He Did It for You
If you have ever wondered whether God really loves you, don't look at your circumstances. Look at the cross.
The cross is God's loudest word to the human heart. On it, Jesus didn't just teach about love. He showed it, in his own body, for people who didn't deserve it. That includes you, and it includes me.
“His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.”
Isaiah 52:14 (KJV)
Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah described a servant of God who would be beaten beyond recognition, "pierced for our transgressions" and "crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5). Read what Jesus went through, and you'll see why the first Christians knew exactly who Isaiah was talking about.
What he went through
Gethsemane: he chose it
The night before, Jesus knew everything that was coming. He prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Luke, a physician, records that "his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." Doctors have documented a rare condition, hematidrosis, in which extreme anguish causes tiny blood vessels near the sweat glands to burst. He could have walked away into the dark. He stayed.
Luke 22:39-46
Betrayed and abandoned
One of his closest friends sold him for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed him with a kiss. When the soldiers came, "everyone deserted him and fled." Peter, who had promised to die with him, swore three times that he had never known him. Jesus knows what it is to be let down by the people you love.
Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:54-62
Beaten, spit on, and mocked
Through the night he was blindfolded, punched, and spit on while guards taunted him: "Prophesy!" Soldiers wove a crown of thorns, forced it onto his head, put a robe on him and a stick in his hand, then knelt in mockery and beat him over the head with the stick. Isaiah had written, "I offered my back to those who beat me… I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting."
Mark 14:65; Matthew 27:27-31; Isaiah 50:6
Scourged
Pilate had him flogged. A Roman scourge was a whip of leather straps weighted with pieces of metal or bone, designed to tear the skin and the flesh beneath. Medical doctors who studied the Gospel accounts alongside Roman practice concluded that the scourging alone likely left Jesus in serious, possibly critical, condition from blood loss. It is no surprise that he could not carry his own cross the whole way, and the soldiers forced a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, to carry it for him.
John 19:1; Mark 15:15
Crucified
Crucifixion was designed to make death as slow, painful, and shameful as possible. The Roman writer Cicero called it "the most cruel and disgusting penalty." Our word excruciating comes from the Latin word for cross. Iron spikes were driven through his wrists and feet. Every breath meant pushing up on those wounds. He hung there, naked and publicly mocked, for about six hours (Mark 15:25, 34). And the crowd shouted, "He saved others, but he can't save himself!" They were right. He could not save himself and save us too. So he chose us.
Mark 15:22-37; John 19:17-18
Pierced
To make sure he was dead, a soldier drove a spear into his side, "bringing a sudden flow of blood and water." John, who stood at the cross, simply tells us what he saw. Doctors have suggested it fits fluid that collects around the heart and lungs after severe trauma. Either way, the soldiers, who knew death well, were certain: Jesus was dead.
John 19:31-37; Zechariah 12:10
What he said from the cross
A dying man has little breath left, so he says only what matters most. Listen to what Jesus said.
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
He prayed this while they were driving in the nails. His first words were not a curse but a prayer for his killers. If he could forgive them, he can forgive you.
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43
Spoken to a criminal who had nothing to offer, no time to fix his life, and no good deeds to show. All he did was turn to Jesus. That is grace.
“Woman, here is your son… Here is your mother.”
John 19:26-27
In unimaginable pain, he made sure his mother would be cared for. Even on the cross, he was thinking of others.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46
The opening line of Psalm 22, a psalm that describes pierced hands and feet and gambling for clothes. Here is the deepest pain of the cross: the Son, who had always known the Father's love, bore the separation that our sin deserves.
“I am thirsty.”
John 19:28
The One who offered living water to a weary woman at a well (John 4) was now dried up himself. He was fully God, and fully, truly human.
“It is finished.”
John 19:30
In Greek, one word: tetelestai. It was used for a debt that had been paid in full. Not "I am finished," but "It is finished." Nothing is left for you to pay.
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Luke 23:46
No one took his life from him. He gave it, trusting his Father to the very end.
The pain you couldn't see
As terrible as the nails and the whip were, they were not the heaviest thing Jesus carried. On the cross he took on our sin: every lie, every cruelty, every secret shame, and the judgment it deserves. He who had never sinned was treated as a sinner, so that sinners could be treated as his children.
That means whatever you've done, and whatever has been done to you, was carried there. He didn't just die for the world in general. He bore it personally.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:24
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.”
Isaiah 53:4
He didn't have to
When Peter drew a sword to defend him, Jesus said he could call on more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). He told his followers, "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18). The nails didn't hold him to that cross. Love did.
And Scripture tells us why he endured it: "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame" (Hebrews 12:2). The joy set before him was bringing you home.
Watch: The Cross
Billy Graham preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone in history, and the cross was always at the center of his message. If you have a few quiet minutes, listen to him explain what Jesus did for you.
- The Cross (Billy Graham)
The cross is God saying, as loudly as heaven can say it: I love you, I see you, and I want you home. And it doesn't end there. Three days later, the tomb was empty.