We’ve journeyed from before time began, when God preordained that Jesus would one day die for the sins of the world, through the centuries of preparation to the most important weekend in history. The Savior had become a man and been fully tested for thirty-three years, having lived a life of sinless perfection. Now His “hour had come.” The Lamb of God was ready to be sacrificed.

On the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus gathered His disciples together to celebrate their last Passover meal together. He knew He would be dead in less than twenty-four hours, and that through His death, salvation would be procured for all who would believe. After that night, there would never again be a need for anyone to kill another Passover lamb. The Passover would be fulfilled by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. He would be “smitten of God,” and we would thus be spared the wrath we deserved. Jesus would become “Christ our Passover” (1 Cor. 5:7).

Interestingly, Jesus did not instruct His disciples to terminate their practice of the Passover. Instead, He modified the ritual to suit the revelation that His death would bring.

At His final Passover meal, He first took bread and broke it, saying that it was His body broken for them. Next, taking a cup, He instructed them to drink from it, explaining it was His blood, the blood of the new covenant, shed for the forgiveness of sins. They were to “do this in remembrance of Him.” The apostle Paul later commented, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:23-26).

Under the old covenant, God gave numerous rites to the Israelites that He expected them to practice repeatedly. The Passover was just one example. All of these rituals served as reminders of spiritual truths and past events that God did not want His people to forget. Their repeated practice insured that those spiritual truths and events would be consistently brought to bear on the Israelites’ minds. Even if adults permitted the rituals to lapse into meaningless ceremonies, God could trust the inquisitiveness of children to evoke discussion as to the spiritual significance of what was being practiced.

For example, we read God’s words in Exodus at the institution of the Passover:

“And it will come about when your children will say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ that you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes'” (Ex. 12:26-27).

A Constant Reminder

In contrast to the old covenant, under the new covenant there is only one ritual given that every believer should repeatedly practice throughout his Christian life–the Lord’s Supper. It reveals to us the one fact, above all others, that God wants to be brought repeatedly to our minds, lest we ever let it slip away. The Lord’s Supper recalls the one truth that is preeminent above all other truths. In fact, every other biblical truth is built on this truth’s foundation. It is a reminder of the one event that towers over every other event in history. It is a memorial to the Lord’s death and a revelation of what was accomplished through His death. God wants us to remember always that Jesus died for our sins. We might neglect other important facts of the Bible, but this one fact we must never forget.

Is it any wonder that the apostle Paul wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”? (1 Cor. 15:3, emphasis added).

Certainly there are other wonderful truths brought to light in the Lord’s Supper, but primarily it serves to remind us of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. Jesus did not institute the Lord’s Supper at the beginning of His ministry–or in the middle–but at the last possible moment, just a few hours before His death. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we should be thinking about what happened on the cross of Calvary for us.

The substitutionary aspect of Christ’s death was plainly revealed at the Last Supper when Jesus gave the bread and wine to His disciples while telling them that the elements were His own body and blood. As they ate what represented the Lord’s body, they were becoming one with Him. His body was thus united to their bodies, foreshadowing the blessed truth that, from God’s reference, when Christ died we died with Him. We can say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20a).

Was Jesus Afraid of the Cross?

After supper, Jesus led His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, a place where they had frequently met. The Scripture says that “He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray” (Luke 22:41).

Next, we read something that baffles those who don’t understand what would transpire on the cross. Three times Jesus prayed a prayer that seemed so suddenly out of character:

“Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

This passage presents a problem. Here is the one who had never before exhibited the least bit of fear. Jesus had faced hostility, hatred, and near-death on other occasions, yet He had always remained composed. Why now was He praying, albeit predicated on God’s will, that the cup He was about to drink be removed?

Even more puzzling, Luke goes on to say that,

An angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground (Luke 22:43-44, emphasis added).

Certainly contemplating being scourged and crucified would evoke anguish in any normal human being; but was it the dreaded anticipation of those things that brought such a degree of emotional torment to Christ? Was this not why He had been born? Was He not going to the cross because of His great love for humanity? Had He not wholeheartedly agreed to submit to suffering and death before the world began? Have not many Christian martyrs faced torture and death fearlessly, even with exuberance? Then why not Christ? Was He not God in the flesh? Had He become a coward?

We ask reverently: Were the two thieves who would be crucified with Jesus undergoing the same kind of agony as they considered their crucifixions? Moreover, we realize that Jesus, unlike the two thieves, knew what would happen after He died. They had to fear the unknown; Jesus didn’t. He knew that on the third day He would be resurrected and ascend to His Father in glory. So why this strange episode in the Garden of Gethsemane?

We must conclude there was something Jesus dreaded that was even more foreboding than the terrible agony of the cross. And there was. Something far more horrible.

Jesus would endure the full wrath of God.

He would bear upon Himself all the guilt of the human race, accepting liability for the punishment. God’s raging fury against sin would be poured out upon Him.

There is no way we could comprehend or describe the intense agony Jesus endured on the cross. If you or I could imagine all the combined torments of hell that the unsaved will suffer forever, then perhaps we could imagine what Jesus experienced during His crucifixion. The pain in His back, hands, and feet was nothing in comparison to the “anguish of His soul” of which Isaiah wrote (Is. 53:11).

The Cup

Jesus prayed that if God was willing, that He would “remove this cup.” Of what was He speaking? What was “the cup”?

The cup to which He referred was no doubt “the cup of God’s wrath,” which is often mentioned in the Old Testament. For example, we read in Isaiah 51:

Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of His anger; the chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs (Is. 51:17, emphasis added).

God commissioned Jeremiah with a message for the nations:

For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they shall drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them” (Jer. 25:15-16, emphasis added).

The identical expression is found in the New Testament as well. For example, we read in the book of Revelation:

If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger….And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath (Rev. 14:9b-10a; 16:19b, emphasis added).

The cup from which Jesus recoiled was the cup of God’s terrible wrath upon sin. What you, I, and every other person deserved to suffer, He suffered in our place. Jesus bore the penalty for our rebellion against God. His shed blood provided the way for God to offer us forgiveness justly.

If nothing else, Jesus’ agony in the garden communicates to us that truly, just as the Bible says, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). Jesus was severely distressed at the prospect, yet He was God Himself, the exact representation of the Father’s nature (see Heb. 1:3). He was God about to suffer the wrath of God.

If God Himself greatly agonized over the prospect of encountering His own wrath, how much more should the person who has not yet received Christ and believed the gospel be terrorized at the thought of suffering God’s wrath?

Fulfilling the Father’s Will

Jesus’ time in the Garden of Gethsemane finally ended. He had resolved to fulfill His Father’s will.

Judas the betrayer, along with a group of Roman soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, arrived to arrest Him. Predictably acting on impulse, Peter drew his sword and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear in the process. Immediately Jesus commanded Peter to sheath his sword as He amazingly healed the servant’s ear.

Peter still had not grasped the fact that it was the Father’s intention for Jesus to die, and therefore, there was no point in defending Him from arrest. Jesus couldn’t have made it more clear as He declared,

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen this way?” (Matt. 26:53-54).

Jesus was not forced to go to the cross. He went by His own volition.²⁷ He went to fulfill the preordained, prefigured, prophesied plan of God. He went to save us from our sins. John recorded Jesus’ final statement to Peter in the garden: “The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11).

Innocence on Trial

We must not consider any incident of Jesus’ passion as purely incidental. Not only was His death preordained by God, but the circumstances that immediately preceded His execution also served a divine purpose.

We know that Jesus had numerous opportunities to be killed prior to His crucifixion, but in each case, God prevented it.²⁸ So we ask: Was there a divine purpose for Jesus to be brought to trial before the Sanhedrin, Pontius Pilate, and Herod Antipas in the early hours of the day of His death?

