by Annagail Lynes

Created on: July 26, 2008

The cross in itself is of little value. The cross itself cannot save us. It is what happened on the cross that saves us.

Jesus came to Earth as a baby, conceived of both a woman, Mary, and the Holy Spirit.

He lived a sinless, blameless life. He fulfilled the law that we could not.

God's punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Someone had to die for us to become righteous in God's sight, but it had to be Someone who didn't sin.

Therefore Jesus became our Substitute, our living Sacrificial Lamb. Jesus was the only Sacrifice that wouldn't have to be repeated year after year.

The officials sentenced Jesus to death because they believed He blasphemed against God.

They beat Him with a thick cat-of-nine-tails thirty-nine times until his skin hung on the whip. They spit on Him. They nailed His hands and feet to the cross with big, stake nails similar to the ones that we use to put up a tent, and they dug a crown of thorns into His head.

God judged Him for all our sins-past, present and future. He judged Him with all our sicknesses, and all the curses that came from the law.

He died, went to Hell, where He took back the keys to Earth from satan who had gained them by deceiving both Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). This allow sin to come into this world (Romans 5:12).

On the third day, as a sign that the New Covenant had been made, Jesus rose from the dead (John 21:14).

For the first time in history, anyone who accepted Jesus (Romans 10:9-10), could become righteous in the sight of God not by our own works but by the shed blood of Jesus (II Corinthians 5:21).

For the first since the fall, humans could go boldly into the throne of grace and find grace and mercy in their time of need (Hebrews 4:16). All through Jesus' shed blood.

We cannot earn our salvation. We do not deserve it, but if we accept Christ (Romans 10:9-10), it is ours nevertheless.

God wants a relationship with us, but He couldn't have a relationship with us while we were dirty and in our muck. He had to made us righteous in His sight.

He had to judge and punish a sinless, blameless Person for our sins, then we could be righteous through the blood of that Person, Jesus.

He went through a lot of trouble to have a relationship with mere humans but that shows how much God loves us.

What is the power of the Cross, though?

When Jesus hung on the Cross, God judged Him for all our sins. When we accept Christ (Romans 10:9-10), God remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 8:12).

Jesus wasn't just judged for the

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