Christ Crucified

THE PUBLISHED CHAPTER

No doctrine of Christ is complete without the cross.

The church does not confess an incarnate Son who merely taught, healed, revealed, and then passed into glory. Scripture gives us Christ crucified. The eternal Son made flesh humbled Himself unto death, even the death of the cross. The One rejected by men is the Lord of glory. The One nailed to the tree is the King of Israel. The One numbered with transgressors is the sinless Lamb. The One who suffers is the obedient Son who gives Himself according to the Father’s will.

This chapter must keep its proper place. The next volume will treat the doctrine of the atonement in full. There we must consider substitution, propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, ransom, sacrifice, blood, curse-bearing, forgiveness, justification, and the many ways Scripture explains what Christ accomplished by His death.

But Christology cannot wait until the doctrine of the atonement before it stands before the cross. Before we ask all that the cross accomplishes, we must ask who the crucified One is.

The cross reveals Christ. Not as a defeated teacher. Not as a failed prophet. Not as a powerless victim. Not as a mistaken reformer crushed by stronger men. The cross reveals the obedient Son, the rejected King, the suffering Servant, the faithful Priest, the spotless Lamb, the true Shepherd, and the Lord of glory.

Paul says, “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23). Not merely crucifixion as an event. Not suffering as an idea. Not religion built around tragedy. Christ crucified. The person and the cross must not be separated.

Paul writes that if the princes of this world had known God’s wisdom, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).

That phrase must be handled with reverence. The Lord of glory was crucified.

The divine nature cannot bleed, suffer, or die. God as God is immortal. Yet the person crucified is the Lord of glory. The eternal Son assumed true human nature, and according to that human nature He truly suffered and died. The One nailed to the cross is not a mere man detached from the Son. He is the incarnate Son.

This is why the doctrine of the one person of Christ matters so much. If Christ were divided into two persons, the cross would lose its biblical weight. We could say a man died near God, or a human person associated with the Son suffered. But Scripture says the Lord of glory was crucified.

The cross does not mean deity was destroyed. It means the Son of God truly died according to the humanity He assumed. The suffering is human. The death is human. The person is divine.

That is the wonder.

The One who upholds all things by the word of His power is nailed to wood. The One before whom angels worship is mocked by men. The One who gives life bows His head in death. The One who made the tree is lifted upon the tree.

The Lord of glory was crucified.

The cross is the giving of the Son.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). The Father does not give a mere servant. He gives His only begotten Son. The gift is measured by the person given.

Paul says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). The Father did not spare His own Son. The language is weighty. The Son is not distant from the Father’s love. He is the beloved Son. Yet the Father delivers Him up.

This does not mean the Father is unwilling and the Son loving, as though love belongs to the Son but not the Father. Nor does it mean the Father is loving and the Son passive, as though the Son merely endures what He does not will. Scripture gives one saving purpose. The Father sends. The Son comes. The Spirit bears witness. The cross reveals the love of God, not a division within God.

The Son is given by the Father, and the Son gives Himself. Both truths belong together.

The cross therefore reveals the depth of divine love. God’s love is not sentimental softness. It is holy, costly, purposeful, and saving. The Father gives the Son. The Son goes willingly. The cross is not an accident God turns to good after the fact. It belongs to the divine counsel and purpose.

The crucified Christ is the Son given.

Christ is not merely handed over by others. He gives Himself.

Paul says, “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Again he says Christ “loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). The cross is voluntary self-giving.

Jesus says, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17). Then He says, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:18). Men are guilty for what they did. Judas betrayed Him. The leaders condemned Him. Pilate delivered Him. Soldiers crucified Him. Yet above and beneath all of that, Christ lays down His life.

This does not erase human guilt. It reveals divine sovereignty and Christ’s willing obedience. Men meant evil. God ordained redemption. Christ gave Himself.

The cross must therefore never be portrayed as though Christ were helpless in the ultimate sense. He says He could pray to the Father and receive more than twelve legions of angels. He does not. He goes willingly.

His willingness is love. His love is obedience. His obedience is unto death.

The crucified Christ is the Son who gives Himself.

Philippians says, “he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

The cross is the deepest point of Christ’s humiliation. The eternal Son, in the form of God, takes the form of a servant, is made in the likeness of men, is found in fashion as a man, humbles Himself, and becomes obedient unto death.

Not death in general only. The death of the cross.

