To increase the viewing size of this website press "ctrl +"(plus sign) on your keyboard
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO JESUS CHRIST ON THAT CROSS?
Satan ensures that we do not just have the wrong perception about our Heavenly Father, or about Jesus, but also about what it is exactly that He did for us on the cross. So many times and in so many places or churches we see a picture or a statue of Christ hanging on the cross, with one single line of blood flowing from the crown of thorns on His head down His otherwise clean, smooth face. This is one of the greatest lies of Satan that we can ever encounter. By making us so used to THAT picture of Jesus on the cross, we are never confronted by the REALITY of what Jesus really did for us on the cross and we are not shaken to the core, as we should actually be. What is the truth about this, you may ask? As always, let's turn to the Bible and see what the REAL picture looks like. In the book of the prophet Isaiah we see prophetic references to some of the things Jesus had to go through on the cross as atonement for our sins.
"As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." (KJV - Isaiah 52:14)
According to the dictionary, "marred" means: "To injure so as to deface; disfigure. To damage, afflict, harm." Is it possible then that His face was smooth, unblemished, with only one little drop of blood flowing down His face? No, very clearly not, if we look at the Bible. He was scarred, disfigured, DAMAGED beyond recognition as a human being!
"I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.." (Isaiah 50:6)
Can you even IMAGINE this? They plucked out His beard, not hair by hair, but in bunches. They spat on His face and they hit Him with their fists and with sticks and canes, also in His face. The true picture of what He endured for us is that His face was actually one black, blue and red pulp, with spit intermingling with the blood and saliva from His mangled and disfigured lips and mouth. Most probably His lips and cheeks were cut through by His teeth when they beat Him in the face. Do you even think it's possible to see a clean face in this pulp? Have you had enough yet? Do you even vaguely start to understand what He went through for us? And if you do, and you understand the passion He had for all of us, how can it be wrong then to also want to live passionately for Him? Shall we proceed?
When we read Psalm 22, which was written by king David centuries before Christ came, we also see other prophetic references to that pain which Jesus had to suffer on the cross.
"For dogs (Hebrew = "kehleb" = heathens/uncircumcised ones) have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." (Psalm 22:16)
The Jesus we love and who died for us was angrily surrounded by the people just like a pack of wild dogs surround their prey before they kill it and tear it to shreds. They pierced His hands and feet with huge nails, to keep Him on the cross. The other day I received the following beautiful message: "The best mathematical equation ever: 1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given. Thank you Jesus!" Isn't that great? I understand that there are people who allege that it is not possible for the nails to have been driven through His hands as they would have torn out, and that it was most probably driven through His wrists. I do not share this view, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I believe Jesus would have hung on that cross even if they nailed Him through His ears, because He WANTED to be on that cross for the sins of the world! It wasn't the nails that kept Him there, but the LOVE He had for us and His absolute willpower to die for us. He CHOSE to lay down His life for US! Secondly, we read in John 20:27 that Jesus tells Thomas:
"Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing."
The Greek word for Jesus' "hands" which he refers to, and Thomas' "hand", which Jesus refers to, is exactly one and the same, namely: "khire". If Jesus was nailed through His wrists, He would have used a different word when He told Thomas to look at His "hands". I am therefore quite sure that Jesus was really nailed through His hands and that we cannot read anything else in that text, and also other texts about His crucifixion, other than what it says. To confirm this fact I again read the words of 2 Corinthians 1:13:
"For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end"
So, when I read "hand", I understand "hand" and not "wrist" And also the words of 2 Timothy 3:16:
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..."
So you see, I have no doubt in my mind that when the Bible says Jesus was nailed through His hands, and that His HANDS and feet were pierced, it means just that. But that is not the end of it, let's proceed upon our grisly journey around the cross.
"I am poured out like water, and ALL my bones are out of joint... I may tell ALL my bones: they look and stare upon me." (Psalm 22:14 & 17)
Very clearly Jesus was in an immense amount of pain. To be able to count all His bones, He had to have been literally torn open by the scourging with the whip. And can you imagine how painful it must be when ALL your bones are out of joint? Have you ever had a shoulder, hip or arm become dislocated and out of joint? Do you remember the excruciating pain? Multiply that by a few hundred times when you think of the pain Jesus must have had with ALL His bones out of joint. And then came the most painful part:
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1)
There is no worse feeling or hurt, than when we are forsaken by God. Many people believe, and I include myself, that a great part of the pain unbelievers will experience in hell, will be the feeling of being eternally forsaken by God. I also believe that God endured so much pain Himself in that final moments watching His Son hang and suffer on that cross, that He turned away for a while in anguish, sorrow and regret. Can you see that the true picture of the cross is much, much worse than any human being can EVER dare to imagine or even try and personify by way of a statue or any other way? However, we must keep THAT picture of the cross in our minds always, as that is what He REALLY did for us, that is what He REALLY went through, so that we may walk in true redemption from sin. Glory be to God! What a wonderful, wonderful God we serve!
To conclude this chapter I would like to share with you an e-mail that I received a few years ago, which was written by a medical doctor and which explains exactly what happens after the cross is lifted into its post in the ground:
"The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the hands, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.
As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them with a deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can now be drawn into the lungs, but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps may partially subside as a result thereof. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.
Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint renting cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins: deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over - the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level - the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues.
The tortured lungs are making frantic efforts to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues... Finally, he can allow his body to die...
And all THIS the Bible records with the simple words: "...and they crucified Him." (Mark 15:24)
What wondrous love is this ?"
(From the book: "PASSION FOR GOD" - tiaan gildenhuys)
tiaan 
cobus
Vir inligting oor ons ISRAEL TOERE, kliek hier.
For information on our ISRAEL TOURS, click here.
Newsletter
