The Cross
Restoring the Foundations · Article 9 of 14
The promised King died by God’s plan and by his own free choice. He was a real man who truly died, the Passover Lamb, the Servant who bore the sins of many, the ransom, and the blood of the new covenant. Paul handed it on as the first thing: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Hebrew and Greek are at the end.
A Fair Question
Two disciples were walking home from Jerusalem. A stranger asked what they were talking about, and they told him of “Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.” (Luke 24:19-20). Then came the sentence that held all their grief: “But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21).
Our conclusion: the cross looked like the end of the hope. Paul admits how it sounded: “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
The stranger was Jesus. His answer was not that the cross was a mistake. It was this: “Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). Later that evening he told the gathered disciples, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day” (Luke 24:46).
So here is the question for this article: Why did the promised King die, and what did his death accomplish?
Part 1: No Accident
Who put him to death
The apostles name everyone. Praying together, they said: “For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your counsel foreordained to happen.” (Acts 4:27-28).
Peter told the crowd, “you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed” (Acts 2:23), and later, “I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” (Acts 3:17). From the cross Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).
This closes a door opened far too often: Scripture never lays the cross on the Jewish people as a whole. Acts 4:27 names Gentiles and Israel together, and Paul, who also calls Israel “enemies for your sake” concerning the Good News, says in the same verse, “concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.” (Romans 11:28). The fifth article showed that Israel keeps its calling.
God’s plan, foretold
Peter called the same event God’s purpose: Jesus was “delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). “But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.” (Acts 3:18).
Jesus said it beforehand: “the Son of Man must suffer many things… and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31; compare 10:33-34).
Human guilt and God’s purpose stand in one sentence (Acts 2:23). Scripture does not say how they fit.
Part 2: Given and Self-Given
The Father gave
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). “But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10).
God loves first in these verses. Our conclusion from them: the cross shows the Father’s love; it is not the Son changing the Father’s mind.
The Son laid it down
“No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.” (John 10:18). Paul writes of “the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20; compare 1:4).
Gethsemane
“My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” (Matthew 26:38). He “fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”” (Matthew 26:39).
Jesus chose his Father’s will over his own. Paul sums it up: “he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8). All of this is explicit.
Part 3: A Real Man Truly Died
Hebrews says he “partook of the same” flesh and blood as the children (Hebrews 2:14): “Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17).
Paul ties it to Adam, as the third article did: “sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). Then he answers it with one man: “For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19). “For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
The death was real. The soldiers “saw that he was already dead” (John 19:33), and the risen Jesus says, “I was dead” (Revelation 1:18). All of this is explicit: a man died. What that says about who Jesus is belongs to the tenth article.
Part 4: What His Death Accomplished, in Scripture’s Own Pictures
The New Testament describes the cross with pictures from the Law and the Prophets. We keep each word in its own verse.
The Passover Lamb
The fifth article read the Passover night: “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). Of the lamb God said, “Do not break any of its bones.” (Exodus 12:46). John, after telling us the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs (John 19:33), writes, “For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.”” (John 19:36).
John the Baptizer had said it at the start: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Paul says, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7; on the WEB’s further words “in our place,” see the Notes). Peter: “you were redeemed… with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). John 19:36 does not say which Scripture it cites; its wording matches the Passover rule (Exodus 12:46) and also Psalm 34:20, “Not one of them is broken.” (Psalm 34:20). So the Passover link there is a canonical connection by shared wording.
The blood of the covenant
At Sinai, “Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.”” (Exodus 24:8). At his last Passover, Jesus took the cup: “for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:28). The shared phrase, “blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8), is a canonical connection by wording (see the Notes).
Luke and Paul record “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25). The seventh article showed whom that covenant names: “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Hebrews 8:8, quoting Jeremiah 31:31). Its central promise is forgiveness: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34). He is “the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred” (Hebrews 9:15). The recipients stay named; Article 12 shows how the nations come in.
The atoning sacrifice
The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), introduced in the fifth article, carried this promise: “for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you. You shall be clean from all your sins before Yahweh.” (Leviticus 16:30). Blood was sprinkled “on the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:15), and “The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land” (Leviticus 16:22).
Hebrews reads that day through Jesus: “nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12). “For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4). Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28).
