their most majestic expression. Rom 5 - At the cross, God declares the wicked, righteous, without a shadow of blame or unrighteousness falling upon His righteous character. It is only when the believer discovers the glory of the cross that he first comes to see the Bible in its truest light. 1. The Cross Appears. Gen 3:15 The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, Rev 13:8. Act 2:23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. Ecc 12:7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Could it be that God’s original plan in the creation of man should fail? Was Satan to be permitted to lord it over man, having deceived him and having brought him under his bondage? Was there no hope of forgiveness and liberation for Adam’s race? Could a reconciliation be effected and man be brought back to God, freed from Satanic oppression? Would God forever be dishonored, His Fatherhood denied, and His purposes unfulfilled? Was it in God’s power to undo what the wicked one, under whose power the whole world lies in, had done? 1Jo 5:19. Was God to be frustrated eternally because man was made in His image and for the satisfaction of His heart but man sinned? 2Pe 3:8 Though the immediate result was rebellion and sin, the final outcome of it all would be restoration. The Lord God turned the curse into a blessing, Deu 23:5. What Satan meant for evil, God would turn into good, Gen 50:20. Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 1Jo 3:8 The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Man could not be restored by a divine command. Man had chosen to follow the ways of Satan in the same way: to use his own free will against the will of God. Without freedom of choice, man would not be man, nor would he ever be able to satisfy the desires of God’s heart. Rev 12:9 Satan deceives the whole world; The mere exercise of divine authority and divine power could not fulfill the demands of the case. Man must learn to hate “self,” Satan’s agent within man as the governing principle of his life. He could undo the First Adam’s rebellion and sin by refusing Satan’s claims upon man, in the full and free exercise of His own free will, and shatter the alliance. The Seed of the woman, Christ our Lord, would bruise the serpent’s head. Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002
4. Mount Moriah Points to Calvary, Gen 22.
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 4 2. The Foreshadowings of the Cross in Abel’s Lamb. Heb 11:4 By means of doctrine Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. Abel’s offering pointed to the cross, Cain’s offering pointed to man’s works. Once “self” is set up as god and becomes the “almighty” force ruling the heart, evil battles of this kind become the order of the day. Mat 16:24 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” 1Jo 3:15 Everyone who hates his fellow-believer is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding [alive] in him. Was it the nature of the offerings, the blood of a lamb, or the fruit of the ground, which determined God’s approval or His disapproval? Was the divine reaction motivated by the difference between the two men, one proud and given to anger, the other meek and humble? True faith in God’s Lamb, TLJC, is not just the only ground of acceptance for the sinner, but also the source of his transformation. Where “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” is rejected, pride is the inevitable result. Heb 9:22 without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Mat 26:28 “For this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” The question of the ground of man’s acceptance with God. Heb 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. 3. The Flood Is a Type of the Cross. 2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. Joh 3:17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” Just like the world could be saved by being on the ark, the world can now be saved by being “in Him.” Joh 12:31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. Joh 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” Joh 12:33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. He who was made sin on our behalf, destroyed the power of sin by taking it all down into death. 2Co 5:14 having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; Col 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, ark = kibotou = a treasure chest or a wooden ship constructed of gopher or Cyprus wood, used because it is a light but tough wood. It was 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. It had one material, gopher wood, representing the humanity of Christ. Jesus Christ is the ark - He is the treasure chest. Col 2:3 In Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The pitch used to secured the bulkheads = the work of Christ on the cross; it keeps out the waters of divine judgment. Only one set of plans were used. Only the plan of God has stability. Only one door in the ark, = only one way to adjust to the justice of God - through TLJC. Joh 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved.” One window = only one objective after salvation, to reach spiritual maturity, and only one perspective, divine viewpoint, Bible doctrine. Three floors to the ark = the concept of progress after salvation, S.S.E., S.A., S.M. The ark represents the principle of eternal security, being in union with Christ because of His work on the cross. There was no judgment to those in the ark - Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. “corresponding to that” = antitupon, a copy or a representation, a representation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism which now saves us is the baptism of the Spirit, not water baptism. Eph 4:5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Each member of Noah’s family in the ark is analogous to the believer who is union with the person of Jesus Christ. They were delivered from the catastrophe of the flood by being inside the ark, just as we are delivered from the lake of fire by being in union with Christ, due to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002