As we study history in light of the Scriptures, we can certainly see the hand of God working so that His Son would have to be tried before Jewish and Gentile tribunals. Certainly it was not by accident that Israel was an occupied territory of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ, as those who have read Daniel’s prophecies about the rise and fall of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and finally Rome have discovered. Daniel predicted that during Rome’s rule the Messiah would be “cut off” (see Dan. 9:26).²⁹

Was it by accident that Rome permitted the Jewish Sanhedrin to exercise its own judicial process, except in the cases of capital punishment, when Roman authorization was required? Because of this arrangement, Jesus had to be brought before Jewish and Gentile courts, and, for this reason, He was crucified by the Romans rather than stoned by the Jews.³⁰ As we will soon learn, it was imperative that Jesus die by “hanging on a tree.”

Certainly it was no accident that Pontius Pilate was then governor of Judea. God had foreknown this man’s cowardly character and exalted him, just as He had exalted Pharaoh of old for the fulfillment of His own divine purposes. Jesus Himself spoke of God’s sovereignty over Pilate’s life when He said to his face, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11a).

So, what was God’s purpose that His Son “be delivered into the hands of men” as Jesus prophesied? (Mark 9:31). Why was it necessary for Jesus to have His day in court?

Over one hundred and thirty years ago, Scottish theologian George Smeaton wrote:

Christ was tried and sentenced at a human tribunal, which was but the visible foreground of an invisible trial in which the righteous God was judging righteously, for human guilt was laid upon the person of the Substitute. For wise reasons…God arranged the events of the atoning sacrifice in such a way that Christ was not to be cut off by the immediate hand of God, but by men who were His hand, and only gratifying their malice against the representative of God. The human judge [Pilate], who in the most unprecedented way absolved and yet condemned, declared Him faultless and yet passed sentence against Him, represented in the transaction the Judge of all the earth, who regarded Christ in a similar way. The human judge could only pass a sentence that would affect His body; but another sentence from a higher tribunal took effect upon His soul, and brought home the wrath of God. And under this invisible infliction the Lord experienced agony and desertion; under this He poured forth His complaint, His strong crying and tears, and endured that penal death which rescues us from the second death.”³¹

Not only did Pilate and Herod find Jesus innocent,³² but Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin also proved His blamelessness. The record of that incident is the divine means of forever validating that Jesus was without any guilt. Why is that so important? So all who would study the story would be convinced that Jesus was crucified only for claiming to be the divine Son of God.

Cursed of God

The apostle Paul informed us that even the mode of Jesus’ execution unveiled something of its significance. In his letter to the Galatians, he quoted part of a passage from Deuteronomy 21, which says:

And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God) (Deut. 21:22-23, emphasis added).

Paul explained that we have been redeemed from the curse–or penalty–of the law because Jesus was made a curse for us (see Gal. 3:13-14). Through the means of ordaining His Son’s public hanging on a tree, God was publicly testifying to all that, according to His own word, His innocent Son was cursed of God.

It is obvious that if God sent His sinless Son into the world and then permitted Him to be cruelly crucified (when God could have easily prevented or stopped it), then there must be a very significant reason why He did so. Jesus was publicly exhibited as one cursed of God.

Why would the God of perfect justice curse His sinless Son? The only possible reason, as Scripture repeatedly confirms, is because Jesus was bearing the liability for our sins.

We will bypass describing all the gory details of the act of crucifixion that Jesus endured for our sakes. However, we do take note that just before the soldiers were about to hammer the nails through Jesus’ flesh, He was offered a pain-killing narcotic, wine mixed with gall. Drinking it would have considerably numbed His senses.

He innocently tasted it, but upon realizing what it was, refused to partake. It is only natural to question why He would turn down this one act of mercy when He was, no doubt, ravaged by thirst.

We understand that Jesus came to suffer in our place, and He refused the narcotic drink because He would have nothing to do with anything that would lessen His pain or diminish His sacrifice. His faculties would not be clouded when He faced God’s wrath upon sin. And so the soldiers performed their gruesome task, impaling Christ to the cross and then hoisting it up.

Through the eyes of Scripture we see Jesus hanging with a sign contemptuously posted over His head, dictated by Pilate, which read, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (Matt. 27:37). Just as Caiaphas, the high priest, had unwittingly prophesied before the Sanhedrin that it was expedient that one man should die on behalf of the people,³³ so Pilate had unknowingly inscribed a true title above the dying King.

That King wore a crown upon His head, not of silver or gold and precious gems, but a crown of thorns pressed into His brow. Of that hideous crown James Stalker wrote,

Of all the features of the scene, the one that has most impressed the imagination of Christendom is the crown of thorns. It was something unusual, and brought out the ingenuity and wantonness of cruelty. Besides, as the wound of a thorn has been felt by everyone, it brings the pain of our Lord nearer to us than any other incident. But it is chiefly by its symbolism that it has laid hold of the Christian mind. When Adam and Eve were driven from the garden into the bleak and toilsome world, their doom was that the ground should produce for them thorns and thistles. Thorns were the sign of the curse; that is, of their banishment from God’s presence and of all the sad and painful consequences following from it…But it was the mission of Christ to bear the curse; and, as He lifted it on His own head, He took it off the world. He bore our sins and carried our sorrows.³⁴

When Darkness Prevailed

Jesus was crucified at nine o’clock in the morning. After He had hung on the cross for three hours, there descended a darkness “upon all the land” (Matt. 27:45) that remained during His second three hours on the cross–from noon to three o’clock. Luke tells us the sun was obscured.

Although we are informed in the Gospels of certain things that took place before noon–the dividing of Jesus’ garments, the mocking of the bystanders, and so on–we are not told of anything that occurred during the three hours of darkness. What happened then is shrouded in silence as far as the four Gospel writers are concerned.

From our perspective, having the revelation of the epistles, there is little doubt as to what happened. Paul wrote:

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

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Gal. 3:13).

Obviously, these are strong metonymical expressions, as no person could literally become sin or a curse. They simply mean that Jesus bore our sin. That is, He became liable for the penalty and took the curse we deserved as sinners.

When exactly did Jesus become sin and a curse? It must have been during those three hours on the cross when darkness prevailed. At that time, God poured out His judgment upon sin in the body of His Son. This mysterious period ended when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” just moments before His death (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34).

Jesus’ cry of dereliction only makes sense once we understand that Jesus died as our substitute. How could the One who had experienced intimate fellowship and mutual love with the Father from eternity past now cry out as one forsaken by God?

How could He, who had declared the day before, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32b), now declare Himself abandoned by His Father?

The answer lies in the fact that He “bore our sins in His body on the cross,” (1 Pet. 2:24a) and thus God, whose “eyes are too pure to look at evil” (Hab. 1:13) turned His back upon Him. Jesus was literally God-forsaken.

Luther’s commentary on Galatians 3:13 vividly explains how Christ was made a curse for us:

When the merciful Father saw that we were being oppressed through the Law, that we were being held under a curse, and that we could not be liberated from it by anything, He sent His Son into the world, heaped all the sins of all men upon Him, and said to Him: “Be Peter the denier; Paul the persecutor, blasphemer, and assaulter; David the adulterer; the sinner who ate the apple in Paradise; the thief on the cross. In short, be the person of all men, the one who has committed the sins of all men. And see to it that You pay and make satisfaction for them.” Now comes the Law and says: “I find Him a sinner, who takes upon Himself the sins of all men. I do not see any other sins than those in Him. Therefore let Him die on the cross!” And so it attacks Him and kills Him. By this deed the whole world is purged and expiated from all sins, and thus it is set free from death and from every evil.³⁵

“It Is Finished!”

After Jesus’ cry of dereliction, only three other utterances escaped His lips before He quickly expired. The first was, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28). Jesus was then offered and accepted some sour wine in a sponge.

The final two statements were spoken just before His final breath, the first being, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Obviously, Jesus had achieved something. What was it?

Jesus had accomplished what He had come to do–to bear our sins as our substitute. God’s righteousness would be completely satisfied in just a matter of seconds when Jesus would breathe His last. Jesus had borne the full penalty. Although He would still need to be resurrected and ascend to His Father, His sufferings were finished. Salvation had been procured for all who would believe in Him.

Then Jesus spoke His final words, crying out with a loud voice, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Jesus was not at this point a spiritual child of Satan, as has been popularized by some. He referred to God as His Father with His last breath. His body died, and His spirit descended into Hades, the abode of the righteous and unrighteous dead, where He remained until His resurrection.