Paul and John use a related word. God sent Jesus “to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:25). “And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2:2). The Greek word in Romans 3:25 is the one Hebrews 9:5 uses for the lid of the ark, “the mercy seat” (Hebrews 9:5; see the Notes).
That Hebrews reads the Day of Atonement through Jesus is explicit. Of the tabernacle’s furnishings, mercy seat included, it says, “of which things we can’t speak now in detail.” (Hebrews 9:5). We build no fuller system than these verses give.
The Servant who bore sins
The New Testament quotes Isaiah’s Servant song (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12) again and again. Read these lines slowly:
Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
Isaiah goes on: he “poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many” (Isaiah 53:12).
Three passages apply the song to his death. Jesus himself, the night he was arrested: “this which is written must still be fulfilled in me: ‘He was counted with transgressors.’” (Luke 22:37). An Ethiopian official was reading Isaiah 53:7-8 when Philip met him, and Philip, “beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35). And Peter weaves the song into one paragraph: Christ “didn’t sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”” (1 Peter 2:22), and “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.” (1 Peter 2:24).
These are the text’s own words, and we do not soften them.
The ransom
“For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45). “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). A psalm had said how costly such a ransom is: “none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough” (Psalm 49:7-8). Revelation sings that the Lamb “bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
Here is a silence to keep. No verse says to whom the ransom was paid, devil or Father. Revelation 5:9 says the people were bought for God, not to whom a price was handed, and the New Testament never applies Psalm 49:7 to Jesus. Scripture tells us what the ransom did and who gave it; the rest it leaves unsaid, and so do we.
Under the curse, on the tree
Now the Law’s hardest line about a hanged man: “he who is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Paul does not deny it. He turns it: “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,”” (Galatians 3:13). And he says why: “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:14).
Peter preached the same detail: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.” (Acts 5:30; compare 10:39). Paul says it another way: “For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Peter: “the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
That the stumbling block became the way of blessing is our conclusion from Galatians 3:13-14.
Victory over the devil’s work
Jesus said, “Now the prince of this world will be cast out.” (John 12:31), speaking of being “lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32), “signifying by what kind of death he should die.” (John 12:33).
Hebrews says he came “that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Paul says the handwriting against us was taken “out of the way, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14). John: “To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8).
The third article read Genesis 3:15 as fulfilled in Jesus. These texts do not quote it, so the link is our conclusion.
Part 5: For Israel, and Not for Israel Only
John writes that Caiaphas “prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” (John 11:51-52). Christ came “that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” (Romans 15:8-9). Gentiles “who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13). The order is explicit: the nation first, the fathers’ promises confirmed, the nations brought near. The twelfth article takes this up.
Part 6: Hard Questions
Only God could die for the world’s sins
The argument: sin against an infinite God is an infinite debt that only an infinite person could pay. Acts 20:28 seems to say it outright: “the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28).
Infinite debt is not in Scripture. Here is what Scripture says. The one mediator is “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Paul says “the resurrection of the dead also came by man.” (1 Corinthians 15:21). Paul speaks of “the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:15). He “was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers” (Hebrews 2:17). And Paul calls God “the King eternal, immortal” (1 Timothy 1:17) and says, “He alone has immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16). Our conclusion from these verses: God does not die. Jesus did: “I was dead” (Revelation 1:18).
On Acts 20:28: the Greek editions differ. Westcott-Hort and NA28 read the assembly of God, Tregelles of the Lord, and the Byzantine text of the Lord and God, which the WEB follows (see the Notes). In the Westcott-Hort/NA28 wording, the last phrase can be read his own blood or the blood of his own (that is, his own Son); the Byzantine word order reads only his own blood. We do not rest the answer on the variant. Read the second way, God purchased the assembly through the blood of his own Son, which matches Paul’s words elsewhere: “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Read the first way, it is the objection as usually stated, and it must still stand beside “He alone has immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16) and the one mediator who is “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Our conclusion: Acts 20:28 does not teach that God died.
“Philippians 2 says he existed before”
We used only verse 8 here. Verses 6-7 are among the texts most often cited for a pre-human existence; the tenth article answers them in full.
“God punishing an innocent man is cruelty”
Critics say a father who punishes his innocent son for others is cruel. Others make the reverse mistake: the Son had to talk an angry Father into mercy.
