Jesus on the Cross

Then he brought me through the entrance, which was at the side of the gate, to the north row of the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. And he said to me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people." (Ezekiel 46:19-20 ESV)

Hundreds of years before the New Testament was written, Ezekiel was given a vision of a future restored Temple in Jerusalem. In that vision Ezekiel described a place inside the temple area reserved for the priests to live. In the vision Ezekiel was given instructions concerning the proper preparation of the food portions allotted to the priests. God's law allowed them to eat some of the offerings made by the people.

The offerings prepared in the temple were holy to the Lord. Therefore their handling was regulated. The priests lived separated lives in many respects according to the regulations of the law of God. Earlier in the book of Ezekiel in chapter 44:22 the priests were told to only marry a virgin or a widow of a priest. By this they showed their separation from the common people because they were dedicated to the service of God. This food regulation required that this sacrificial food of the priests was to remain separated “in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so transmit holiness to the people” (verse 20, ESV).

This regulation sounds like God does not want to make those in the outer court holy and that there is no possibility of closeness to God for those of us (read: all of us) who have been defiled by sin. But considering that these food items are remnants of God’s ordained sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin, the greater context of the command is how God is jealous for the reverence for the sacrifices that covered sin. If there is not a reverence for the sacrifices, then the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God is disregarded. As we were reminded in the New Testament, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

God wants us closer. God has a pure motive of love, even greater than our own longings to know Him. He demands respect for a sacrifice that lost its life to pay for human sin.

Jesus taught that we should give not give that which is holy to the dogs (Matthew 7:22). God must insist on the reverence of his sacrifices because the sacrifices speak of his holiness in opposition to our sin. Only a pure offering redeems. The mindset of the faithful ought to be adoration for the sacrifices God provides. If not, then they will devalue the provision God has made for us to enter into his holiness.

The redemption God provides is not only the forgiveness of sins, but also is an invitation into his holiness. That holiness must be respected. Therefore, the food resources of the guilt and sin offerings were only for priestly consumption within their precinct. To bring the holy food outside to the outer court without this consciousness of reverence by the people is the equivalent of casting what is holy to the dogs.

The holiness of the sacrifices is in view here. Sacrifices had validity by their origin in the merciful provision of God when they were implemented as He commanded. The priests were taught in Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls." God abhorred the loss of reverence for the holiness of his provision for the forgiveness of our sin.

This truth teaches us about the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The apostle John wrote, “for from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” It was a sufficient provision for the guilt of our sins that the Son of God should suffer the punishment of death laid upon Adam and passed on to all Adams seed (Romans 5:17). Jesus was the substitute for us to bear the sentence of death we deserved. His life was given for ours.

Paul wrote that the humility of Christ was that he came out of God’s heaven as the equal of the Father and took upon himself the human flesh form of his own creation. In that way He had a physical life to offer to God in heaven in our place and on our level. But the love of God provided for more. Jesus suffered the humiliation of death on the cross as if he were a common criminal (Philippians 2:8).

We who are grateful believers are called the priesthood of God by the apostle Peter (1 Peter 2:9). Like the priesthood of the restored Temple who handled the sacrifice with care, we hold in utmost reverence the holiness of God’s unique Son who died for our sins. Our reverence rests upon the inherent holiness of the sacrifice of the one called "the Lamb of God" who offered his life in obedience to the plan of God, “the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18).

The “outer court” at the crucifixion was Golgotha’s Hill at the city gate where the deed was done on the edge of a busy street (Mark 15:21, 27). It was there the Lamb of God was slain as it were "in the public square." At his physical death his body was broken, becoming the bread of life. His life’s blood was shed to the point of physical death.

The crucifixion was the unique gift of God for the sin of men. The death of Jesus on the cross was the ultimate fulfillment of Leviticus 17:11, where God said that the life of a sacrifice on the altar was "given" as God's gift. Without the gift of the life of a substitute, sinful men would have to suffer death without forgiveness, and stand before God at the final great judgment of God without hope of pardon.

Those who longed for redemption in Israel (Luke 2:38) saw in the crucifixion the sacrifice that redeems. The skeptics who passed by derided Jesus by mocking the holy sacrifice and claiming God had turned his face from him (Matthew 27:39 – 44). Psalm 22 was an astounding prophecy in the Old Testament of this very day. In it God made clear the holiness of the Son: For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him (Psalms 22:24 ESV).

 Ezekiel received the prohibition of bringing the holy sacrifices to the outer court so that God’s holiness would not be devalued by the ignorance of men. But Jesus had to be brought forth to the outer courts for a witness to the whole world (Hebrews 13:12). It is God’s challenge to us: How will receive his holiest Son?

At the foot of the cross a death-hardened Centurion changed his opinion from scorn to reverence as he saw the sinlessness of Jesus laying down his life in faith and with forgiveness (Matthew 27:54). One of the men crucified next to him saw the same glory of God and changed his speech from ridicule to reverence (Matthew 27:44 and Luke 23:39 – 43).

These men changed their opinions of Jesus. Formerly they said he was accursed of God as a sinner, but seeing him die they now called him the Son of God. There was no one that day who did the opposite and changed their opinion of Jesus from Christ to accused sinner. The goodness of God leads us to repentance. It pleases God that we see holiness in his Son on the cross. Those who see and believe in him will live.

Let me close by mentioning how this reverenced evaluation of Christ on the cross underlies the apostolic preaching of Jesus.

In the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament the writer urged all believers to identify with Jesus who suffered as a sacrifice for sin “outside the camp.” The one who died for our sins sanctified “the people through his own blood” (Hebrews 13:11-12). The apostles saw that our redemption was purchased at the price of the physical death of Jesus, and not by any mystical means. We are a blood-bought people who stand in awe of the holiness of the sacrifice. We reverence the shed blood of Christ as the means of redemption because by God's own definition, "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Genesis 9:4).

On this basis Paul preached that Jesus was crucified for our sins. He knew the fallout of such a doctrine. “… But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and a folly to Gentiles.” The true physical death of Jesus (a crucifixion) is the power of God to save and the wisdom of God to judge sin through the shedding of the true human blood of Jesus Christ.

Beware of philosophies and imaginative stories who claim that Jesus died a spiritual death as the basis for our redemption, as if his death was not enough. The apostles praised the One who physically laid down his life at Calvary by his shed blood. Paul wrote, “pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock to which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the Church of God which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

There remain many influential voices in Christian media who spin mystical tales about Jesus becoming a sinner to save sinners. Somehow, they miss the absurdity of sin cleansing sin. They say the true atonement was in the spiritual realm while Jesus hung dying on the cross. They cannot see the holiness of the sacrifice. They say the real redemption was not seen in the crucifixion but took place elsewhere. The apostles knew nothing of such wives' tales, but always agreed with the apostle John that “the blood of Jesus Christ his son, cleanses us from all sin.”

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Let your reverence for the offering of God rest in the death of the sinless Son of God. This was the sacrifice we dare not count as profane. “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29 ESV).

# 20240911