He did not descend into hell to continue suffering the torments of the damned; His sufferings ended on the cross. How could He declare “It is finished!” if He anticipated further sufferings in hell?

The Bible states that Jesus has reconciled us “in His fleshly body through death” (Col. 1:22). After His death, no further suffering was necessary. Jesus descended to the section of Hades known as Abraham’s bosom,³⁶ or “Paradise,” just as He had promised the repentant thief who died on a cross beside Him (see Luke 23:43).

Further proof that Jesus did not descend into hell to continue suffering is found in all of the synoptic Gospels. They tell us that, when Jesus cried out with His final breath, the veil in the temple dividing the holy place from the Holy of Holies was ripped in half from top to bottom.

The symbolism is plain: Through His death, Jesus had provided sinful humanity access to a holy God. If Jesus had needed to suffer further in hell for our salvation, then, quite obviously, God would not have sent an angel to tear the temple curtain at the moment of His Son’s death.

Now we’ve just barely passed the apex of history. Many of the mysteries that shrouded the death of Jesus to those who witnessed His sufferings have been unveiled to us. The most amazing truth is that Jesus was dying on the cross as our substitute, suffering God’s judgment for our sins and fulfilling a preordained plan.

Unlike those who attended His final hours, we have the privilege of understanding the central significance of the Lord’s Supper, the reason for Jesus’ great agony in the garden, and the answer to why He didn’t request a legion of angels to prevent His arrest. We see God’s invisible tribunal represented by the earthly judge who found Jesus innocent and yet condemned Him. We can understand the necessity of His death by hanging on a tree and comprehend His refusal of the narcotic drink. In addition, the meaning of the three hours of darkness, His cry of abandonment, and His declaration of accomplishment become clear. In addition, we can see that history can best be divided into two segments: everything that led up to the cross and everything that followed it.

Next, we’ll look at what happened after the cross.

Footnotes

27. See also Jesus’ statement in John 10:17-18.

28. Luke 4:28-30; John 7:20; 8:20

29. See also Dan. 2:1-45.

30. See John 18:31-32.

31. George Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Atonement According to the Apostles, p. 182.

32. See Luke 23:13-15, 22; John 19:4-6.

33. John 11:50; 18:14

34. James Stalker, The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ, p. 60.

35. Martin Luther, translated by Jaroslav Pelikan in Luther’s Works,Vol. 26, p. 280.

36. See Luke 16:19-31.

As a young Christian attempting to digest the Old Testament, I found myself somewhat disturbed by all of the references in the Pentateuch to animals being slaughtered and offered up to God. The whole idea of killing animals as a part of religious ritual seemed much too unsophisticated for the God I knew. Animal sacrifice appeared crude, even pagan.

I could only assume that in order to relate to the ancient Israelites, God conceded to accepting their own long-held pagan ideas. I imagined Him saying, “Well, if you insist on practicing such a crude religion, I’ll go along with it. It’s better that you offer up your animals to Me rather than to some idol.”

My interpretation, of course, was all wrong. God was not acquiescing to their long-held crudities. He, in fact, was the One who instituted the idea of animal sacrifice, first teaching it to Adam and Eve (as we will soon see). They in turn passed the concept on to their descendants, and God later dramatically reinforced the entire practice in the Levitical Law.

In this chapter, we’ll prospect the pages of the Old Testament for insights into the significance of animal sacrifices–all of which served to prefigure Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross.

Why Animal Sacrifices?

The sacrificial system of the Old Testament can be a bit puzzling if viewed only from an Old Testament perspective. But when we stumble upon two very significant verses in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, the final pieces of the puzzle are set in their proper place. There the author informs us that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” and “every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (Heb. 10:4, 11).

If the Old Covenant sacrifices couldn’t take away sins, we naturally ask, “Why then did God instruct the people of Israel to offer up animal sacrifices for their sins?” There are at least three answers to that question.

First, there was a real efficacy in the animal sacrifices, yet the benefits they provided were limited. Every animal that was sacrificed could provide only a temporary covering for sin and could not actually “take away sins.”

Second, the animal sacrifices were revelational. Through them, God continually taught His people that He is holy and righteous, and that His righteousness demanded that all disobedience be punished. The only way to escape rightful punishment for sin was by means of a substitute, transferring one’s guilt to something that was innocent. By dying in place of the Israelite, that substitute endured the wrath the worshiper deserved, and God could justly pardon him.

This leads us to the third and most important reason for the animal sacrifices: Each sacrifice served to prefigure what Jesus would fully and perfectly accomplish on Calvary’s cross. His sacrifice would not just cover our sins–His sacrifice would take away our sins forever.

Looking back, we can understand that if God is perfectly righteous, then the death of an animal could not possibly provide a perfect, eternal atonement for the sins of a human being. An animal dying for a person would be a grossly inadequate payment. Jesus Himself asserted that a man is of much more value than a sheep (see Matt. 12:12).

There were only two options available to a perfectly righteous God who is the moral Judge of the universe. In order for justice to prevail, either the guilty person must himself be punished or God Himself must become a man and take the punishment humanity deserved. In this way, the sins of mankind could be atoned for by a single sacrifice of infinite value, prefigured by millions of previous animal sacrifices. Thus we see clearly, as the author of Hebrews wrote, that the Law was only “a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb. 10:1). As a shadow, the Law was not the real thing and could “never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near” (Heb. 10:1).

The First Blood Sacrifice

God’s revelation of animal sacrifice to Adam and Eve is easy to miss. We learn from reading Genesis 3:21 that after God pronounced His sentence upon the two transgressors, He then “made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”

Knowing what the rest of the Old Testament teaches, it certainly does not seem unreasonable to conclude that God was teaching them that their guilt could be covered by means of the killing of an animal. God could have just as easily woven a satin tuxedo and silk gown for them, but He chose to clothe them with animal skins. Surely it was an object lesson. A substitute died so they could live.

Looking back, we can understand that the animals that died for Adam and Eve only prefigured the “final sacrifice.” That sacrifice would be the One whom God promised would “bruise the serpent’s head” when the serpent bruised Him “on the heel” (Gen. 3:15), a prediction that pictures Christ’s sufferings and triumph. We don’t know how much Adam and Eve understood about the eventual saving work of Christ, but it seems that God taught them something about the blood sacrifice.

Further proof for this thesis is found just one chapter later in the book of Genesis. There we find earth’s second generation, Cain and Abel, bringing their offerings to the Lord. Abel brought an animal sacrifice, and Cain brought an offering “of the fruit of the ground” (Gen. 4:3). We are told that “the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard” (Gen. 4:4-5).

Where did Abel get the idea to bring an animal sacrifice to God, and why was only his offering accepted by God?

The letter to the Hebrews informs us that “by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts” (Heb. 11:4, emphasis added).

Abel, unlike Cain, could bring his offering by faith because he was acting upon God’s revealed will,² which he must have learned from his parents. Adam and Eve apparently taught their sons the concept of animal sacrifice and passed on whatever revelation they possessed concerning its significance.

In a sense, Cain came with the fruits of his own labor–his “works”–whereas Abel realized that he had no right to approach a holy God unless atonement was made for his sin. Cain exemplifies the one who comes to God self-righteously, and Abel as a sinner needing pardon. God accepted the sinner who came trusting that the sacrifice covered his sin–as he had been taught by his parents, who had been taught by God.

There are those who surmise that every blood-sacrifice ritual that has been practiced in primitive cultures could be traced to God’s original revelation to Adam and Eve. In most cases, however, if not in all cases, the true meaning behind the ritual has become perverted. Rather than serving as an atoning substitute or a representative of the ultimate sacrifice of the cross, the idol worshiper views the sacrifice as a bribe to his god, or that he is feeding his god by means of the sacrifice. Those pagan concepts were certainly not what God taught Adam and Eve.

Passing It On

Theoretically, every person after Adam could have been taught about the blood sacrifice by his or her parents. According to the Genesis genealogy in my Bible, Adam lived to be 930 years old; thus, he personally could have taught his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Lamech, the father of Noah.