The cross was shameful. It was public. It was cruel. It was the death of one counted cursed, rejected, and despised. Men mocked Him. They wagged their heads. They stripped Him. They crowned Him with thorns. They wrote His accusation over His head. They numbered Him with transgressors.

Yet Christ obeys there.

His obedience is not merely visible in His miracles, teaching, and compassion. It is visible in His suffering. He obeys when obedience means pain. He obeys when obedience means shame. He obeys when obedience means silence before false accusers. He obeys when obedience means nails, darkness, thirst, and death.

The cross reveals the obedience of the Son as no other scene does.

Isaiah said, “he was numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). Jesus Himself applies this to His coming suffering: “this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors” (Luke 22:37).

The sinless One is counted among sinners.

This does not mean He becomes personally sinful. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He did no sin. No guile was found in His mouth. In Him is no sin. Yet He is treated as a criminal. He is crucified between thieves. He is mocked as one rejected by God and men.

Here the blindness and wickedness of the world are exposed. Men look upon the Holy One and condemn Him. They prefer Barabbas. They demand crucifixion. They treat the righteous One as though He were unrighteous.

But the cross also reveals the willing identification of Christ with those He came to save. He is not ashamed to stand in the place of the guilty. He is numbered with transgressors, not because He shares their guilt, but because He comes to bear what sinners could never bear for themselves.

Volume 6 will unfold that more fully. For this chapter, the person must be seen: the sinless Christ is crucified among sinners.

The cross reveals Christ as the rejected King.

Pilate asks, “Art thou the King of the Jews?” Jesus does not deny His kingship. The soldiers mock Him with a scarlet robe, a crown of thorns, and a reed in His right hand. They bow the knee in cruel imitation and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spit upon Him. They strike Him.

Above His head they place the accusation: “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Matthew 27:37).

The world means it in mockery. God means it in truth.

He is the King.

His crown is thorns. His throne is the cross. His royal procession leads to Golgotha. His attendants are soldiers, mockers, thieves, and grieving women. Yet none of this cancels His kingship. It reveals the kind of King He is and the depth of man’s rejection.

The King of Israel comes to His own, and His own receive Him not. The Son of David is crucified by the demand of His people and the authority of Rome. The nations rage, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed.

Yet the cross is not the defeat of His kingship. It is the path by which the King conquers. He does not establish His kingdom by grasping worldly power, worshiping Satan, or avoiding suffering. He obeys the Father. He gives Himself. He defeats sin, death, and the devil through the very suffering His enemies intended for His destruction.

The crucified Christ is the rejected King.

The cross also reveals Christ as the suffering Servant.

Isaiah had spoken of the Servant who would be despised, rejected, wounded, bruised, oppressed, afflicted, and brought as a lamb to the slaughter. The New Testament identifies Christ as the fulfillment of that Servant pattern.

This must be treated with restraint in this chapter because the atoning meaning of Isaiah 53 will require fuller attention later. But the identity cannot be ignored. Christ is not merely a king rejected by accident. He is the Servant who suffers according to Scripture.

His suffering is not meaningless. It is not only the cruelty of men. It is the appointed path of the Servant of the LORD.

He is silent before His accusers. He does not answer reviling with reviling. He does not threaten when He suffers. He commits Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. He is righteous in suffering. He is obedient in suffering. He is servant in suffering.

The Servant is not less than the King. The King serves. The Lord takes the form of a servant. The One who will rule the nations first suffers in obedience.

The crucified Christ is the suffering Servant.

The cross reveals Christ as Priest.

He is not only the sacrifice. He is also the One who gives Himself. In the old order, priest and sacrifice were distinct. The priest offered another. Christ, in the fullness of His person and work, offers Himself.

This chapter must not fully unfold the priesthood of Christ, because that belongs to the coming chapter on Christ the Priest and later to the doctrine of the atonement. But the cross cannot be understood if Christ is seen only as a victim acted upon by others.

He lays down His life. He gives Himself. He enters suffering willingly. He offers Himself in obedience to the Father.

The cross therefore reveals priestly self-giving. He is not dragged unwillingly to an altar. He is not overpowered into sacrifice. He is both willing giver and given offering.

This is why His death has a character no other death has. Martyrs die faithfully, but they do not offer themselves as Christ does. Priests offered sacrifices, but they could not offer themselves as the spotless final offering. Christ alone is the sinless Priest who gives Himself.

The crucified Christ is the Priest who offers Himself.

