MEANING OF JESUS’ DEATH ON THE CROSS
The Jews did not recognize or acknowledge Jesus
QUOTED FROM THE BIBLE
Joh 1:9 The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. 12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
COMMENTS
Verse 11 reads that He came to His own, but they did not receive Him. This refers to the Jews for they were the descendants of Abraham who God had called and from whom God raised up the Jewish people and their Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The Jewish nation did not understand this truth. They thought that He, the Messiah, as they called Him, was just for them and that He would come to free them from the Roman oppression and restore their kingdom.
What about the other nations of the worlds?
QUOTED FROM THE BIBLE
Acts 17:26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
COMMENTS
These are indeed wonderful verses, showing how all nations have one origin and although differing in many ways, have the same blood. (Different nationalities can even have blood transfusions from one another). So, there is a unity amongst all nations.
But there is also a difference for it says that God determined where and when they were to live and that every nation was to seek after Him. This they did, but the result was not satisfactory for nations came up with many, many religions, each describing a different way of reaching and serving God. Clearly, they cannot all be right for they proclaim opposite teachings and if 1+1=2; it can not also =3, or 10.
Then in verses 30 and 31, we read the following (quoted):
Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
Verse 30 gives us hope for it says that God has overlooked the nations’ times of ignorance regarding the truth and now brings the truth to us in an understandable and proven way. By resurrecting Jesus from the dead, God the Father, proved Jesus to be the One sent to us, the One in Who we are to believe as God and Saviour, the One that will come to judge all people.
Two other verses we may look at, are the following (quoted from the Bible):
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
Acts 4:12 There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!
Lastly, we may look at the following verses quoted from the prophecies of the prophet Isaiah who lived hundreds of years earlier:
Isiah 53:3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. 4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. 5 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. 6 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.
COMMENTS
There are hundreds of nations covering the earth. Some of us may belong to a free nation, running our own country, but individually we are slaves of sin. None of us are free to do God’s good will.
What is written in verse 6 is so true of everyone of us:
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.