To what extent the blood sacrifice was faithfully passed down, we don’t know. However, by the time Noah was about 600 years old, it is possible that he and his sons were the only ones who still practiced it in truth. (And perhaps this is why Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, as we know he certainly was not a perfect person; see Gen. 9:20-21.) It’s difficult to believe God would have drowned anyone in the Flood who was faithfully offering up animal sacrifices to Him and trusting that his sins were being forgiven.

There is no doubt that Noah possessed a thorough knowledge of a pre-Levitical sacrificial system. In fact, we are caught by surprise when we read in Genesis that God commanded him to take into the ark seven of every “clean” animal and two of every “unclean” animal (see Gen 7:2). The distinction between clean and unclean animals was not in respect to the eating of them, for it was only after the flood that animals were eaten (see Gen. 1:29-30; 9:3). Thus it must have been a distinction made for the purpose of sacrifice.

It is also significant that the first thing Noah did upon disembarking from the ark was to offer one of every clean animal and bird to the Lord upon an altar (see Gen. 8:19-20). During the Flood that drowned all of humanity, Noah, no doubt, gained a fresh revelation of humanity’s guilt and God’s holiness, realizing even more the necessity of a substitutionary sacrifice. (We can easily understand why he didn’t offer up any burnt offerings while on his wooden ship!)

Jehovah Jireh

The ritual of blood sacrifice was apparently passed down for at least ten generations after Noah because we find it being practiced by Abram (later named Abraham). Abram could have learned about the blood sacrifice directly from his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Noah, who didn’t die until Abram was about 57 years old.

Regardless of who taught him, there are several references to altars that Abram built as he journeyed at God’s instruction from Haran, through Canaan to Egypt, and then back to Canaan (see Gen. 12:7-8; 13:3-4, 18). Abram recognized that whenever he wanted to “call upon the name of the Lord” he needed to offer a sacrifice to Him first. He related to God through the blood sacrifice.

The concept of representative substitution is elucidated even more during Abraham’s testing. God instructed him to journey about fifty miles to the land of Moriah and sacrifice his beloved son Isaac on a certain mountain that He would designate (see Gen. 22:1-4).

As they climbed the appropriate mountain, Isaac, who was unaware of God’s full instructions, innocently asked his father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (Gen. 22:7).

Clearly, Isaac had been educated to understand the concept of animal sacrifice. Abraham prophetically replied to his son, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (Gen. 22:8).

Then, having bound Isaac on the altar, Abraham raised his knife to slay his son until he heard God’s voice commanding him to stop. Abraham had passed his test, proving his great love for God. We then read:

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord Will Provide” [literally–Jehovah Jireh], as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided” (Gen. 22:13-14, emphasis added).

We read that the ram was sacrificed in Isaac’s place. It served as his substitute.

Quite significantly, the place Abraham built his altar (“the land of Moriah”) was just a short distance from the spot where Jesus would one day be crucified for the sins of the world.³ Truly, God has provided for our salvation on “the mount of the Lord” by providing “for Himself the lamb” for the offering.

In response to Abraham’s obedience, God made him a promise. As Abraham and Isaac stood not far from where the Savior would one day spill His blood, God promised Abraham that one of his descendants would bring blessing to all the people of the world (see Gen. 22:16-17). He was, of course, speaking of the Messiah–the One who would bless the people of the earth by providing a way to have their sins forgiven.

Without realizing it, Abraham and Isaac had just foreshadowed the drama of redemption. Just like Abraham, God would willingly give His beloved Son. Like Isaac, Jesus would willingly be the sacrifice. But unlike Abraham, God would follow through–judgment would fall and death would take place. And unlike Isaac, Jesus would actually die.

The Sacrifices of Job, Isaac, and Jacob

Although we don’t know the exact date of Job’s life, it is often assumed that it was during the time of the patriarchs. In the first chapter of the book that bears his name, we are told that Job practiced the blood sacrifice with religious devotion.

It is also clear that Job believed the burnt offerings were effective in obtaining pardon from God. We read of him offering sacrifices for his children for fear they had “sinned and cursed God in their hearts” (Job 1:5).

We also read at the end of Job’s story that God’s wrath was kindled against Job’s three friends because they had not spoken of God “what [was] right” (Job 42:7). Thus He commanded them to sacrifice seven bulls and seven rams as a burnt offering. Forgiveness could only be obtained through the blood sacrifice.

Isaac remembered well the lessons he learned from his father. After Abraham’s death, Isaac built an altar to the Lord in Beersheba and there “he called upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 26:25). Isaac knew the proper way to approach God was through the blood sacrifice.

An incident from the life of Isaac’s son Jacob reveals that he, too, understood the significance of blood sacrifice. When Jacob became a changed man with a new name (Israel), he began his relationship with the Lord by erecting an altar in Shechem, naming it “El-Elohe-Israel,” meaning “God, the God of Israel” (Gen. 33:18-20). Jacob obviously knew that a relationship with God began with a blood sacrifice (see also Gen. 35:1, 7).

A New Beginning

Not only did the man Israel begin his relationship with God through a blood sacrifice, but the nation of Israel also practiced this ritual hundreds of years later.

On the very day of the Exodus from Egypt, God instructed the people of Israel to change their calendars (see Ex. 12:2). That day was to be the first day of the first month of the year, signifying Israel’s new beginning with Him. Their relationship would commence only by means of a blood sacrifice.

On that day God instituted the Passover, which prefigured, as did every other Old Testament blood-sacrifice, Jesus’ sacrificial death for all mankind. In the New Testament, Paul wrote, “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7).⁴

On the tenth day of the first month, each Israelite family was to acquire an unblemished one-year-old male lamb or kid (sheep or goat) and keep it until the fourteenth day, when they were to kill it “between the evenings”⁵ and mark the doorposts and lintels of their homes with some of its blood. God promised to pass through the land of Egypt that night and kill all the first-born. But whenever He saw the blood-markings, the Lord would “pass over” that house (see Ex. 12:3-13).

There was a death in every household in Egypt that night–either the death of a first-born son or a death of an unblemished lamb. It was made very clear to the Israelites that their sons had been spared because the lambs had died. If you attempted to tell the Israelites that God is not a God of wrath, they would have laughed at you. They were spared the wrath of God because a substitute had died.

Foremost, Jesus’ death saves us from God’s wrath, which we all deserve. The apostle Paul wrote, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Rom. 5:9, emphasis added).

Notice, too, God’s choice of an unblemished one-year-old lamb (or kid). It wasn’t an old pig or donkey that was to be sacrificed–it was a little innocent-looking lamb, an animal that exemplified purity. Only something innocent could justly serve as a sacrificial substitute for someone guilty. Jesus, the only sinless man, would be the only One who could rightfully serve as our sacrificial substitute.

After sacrificing the lamb or kid and marking their doorposts with its blood, the people of Israel were then instructed to eat it. In a physical sense, they became “one” with the sacrificial substitute. The lamb’s flesh became a part of their flesh.

This graphically illustrated the idea of representative substitution. Every Israelite could say that he had indeed received his rightful punishment because what had been killed was now part of him. He was united with the sacrifice.

So, too, as Jesus broke the bread at the Last Supper (which was a Passover meal according to the synoptic Gospels ⁶) He said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” (Matt. 26:26).

We have been united with the Sacrifice. The writer of Hebrews states that “we have become partakers of Christ” (Heb. 3:14). Paul wrote that we are now members of the body of Christ, that we are one spirit with Christ, and that we have been “crucified with Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27; 6:17; Gal. 2:20).

When Jesus died on the cross, every one of us who would believe in Him also died on the cross. As theologians like to say, Jesus’ suffering was vicarious. That means “endured by one person substituting for another.”

I like to think about this wonderful truth whenever I hear the old spiritual being sung, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? The answer for everyone who has believed in Jesus is Yes! We were there, “in Christ.”

Our Passover Lamb

The Passover Feast was celebrated annually for fourteen hundred years before its fulfillment arrived in the person of Christ. When Jesus began His ministry, John the Baptist introduced Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This was His purpose for coming, and Jesus knew it. He came to earth as a man to die for the sins of humanity–to fulfill what every Passover lamb for 1,400 years only foreshadowed.