The texts answer both. They do say, “Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.” (Isaiah 53:10), and, “The punishment that brought our peace was on him” (Isaiah 53:5). Those lines stand, and we will not soften them. But the same Scriptures say the Father acted out of love: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only born Son” (John 3:16). And the Son was no unwilling victim: “No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself.” (John 10:18). The Father gave, the Son gave himself, and God raised him (Acts 2:24). Penal substitution, satisfaction, and Christus Victor are later frameworks, each gathering some of these verses. We hold the verses.
“His death was only an example”
Some say the cross saves only by example. Peter does say “Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Two verses later, in the same paragraph, he says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Peter keeps both. So do we.
“My God, why have you forsaken me?”
About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Some read this as the Father turning away, or a split within God. The words are the first line of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). The psalm goes on to hands and feet and divided garments (Psalm 22:16, 18; see the Notes), and then turns: “neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.” (Psalm 22:24). Of his prayers “in the days of his flesh”, Hebrews says he was “heard for his godly fear” (Hebrews 5:7). His last words in Luke echo another psalm: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46; compare Psalm 31:5).
The anguish is real. Matthew does not say why Jesus quoted Psalm 22; that he was praying the whole psalm, ending in trust, is our conclusion.
Questions many of us were taught
Torture stake or cross? We were taught that Jesus died on a single upright stake. The Greek words are stauros, usually translated cross, and xylon, tree or wood (Acts 5:30; 1 Peter 2:24; see the Notes). Neither word alone settles the shape. Thomas speaks of “the print of the nails” (John 20:25), plural, in his hands, and the charge was set “over his head” (Matthew 27:37). Some read these as pointing to a crossbeam; others say a stake fits too. No verse describes the shape. The apostles never preached the shape. They preached that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
A corresponding ransom? We were taught Jesus was a perfect man exactly equal to what Adam lost. Part is sound: 1 Timothy 2:6 uses a strong ransom word (see the Notes), the ransom is given by “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), and Romans 5:15-19 sets one man against one man. But Paul also says “the free gift isn’t like the trespass” (Romans 5:15). Exactly equal to what Adam lost is a framework the texts do not state.
Only a few may partake? Many of us passed the emblems at the Memorial without eating, taught the new covenant is only for a small anointed group. The case is not careless: Jesus said “poured out for you” (Luke 22:20) to the apostles, and in the same setting, “I confer on you a kingdom” (Luke 22:29). But that text does not say the covenant or the meal is closed to others. Jesus gave the bread to his disciples with the words, “Do this in memory of me.” (Luke 22:19). Paul wrote to the whole assembly in Corinth, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The ransom is “for all” (1 Timothy 2:6), the atoning sacrifice “for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). No verse sets a number on who may eat.
Where We Stand
What Scripture says explicitly: Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, and Israel acted against Jesus by God’s counsel, and Peter says Israel and its rulers acted in ignorance (Acts 2:23; 3:17; 4:27-28). The Father gave; the Son gave himself (John 3:16; 10:18). A real man truly died (Hebrews 2:17; Revelation 1:18). He is our Passover, the covenant blood, the atoning sacrifice, the sin-bearer, the ransom, the curse-bearer, and the devil’s defeat (1 Corinthians 5:7; Matthew 26:28; 1 John 2:2; 1 Peter 2:24; Mark 10:45; Galatians 3:13; Hebrews 2:14), for the nation and not the nation only (John 11:51-52).
Canonical connections: Exodus 12:46 and Psalm 34:20 in John 19:36; Exodus 24:8 in Matthew 26:28; Jeremiah 31:31-34 in Hebrews 8:8; Leviticus 16 in Hebrews 9; Isaiah 53 in Luke 22:37, Acts 8:35, and 1 Peter 2:22-24; Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13; Psalm 22:1 in Matthew 27:46.
Our conclusions: The cross looked like failure to the disciples (our conclusion from Luke 24:21). The cross shows the Father’s love rather than changing his mind. The stumbling block became the way of blessing. The cross fulfills Genesis 3:15. God does not die (from 1 Timothy 6:16). Acts 20:28 does not teach that God died. Jesus was praying Psalm 22 to its end. The shape of the cross is not given; any view of it is ours.