Just before His triumphal entry into Jerusalem Jesus proclaimed,

“The Son of Man will be delivered up to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him up to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him and spit upon Him, and scourge Him, and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again….the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:33-34, 45, emphasis added).

Most significant is that, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus willfully walked to Jerusalem during the Passover Feast (of about AD 32) and was crucified at the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slain. Their blood and His blood were falling upon the earth simultaneously. He died as the Lamb of God, saving the world from its sins.

Is it any wonder that in the book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to twenty-eight times as “the Lamb”? We are told that the inhabitants of heaven sing a new song there, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12, emphasis added).

Obviously those who worship in heaven (unlike many of us on earth) are not preoccupied with the latest theological “winds of doctrine.” Their minds are ever fixed on eternity’s most significant event, preordained from the foundation of the world and prefigured for centuries in millions of sacrifices: that moment in history when salvation was accomplished, that incredible day when Jesus the Lamb of God died on the cross for the sins of humanity.

God Continues to Make His Point

Our study of the prefiguring of Christ’s cross in the Old Testament blood sacrifices, however, is still unfinished. God prepared for this culminating episode of history on a very grand scale. When the Lamb of God shed His blood on Calvary, it would be an event prefigured millions of times over and over again.

As if it weren’t enough for God to teach the blood sacrifice to Adam and Eve 4,000 years before Calvary’s fulfillment and then record its continued practice for at least twenty generations; and as if it weren’t enough for God to instruct Abraham to sacrifice his son a few hundred yards from where Jesus would die; and as if it weren’t enough to institute the annual Passover Feast 1,400 years in advance of its fulfillment; God then designed the animal sacrifice to be the hub of the Levitical Law, and thus central to every Israelite’s life from cradle to grave.

The blood sacrifice was the only means of gaining or maintaining a relationship with God. The Law provided for daily, weekly, monthly, yearly,⁷ and occasional sacrifices, so that one could not live in Israel very long without gaining knowledge of the blood sacrifice.

When reading through all of God’s instructions to Israel contained in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, I can’t help but notice what seems to be a disproportionately large number of verses devoted to the sacrificial system. The lengthy instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle, the priests’ vestments and their ordination and duties, the details of the various required sacrifices and their appropriate occasions all provoke the reader to ask, “Why was all this so important to God? Why would He instruct His people to build an expensive Tabernacle and then appoint certain people to dress in elaborate costumes just for the purpose of butchering animals every day?”

The answer is that God was once more impressing upon Israel’s minds several of His attributes–primarily His holiness, justice, and love. God was teaching them that if they were to have a relationship with Him, it would be through the means of the blood sacrifice.

God was much too holy to have a relationship with sinners. Their sins separated them from God. But by means of a sacrificial substitute God could justifiably forgive their sins, and they could then enjoy His blessings. And of course, the entire Levitical ceremony was representative of what Jesus would one day accomplish once and for all upon the cross.

The Innocent Dying for the Guilty

Five different occasional offerings were prescribed in the first seven chapters of Leviticus–four of which call for the sacrifice of an animal: the burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. The four animal offerings differed in respect to the occasion and what was done with the blood and flesh after the sacrifice, but they all followed the same essential ritual. In particular, we will examine the sin offering, which the New Testament definitely teaches was a type of Jesus.⁸

Depending on the person involved, there were slightly different rituals for various sin offerings. The ritual I will describe pertains to a sin offering that was offered for an individual as opposed to that being offered for a priest or for the entire community.

First, the worshiper presented an unblemished female goat or lamb at the entrance to the Tabernacle and laid his hands upon its head. At that point, the animal was designated as the worshiper’s substitute. No doubt the laying on of hands represented the transfer of guilt from the sinner to the innocent animal.

The substitute was killed, and its blood applied to the horns of the altar of sacrifice. The priests poured out the remaining blood at the base of the altar. Then the fat of the animal was burned on that altar, and the remainder of the animal was eaten by the priests.

This entire ceremony painted a vivid picture of the innocent dying for the guilty, providing a way for a person to be justified before God. Some have wondered if even the burning of the animal’s carcass was representative of the torments of hell that the offerer would have suffered without a sacrifice. Regardless, it was this offering through which God promised, “Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven” (Lev. 4:35). This was the message of the sin-offering ritual.

The Day of Atonement

Of all the sacrifices prescribed by the Levitical Law, the rituals connected with the annual “Day of Atonement,” known to us as Yom Kippur, depict the richest imagery. This ceremony unmistakably spoke of humanity’s guilt, God’s holiness and justice, and the mediating ministry of the blood sacrifice that was effective in covering sins. The New Testament clearly associates the Day of Atonement with Jesus’ sacrifice.⁹

In order to understand the rituals performed on the Day of Atonement, we first need to understand something about the Tabernacle where the rituals were performed. Let’s take a brief tour of the Tabernacle constructed by Israel according to God’s instructions in the wilderness.

From the outside, an observer saw only the curtains of the Tabernacle court, which formed a rectangle with dimensions of about 150 by 75 feet. The single entrance into that court was through an opening on the eastern side.

Upon entering, the first object to meet the eye was the bronze altar of sacrifice. Approximately seven feet square and five feet high, it supported the fire used to burn the sacrifices.

Sitting directly behind the altar of sacrifice was the bronze laver, where the priests washed before offering a sacrifice or ministering in the Holy Place (a part of the Tabernacle proper).

Finally, in the center of the Tabernacle court stood the Tabernacle itself, an elaborately designed tent divided into two compartments. Inside, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were partitioned by a thick curtain.

The Holy Place contained the golden lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense. In the Holy of Holies resided the ark of the covenant: a gold box containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod that budded, and a sample of the manna fed to Israel for forty years in the desert. On top of the ark rested the mercy seat, which was overshadowed on both sides by two gold cherubim whose wings were outstretched over the mercy seat.

The priests continually ministered in the Tabernacle court and in the Holy Place as well. Entrance into the Holy of Holies, however, was strictly forbidden because God’s actual Presence dwelled there.¹⁰ The high priest alone was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, and then on only one special day each year–the Day of Atonement.

The Scapegoat

Most of the instructions concerning the Day of Atonement are found in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus.

On this most solemn day of the year in Israel, the high priest, after extensive preparation and with great caution, entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat for the sins of Israel.

Having first bathed himself, the high priest gathered the various animals to be used in the ceremonies that day. For himself and his household he selected a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Then for the people of Israel, he took two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. Later, lots were cast for the two goats to determine which would be designated as the sacrificial victim and which would be the “scapegoat.”

The high priest first killed the young bull for his and his household’s sins. Then, taking its blood, he entered the Holy of Holies. It was required that he also bring with him a firepan full of hot coals from the altar and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense.

Upon entrance into the Holy of Holies, the priest spread the incense on top of the coals, thus filling the place with a fragrant smoke, “that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, lest he die” (Lev. 16:13). Only then could the priest sprinkle the blood of the bull upon and before the mercy seat. Now the priest was considered ceremonially clean and could offer sacrifice for the people.

After exiting, the priest sacrificed the first goat as a sin offering for the people of Israel. He then returned into the Holy of Holies and offered the blood of the goat just as he had done for the bull. Exiting once more, he applied some of the blood from both bull and goat to the altar itself. Thus atonement was completed for the holy place, the altar, and the tent of meeting, which apparently had become defiled by those who continually worshiped there.

Next, the “scapegoat” was brought, and the high priest laid his hands on its head in order to “confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; he shall lay them on the head of the goat.” (Lev. 16:21). This was an obvious transfer of guilt from Israel to the scapegoat.

It is interesting to note that the second goat was not killed like the first, but rather, was led away into the wilderness. Leviticus 16:22 comments: “And the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” The Israelites could literally watch their sins being taken away to be lost forever. What a marvelous image!

Finally, the burnt offerings were sacrificed and burned on the altar, followed by the fat of the sin offerings. The remainder of the sin offering was burned outside the camp. God promised at the conclusion of His instruction concerning the Day of Atonement:

“For it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you shall be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (Lev. 16:30).

Satisfying God’s Justice

Clearly, the concepts of God’s holiness, justice, love, and the mediating ministry of the blood sacrifice were explicitly revealed in the ritual of the Day of Atonement. Keep in mind that the high priest sprinkled blood on the mercy seat, which covered the tablets of the Ten Commandments contained in the ark of the covenant. The blood was brought into the presence of the law of God–the law that Israel repeatedly broke. Forgiveness could only come by means of a substitutionary sin bearer, and the Day of Atonement proved it.

It is with this ritual in mind that the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote,

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins….By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 9:24-10:4, 10).

The rituals of the Day of Atonement were fulfilled by Christ, whose work on the cross satisfied God’s justice for all time. That’s why there is no longer a need for any animal sacrifices.

We have by no means exhausted all that the Bible has to say on the subject of the blood sacrifice, but I think we have looked at sufficient scriptures to impress upon our minds the centrality of this subject in the Old Testament. Just as the author of Hebrews observed: “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22, emphasis added).

Most importantly, we should recognize every sacrifice offered during the time of the Old Testament served to prefigure the most important landmark of human history, the event foreordained from the foundation of the world–the death of Jesus on the cross.

Footnotes

2. Faith in God can only exist where God’s will is known; see Rom. 10:17.

3. See 2 Chron. 3:1. The temple mount in Jerusalem was on Mt. Moriah. Jesus was crucified just outside the gates of Jerusalem.

4. Compare also John 19:31-36 with Ex. 12:46 and Num. 9:12, clearly marking Jesus as fulfilling the Passover sacrifice.

5. See Ex. 12:6. It is thought that the expression “between the evenings” means from the time the sun began to set (about three P.M.) until it did actually set, when, by Jewish time-keeping, the next day began.

6. See Matt. 26:17-18; Mark 14:14-16; Luke 22:11-15.

7. See Num. 28-29.

8. Compare Heb. 13:11-12 and Lev. 4:12, 21. See also Rom. 8:3.

9. Compare Heb. 9:6-12, 24-28 with Lev. 16:11-15.

10. See Lev. 16:2.

The Gospel writer Luke reports that soon after Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared incognito to two disciples traveling to the village of Emmaus. These two men had been discussing the perplexing events that had transpired over the past few days–how Jesus had been crucified and how some women were now reporting that His tomb was empty. Bewildered by it all, they confessed their confusion to the Man who appeared to be a stranger.

Luke recorded Jesus’ enlightening response to their puzzlement:

“O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:25-27).

What a Bible study that must have been!

Jesus pointed out the references to Himself in the writings of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament) and in all the books of the prophets, probably including the Psalms.¹¹

Notice Jesus expected those two disciples to understand the necessity of His death because of what was written by the prophets. Those two disciples, and others later, finally realized from Jesus’ explanation that the prophets wrote of His sufferings.

About two months later, the apostle Peter proclaimed during his second sermon, “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18, emphasis added).¹²

Of the specific Old Testament prophecies dealing with the life and earthly ministry of Christ, the majority speak of His suffering on the cross and the events immediately preceding.¹³ To be sure, there are specific prophecies that speak of His birth, life, and ministry, but those telling of His passion are far more numerous.

Why were Christ’s sufferings highlighted in the Old Testament predictions? Because His death on the cross is the most significant aspect of His work. For the generations who would read the prophets before and after Christ’s crucifixion, it was not primarily His birth, childhood, miracles, or teachings that the Holy Spirit desired to spotlight, but the crucifixion itself.

Jesus would one day die for the sins of the world, and God prepared for that event through the many predictions of His prophets. Not only was the cross an event preordained before the foundation of the world and prefigured by hundreds of thousands of animal sacrifices, it was also predicted for centuries before it happened.

It is beyond the scope of this book to examine every messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. Because we are concentrating on Christ’s cross, we will focus on only a few messianic predictions that foretold His sufferings.

Christ’s Suffering Predicted in the Psalms

From the cross, Jesus personally directed us to the twenty-second Psalm by quoting its first verse, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46b). Following this “cry of dereliction” (as it is called) the Psalmist describes his persecutors and his predicament, all foretelling Jesus’ agony on the cross:

But I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, “Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him” (Ps. 22:6-8).

Matthew wrote that this verse was fulfilled as Jesus was mocked on the cross by His onlookers (see Matt. 27:43).

The Psalmist continued:

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and Thou dost lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots¹⁴ (Ps. 22:14-18, emphasis added).

Notice that not only does the persecuted Psalmist, and thus Christ, cry out that God has forsaken him (v. 1), but he also credits God as the One who “dost lay me in the dust of death” (v. 15).

As we have already learned from Peter’s Pentecost sermon, there was more to Christ’s crucifixion than met the eyes of those who witnessed it. Jesus was nailed to the cross by “the hands of godless men,” yet He was “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). He was taking our place and suffering the wrath of God for our sins, fulfilling God’s preordained plan.

Almost three hundred years ago, Matthew Henry wrote concerning this passage in Psalm 22:

The sentence of death passed upon Adam was thus expressed: Unto dust thou shalt return. And therefore Christ, in his obedience to death, here uses a similar expression: Thou hast brought me to the dust of the earth.¹⁵

Psalm 69 is unarguably another messianic psalm ¹⁶ authored by David in a time of distress. In verses 20-21 we read:

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

This passage was fulfilled when, on the cross, the bystanders offered Jesus “wine to drink mingled with gall” and later gave Him sour wine, as recorded in Matthew 27:34 and 48.

A few verses later, David (and thus Christ) says:

For they have persecuted him whom Thou Thyself hast smitten, and they tell of the pain of those whom Thou hast wounded (Ps. 69:26, emphasis added).

Once more we see the intent of the cross from God’s perspective. Jesus was not only smitten by men but “smitten of God and afflicted” (Is. 53:4b, emphasis added). He suffered God’s wrath on our behalf.

Although Psalm 88 is not specifically quoted anywhere in the New Testament, which would officially validate it as a messianic Psalm, I (along with others) have always considered it a description of Jesus’ anguish on the cross. Some think that Jesus may have been quoting verse 3 of this Psalm, “For my soul has had enough troubles” when He said concerning His imminent crucifixion, “Now My soul has become troubled”, recorded in John 12:27. Regardless, this psalm is certainly the most melancholy of all the Psalms. For example, we read,

I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength, forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom Thou dost remember no more, and they are cut off from Thy hand. Thou hast put me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the depths. Thy wrath has rested upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Thou hast removed my acquaintances far from me; Thou hast made me an object of loathing to them; I am shut up and cannot go out….I was afflicted and about to die from my youth on; I suffer Thy terrors; I am overcome. Thy burning anger has passed over me; Thy terrors have destroyed me. They have surrounded me like water all day long; they have encompassed me altogether (Ps. 88:4-8, 15-17, emphasis added).

It certainly doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that this Psalm prophetically speaks of the terrors Christ experienced on the cross for our sakes.

Isaiah’s Foretelling

More than any other chapter in the Old Testament, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah describes the significance of Jesus’ work on the cross. Jesus Himself quoted from it just before His arrest and trial, and portions of it are quoted at least four other times in the New Testament.¹⁷

Just as surely as the third chapter of Romans could be considered the central chapter (from a theological perspective) of the New Testament, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah can be considered the central chapter of the Old Testament. It is well worth quoting the entire chapter, which I will do, adding commentary as we proceed.

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He [Jesus] grew up before Him [God the Father] like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (Is. 53:1-3).

Jesus was despised and forsaken to a certain degree during His entire life, but there was no time when He was virtually universally despised and forsaken other than during His trial and crucifixion.

Surely our griefs [literally “sicknesses”] He Himself bore, and our sorrows [literally “pains”] He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (Is. 53:4).

Once again we read of God’s intent from the beginning being fulfilled on the cross. Jesus suffered not only the hatred of men but also the wrath of God. Isaiah further elaborated on this theme as no other Old Testament writer:

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being [literally “peace”] fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him (Is. 53:5-6).