What Scripture does not say: that “the Jews” as a people are to blame; to whom the ransom was paid; how atonement works beyond what Hebrews says; the cross’s shape; an infinite debt; a Lord’s Supper limited to a few.
What This Means for Us
So why did the promised King die? Because God planned it, because people in ignorance rejected him, and because he freely laid his life down. And what did it accomplish? Everything Part 4 traced: the Passover that spares, the covenant blood that forgives, the sins of many borne, the ransom given, the curse taken so Abraham’s blessing could reach the nations, and the one who had the power of death brought to nothing.
The cross also asks something: “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34). Those “baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3), and Peter gives the purpose: “that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness.” (1 Peter 2:24). The eleventh article takes up that response.
For Study
Questions
- Whom does Acts 4:27 name as gathered against Jesus?
- Who gave Jesus’ life, according to John 3:16 and 10:18?
- What does Galatians 3:14 say the curse-bearing accomplished?
Verify it yourself
- Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12: read it whole, then 1 Peter 2:21-25.
- Exodus 24:8 with Matthew 26:26-28: the blood of the covenant.
- Psalm 22: read to the end, especially verse 24.
Notes on the Text
Where the Hebrew or Greek bears on the argument (WEB verse numbers):
- Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6: ransom for many is lytron anti pollon; ransom for all is antilytron hyper panton. Anti commonly means in place of or in exchange for; hyper means on behalf of, for. Antilytron (lytron with anti prefixed) occurs only here in the New Testament.
- Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:5: atoning sacrifice and mercy seat both render hilasterion, its only two New Testament uses. Translations render it propitiation, expiation, atoning sacrifice, or mercy seat. The Hebrew for the mercy seat is kapporet (Exodus 25:17; Leviticus 16:15). In 1 John 2:2 and 4:10, atoning sacrifice renders the related noun hilasmos.
- Isaiah 53:10: to bruise him is from daka, crush.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7: the SBL Greek text reads to pascha hemon etythe Christos, Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. The Byzantine text (Robinson-Pierpont) adds hyper hemon, for us, which the WEB renders in our place; Westcott-Hort, Tregelles and NA28 lack it (SBLGNT apparatus); we rest no argument on those words here.
- Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24: the SBL Greek text reads my blood of the covenant, without new; in Matthew, Tregelles and the Byzantine text add it; in Mark, the Byzantine text adds it (SBLGNT apparatus). The WEB includes it. Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25 have kaine diatheke, new covenant, in all these texts.
- Acts 20:28: the SBL Greek text reads the assembly of God (tou theou), with Tregelles reading of the Lord and the Byzantine text of the Lord and God (SBLGNT apparatus); the WEB follows the last. Dia tou haimatos tou idiou can be read through his own blood or through the blood of his own [one].
- Hebrews 9:14: “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God” (Hebrews 9:14). Some read this as Father, Son, and Spirit in one verse. The verse says Christ offered himself to God through the Spirit; it does not define persons. Through the eternal Spirit renders dia pneumatos aioniou, with no article in Greek.
- 2 Corinthians 5:21: made to be sin on our behalf is hyper hemon hamartian epoiesen. Some read hamartia here as sin offering, as Leviticus uses the Hebrew chatta’t for both sin and sin offering (Leviticus 16:15). Both readings are possible; we rest nothing on either.
- Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13; Acts 5:30; 1 Peter 2:24: tree is Hebrew ets and Greek xylon, wood, tree. Cross (John 19:17; Philippians 2:8) is stauros, used of an upright stake and of the execution cross. Neither word fixes a shape.
- Psalm 22:16 (Hebrew 22:17): the WEB reads “They have pierced my hands and feet.” (Psalm 22:16); the standard Hebrew text reads ka’ari, like a lion, my hands and feet, while other ancient witnesses read a verb. We rest no argument on pierced.
- Psalm 22:1 (Hebrew 22:2); Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34: the Hebrew is Eli Eli lamah azavtani. Matthew’s Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani and Mark’s Eloi, Eloi give the verb in Aramaic, sabachthani.
Looking Ahead
Paul joined the cross to what came after it: Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25). Without the second half, the first is lost: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Peter announced to Israel, “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36). The next article, Raised and Exalted, asks: If the King died, how can he reign, and whom did God raise and exalt?
© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/restoring-the-foundations/09-the-cross/
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