That is precisely what occurred on the cross. Jesus bore our sins–our guilt was transferred to Him, and He became liable for our penalty.

Continuing, Isaiah spoke of Jesus’ trials, during which He remained silent before His accusers:¹⁸

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? (Is. 53:7-8).

I encourage you to re-read that last sentence. Isaiah was saying that no one of Jesus’ generation, as they watched Him die, had any idea He was suffering death because He was taking the punishment due them.

His grave was assigned with wicked men [the two thieves who were crucified with Him], yet He was with a rich man in His death [Jesus was buried in a rich man’s tomb; see Matt. 27:57-60]; because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth (Is. 53:9).

Jesus was sinless.

But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand (Is. 53:10).

This verse again teaches God’s purpose in Christ’s death. As we studied in the previous chapter, the Levitical sacrifices typified Jesus’ sacrifice, and here Isaiah stated that Jesus became a guilt offering.

This passage also indicates that the One who would be “cut off out of the land of the living” would obviously live again, and He would “see His offspring” (those of us who would believe in Him) and would “prolong His days.”

As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities (Is. 53:11).

There is the gospel of Jesus Christ in a nutshell. We are justified because He bore our iniquities.

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors (Is. 53:12).

Some commentators see Isaiah’s statement that the Messiah would “be numbered with the transgressors” as a reference to Jesus’ dying with the two thieves.¹⁹ The statement that He would “intercede for the transgressors” is often considered a reference to His intercession for the thief who requested mercy or possibly His prayer for God to forgive the Roman soldiers who divided His garments.

These, no doubt, are correct interpretations, but those statements have an even better application to what Jesus did for all of us. He took upon Himself our sin, and thus was identified with “the transgressors.” We’re all transgressors. And Jesus “always lives to make intercession” for us as the author of Hebrews wrote (Heb. 7:25). Jesus is everyone’s Intercessor, the “go-between” between man and God.

Now allow me to end this chapter as I began it. Of all the specific predictions found in the Old Testament concerning Christ’s birth, life, and earthly ministry, the bulk of them deal with His crucifixion.

Jesus fulfilled more specific Old Testament messianic predictions concerning His life and ministry during His final day on earth than He did during all the rest of His earthly life. Should we not then view Christ’s death on the cross just as the Holy Spirit did and does, as the most significant aspect of His earthly ministry? Certainly we should.

Footnotes

11. Although the Psalms are normally categorized apart from the Prophets, we know without a doubt that David, who authored half of the Psalms, was a prophet (see Acts 2:30). Also, Jesus later said to His apostles, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44, emphasis added).

12. See also Paul’s statement in Acts 26:22-23 and Peter’s in 1 Pet. 1:11.

13. For proof, I refer the reader to Evidence That Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell, pp. 181-183. There McDowell categorizes a list of 232 specific predictions concerning Christ, the largest category containing those predictions which revolve around His passion (the sufferings of Christ in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion).

14. This was fulfilled as recorded in Matt. 27:35.

15. Matthew Henry, The Matthew Henry Commentary, p. 599.

16. Psalm 69:9, for example, is quoted in John 2:17 as being fulfilled by Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, and Psalm 69:4 is quoted in John 15:25, as being fulfilled by Jesus who “was hated without a cause.”

17. See Matt. 8:17; Luke 22:37; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 2:22, 24.

18. See Matt. 26:63; 27:12-14 for the fulfillment.

19. A questionable verse found in Mark 15:28 supports this view.

In eternity past, God “dreamed a dream,” if I might say it in human terms. He desired to have a family. He wanted children upon whom He could shower His great love. They, in turn, would reciprocate by loving Him and each other. Together, they would live in a perfect world, in a perfect society, enjoying one another forever. It would be a never-ending love story.

So, God devised a plan to fulfill His desire.

First, He planned to create the heavens and the earth. Even then He knew that, further in the future, He would create a new earth, but the first earth would be a good place for His plan to develop.

Next, He planned to create a man and a woman in His own image. They would parent the human race, His own potential children.

Because God wanted children who could love Him, He planned that all members of the human race would be given free wills, possessing the capacity to obey or disobey Him. Without the will to choose, they would be robots, and a robot programmed to “love and obey” really can’t love and obey. Love and obedience are meaningless concepts apart from choice. Possessing free wills, the human race would also have an equal capacity to hate and disobey God.

God also planned that all members of the human race would be placed in an environment where they would be given the opportunity to exercise their right to choose. If He placed them in a world where nothing would be forbidden, a world where they would be ignorant of His will, then, again, love and obedience would be meaningless concepts. This being so, all free moral agents would have to be tested, for a period of time, to see whether they would choose to obey or disobey.

The first test came in the Garden of Eden. God planned that the first humans would be tested by forbidding them to eat from one specific tree.

He would test the other humans in a similar manner, also giving them opportunities to obey or disobey. God planned to write a moral code of ethics on their hearts, and their consciences would tell them what was right and wrong. Then they would have to choose.

God would not only speak to humans by means of their consciences, He would also communicate through His creation, a nonstop display of His amazing power and wisdom. Through sunsets and snowflakes, babies and bananas, God would constantly call the world to seek and not ignore Him.

God Plans to Reveal His Love

The amazing thing, however, is that as God was forming His plan, He knew that every member of the human race would choose to disobey the law He had written on their hearts. As Isaiah would later declare by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Is. 53:6a).

Yet, in the great wisdom of God, this sad outcome would not bring His plan crashing down in pieces. Rather, it would provide an opportunity for Him to reveal His great love for the people whom He would create in His image. The apostle Paul wrote,

For God has shut up all in disobedience that He might show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Rom. 11:32-33)

Once they transgressed, humanity would be faced with the consequences of their rebellion–namely, the prospect of facing God’s holy wrath. Yet after their transgression, God would also have an opportunity to prove His love for them. He could offer them mercy–a mercy that would be obtained without compromising His righteousness–a mercy that stemmed from His own suffering. He Himself would satisfy the demands of His own holiness, bearing the punishment they deserved.

Even before God created the heavens and the earth, He planned to become a man, live without sin under every temptation for thirty-three years, and then take upon Himself the guilt of the entire human race, suffering in their place as a substitute. In so doing, without compromising His holiness, God would open the door for them to be forgiven and transformed into holy beings. By His selfless sacrifice, the Creator would provide an entrance into His future perfect world where they would live as His children, obeying Him and enjoying His love forever. He would only require of them that they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, His beloved Son.

All of this God planned before the foundation of the world.

God’s Ancient Book

But, amazingly, there is still more that occurred before the earth was created. Being all-knowing, God knew even before the creation which free moral agents would choose to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. Accordingly, the Bible tells us He wrote down their names “from the foundation of the world” in a book called “the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Rev. 13:8). Moreover, He prepared a kingdom for them, anticipating the time when all the testing in the realm of time would be complete. Then God would have a family who, with pure hearts, would reciprocate His love, a people who could enjoy Him for eternity in a perfect world and society. Then His desire would be fulfilled.

Here is a staggering fact: God planned for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins before He created any of us. Only through that self-giving sacrifice could He fulfill His eternal purpose. Such information evokes in us new inspiration and appreciation for God’s amazing love. Jesus’ death on the cross claims unparalleled preeminence above any and every other episode of human history. Words are simply not adequate to describe it.

The Truth About Predestination

Let’s consider some specific scriptures that reveal to us that our redemption was preordained, or predestined. First, however, we need to reflect on the whole concept of biblical predestination.

As a young Christian, I was confused when the word predestination popped up in the New Testament. At that time, I was attending a Bible study taught by a young man who was pursuing his degree in theology at a Calvinistic seminary. You may know that the historic reformer, John Calvin, taught that God has predestined some people to be saved and some people to be damned. He also taught that Jesus only died for those who were predestined to be saved. And that is what this particular seminary student was teaching me.

Naturally, I became quite concerned about which category of people I was in. So I asked my teacher, “How can I know if I’m predestined to be saved?”

He couldn’t give me an assuring answer (and neither can any other consistent Calvinist, since the Bible doesn’t reveal the names of those whom God supposedly predestined to be saved). He only suggested that I examine my life to see if I was living as a Christian should. His advice filled me with even more anxiety, because I was well aware of my own shortcomings and sins.

So I began to study for myself what the Bible had to say about predestination.

Calvinism’s Fatal Flaws

I first discovered that Jesus died for the sins of everyone, not just a chosen few. He even died for the sins of people who will spend eternity in hell. For example, the apostle John wrote, “He Himself [Jesus] is the propitiation [appeaser of wrath] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, emphasis added). Along with scores of other biblical texts, this one verse clearly refutes the Calvinism’s “limited atonement,” the idea that Jesus died only for the people whom God supposedly predestined to be saved.¹ God’s Word tells us that God wants everyone to be saved (see 1 Tim. 2:3-4; 2 Pet. 3:9), and so Jesus had to die for everyone’s sins.

Second, it occurred to me that if God had predestined some people to be saved and others to be damned, then no person could be saved by faith, as the Bible teaches we are.

The only way to have faith for salvation is to know that it is God’s will for you to be saved. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). That is why we are commanded to proclaim the gospel to everyone, so that people will believe the good news and be saved. But if people don’t know if God wants them to be saved, then there is no way they can have faith to be saved.

Third, I realized that the idea of God predestining some people to be saved and some to be damned completely contradicts the concept of humanity’s free moral agency–a truth found from Genesis to Revelation. Joshua couldn’t have made it more clear when he proclaimed to Israel, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).

Fourth, I discovered that nowhere does the Bible teach that God has predestined certain individuals to be damned or certain individuals to be saved. Certainly we can find scriptures declaring that believers are predestined–but those scriptures say nothing about believers being predestined to be saved.

The truth is that God has predestined a wonderful plan that centers around Christ, and that plan has ramifications for everyone. God predestined that all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ would be saved, and all who would not believe would be damned. By His foreknowledge, God obviously knew who would and who would not choose to believe in Jesus.

God’s Foreknowledge

Let’s look at two scriptures that prove God’s choosing of us was based upon His foreknowledge of our faith, not upon His arbitrary, sovereign decree. Peter wrote,

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who…are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet. 1:1-2a, emphasis added).

Peter emphasized that God’s choosing of us was according to His foreknowledge. He chose us based on His foreknowledge of our faith, the condition of salvation. His was a conditional election, not an unconditional election, as Calvinists want us to think. Similarly, Paul wrote to the Romans:

For whom He [God] foreknew [us], He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Rom. 8:29-30, emphasis added).

Again, note the God predestined us based on His foreknowledge. He foreknew we would believe in Jesus. Knowing that, He predestined that we would be conformed to the image of Jesus. To that degree we have indeed been predestined. Notice, however, that Paul said nothing about God arbitrarily predestining us to be saved.

The first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians also reveals that God predestined certain blessings for the free moral agents whom He foreknew would choose to believe the gospel. In that first chapter, Paul unveiled God’s eternal plan that centers around Christ. He began,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself (Eph. 1:3-5, emphasis added).

God predestined “us,” that is, all of us whom He knew would believe in Jesus, to be holy and blameless. Paul didn’t say God chose us to be saved–he said God chose us “in Christ” with the intention that we would become holy and blameless.

God also predestined that those who would believe in Jesus would be adopted as sons through Him, as the above scripture states. It is Jesus’ death and our being members of His body that makes it possible for us to become God’s sons.

Now let’s consider the predestination of Christ’s sacrificial death.

God’s Eternal Purpose

Some have wrongly supposed that God’s plan was almost thwarted when evil men conspired and killed Christ, but that God turned the tables by raising Jesus from the dead. The truth is, however that, before the creation of the world, God planned that Jesus would be crucified at the hands of wicked men. Numerous scriptures verify this fact. Let’s look at a few.

The apostle Paul wrote to his beloved co-worker, Timothy,

Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 1:8b-10a, emphasis added).

From God’s perspective, His grace has been granted to us in Christ from all eternity because that’s when He purposed that Jesus would die for our sins.

Similarly, Paul wrote of God’s eternal purpose in the third chapter of his Ephesian letter:

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things….This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:8-9, 11, emphasis added).

Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, declared that Christ’s crucifixion was preordained by God:

Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know–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 (Acts 2:22-23, emphasis added).

We read in the fourth chapter of Acts that after Peter and John had been arrested and released by the Sanhedrin, they returned to “their own companions” (Acts 4:23) and joined in united prayer. It’s interesting to note that these early disciples committed themselves to the care of the One who had so marvelously predestined the death of Christ:

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:27-28, emphasis added).

God predestined to use what wicked men meant for evil for the good of all people. Those who crucified Christ had no idea that they were being used to play a part in the grand, predestined plan of God.

A Kingdom Prepared

Other scriptures confirm the foreordination of Christ’s death. While these verses are not as obvious, they nevertheless substantially verify God’s predestined plan.

For example, in Christ’s foretelling of the judgment of the nations in Matthew 25, the Son of Man is presented as saying to the righteous, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34). If the kingdom was prepared for righteous people from the foundation of the world, then God must have devised a plan from the foundation of the world to make people righteous. That plan was through Jesus’ death.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say that the kingdom had only been planned from the world’s foundation, but prepared from the world’s foundation. When someone says, “Dinner is prepared,” that means the food is ready to eat! So, according to Jesus, God’s kingdom has been ready from the foundation of the world.

To what extent was God’s kingdom prepared? The book of Revelation tells about a marvelous city called the New Jerusalem that one day will descend from heaven to earth (see Rev. 3:12; 21:10-27). Several scriptures indicate that the New Jerusalem actually already exists and was constructed a long time ago (see Gal. 4:26; Heb. 11:10-16, 12:22-23, 13:14). Perhaps it was prepared from the foundation of the world when God began to work His great plan of redemption.

Jesus stated near the time of His crucifixion that His Father’s house already had many “dwelling places,” so those dwelling places must have been prepared before then. Apparently, however, not everything was completely finished in those dwelling places:

“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3, emphasis added).

In the book of Revelation, we discover once more that God foreknew those who would choose to believe in Jesus. In fact, the apostle John wrote that their names were “written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Rev. 13:8). If there has been such a book since the foundation of the world, then obviously God planned from the foundation of the world that there would be a Lamb who would be slain.

Hidden Wisdom

Another place in the New Testament where we find the concept of predestination mentioned is in the second chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. There Paul spoke of a “hidden wisdom,” which “God predestined before the ages to our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7). That predestined wisdom centered around the death of Jesus Christ. Paul made that clear in the very next verse by stating that if the “rulers of this age” had understood that “hidden wisdom,” they “would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8).

It is thought by some that the “rulers of this age” of whom Paul wrote were not earthly rulers but demonic spiritual rulers who influenced wicked men to crucify Christ (see Eph. 6:12). If that is true, then you can understand why they would not have crucified “the Lord of glory” had they understood God’s “hidden wisdom.” In so doing, they unwittingly helped fulfill God’s predestined plan to redeem humanity.

In Summary…

Were you predestined to believe in Jesus? No, that was your own choice. You yielded to God’s gracious drawing through the creation, the gospel, and your conscience. But were you predestined? Yes, if you believe in Jesus. God knew you would make the right choice, and your name has been written in heaven from the foundation of the world. God predestined that you would be a member of His eternal family who will live with Him forever. And it has all been made possible because of the predestined, sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Christ’s death on the cross makes every blessing–past, present, and future–possible. Praise God for His amazing love!

Footnotes

1. Calvinists attempt to explain this verse that so clearly refutes their doctrine by claiming that it actually means that Jesus not only died for those who were (supposedly) predestined to be saved in John’s part of the world, but He also died for the sins of those who were (supposedly) predestined to be saved in every part of the world! Are we really to believe that John wrote to correct his readership because they mistakenly believed that Jesus only died for those whom God (supposedly) predestined to be saved in his part of the world, and didn’t believe that Jesus died for those whom God (supposedly) predestined to be saved in other parts of the world? Do Calvinists really think John’s readership was that stupid? Do Calvinists think we are that stupid?