John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

That title points toward the cross. Christ is the Lamb. Peter later says believers are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

The Lamb is spotless. The Lamb is appointed. The Lamb is given. The Lamb sheds blood.

Again, the full doctrine of sacrifice and blood belongs to the next volume. But Christology must say who the crucified One is. He is not a sinner dying for His own guilt. He is the Lamb without blemish and without spot.

The Old Testament sacrificial system taught that the offering must be acceptable. Christ is not acceptable because He is ritually suitable only. He is acceptable because He is personally holy. He is sinless. He is obedient. He is the beloved Son.

The Lamb language also shows meekness without weakness. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He suffers willingly, yet He reigns. He is slain, yet He is worshiped in heaven.

The crucified Christ is the Lamb of God.

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

The cross reveals the Shepherd’s love. He does not abandon the sheep when danger comes. He does not flee like a hireling. He gives His life.

This is not generic affection. It is covenantal, purposeful, personal love. He knows His sheep. He calls them by name. He lays down His life for them. He will gather them. He will keep them. He will raise them up.

The Shepherd chapter will later consider this title more fully. But the cross must already show the Shepherd’s self-giving. The Shepherd is not only a guide or teacher. He is the One who dies for the sheep.

This also shows again that Christ’s death is voluntary. “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). His life is not finally taken from Him by wolves, thieves, rulers, or soldiers. He lays it down according to the commandment received from the Father.

The crucified Christ is the Shepherd who gives His life.

Christ is also the Bridegroom who loves and gives Himself.

Paul says, “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). That statement belongs to the mystery of Christ and the church. The Bridegroom’s love is not sentimental language only. It is self-giving love displayed at the cross.

The cross therefore reveals the character of Christ’s love for His bride. He does not love merely with words. He gives Himself. He does not use His bride for His own gain. He sanctifies and cleanses her. He nourishes and cherishes her. His love is covenant love, purifying love, sacrificial love.

The later chapter on Christ the Bridegroom will unfold this more fully. But the cross is already central. A bridegroom who does not give himself cannot image Christ’s love. Christ’s love is defined by the cross.

This also guards the doctrine from abstraction. The crucified Christ loves His people. Paul can say, “who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The cross is cosmic in scope, covenantal in purpose, and personal in application.

The crucified Christ is the Bridegroom who loves and gives Himself.

The cross was shame.

Modern readers can become so accustomed to the cross as a religious symbol that they forget its offense. In the Roman world, crucifixion was public degradation. It was meant to display weakness, guilt, humiliation, and defeat. The victim was exposed, mocked, and made a warning.

Christ endured that shame.

Hebrews says He “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). He did not treat shame as nothing. He despised it. He saw it for what it was and endured it for the joy set before Him.

This belongs to His humiliation. He did not merely die privately. He died publicly. He was lifted up before enemies. He was mocked by rulers, soldiers, passersby, and even one crucified beside Him. His garments were parted. His name was scorned. His claims were thrown back at Him.

Yet the shame did not define Him. Scripture reveals what unbelief could not see. The shameful cross is the place where the obedient Son glorifies the Father. The mocked King is the true King. The condemned righteous One is the Judge of all. The crucified Lord is the Lord of glory.

The shame is real, but it is not final.

John’s Gospel especially teaches that the cross is bound to Christ’s glory.

Jesus speaks of His hour. He says, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (John 12:23). He then speaks of a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying. The path to glory runs through death.

This is not because death itself is glorious as an isolated event. Death is an enemy. The glory is in the Son’s obedience, love, revelation of the Father, fulfillment of Scripture, and triumph through suffering.

At the cross, the world sees defeat. Faith sees the Son glorifying the Father. The world sees weakness. Faith sees the power and wisdom of God. The world sees shame. Faith sees the Lamb, the King, the Priest, the Servant, the Son.

This is why Paul can preach Christ crucified. To the Jews it is a stumblingblock. To the Greeks it is foolishness. But to those who are called, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The glory of the cross is not worldly glory. It is the glory of God revealed through the obedient suffering of His Son.

Jesus speaks of being lifted up.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Later He says, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). John explains, “This he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:33).

The lifting up is crucifixion. Yet in John’s Gospel, it also carries a strange glory. The Son of Man is lifted up in shame, but that lifting is the appointed means through which He draws.

The cross is therefore not an interruption to Christ’s revelation. It is central to it. The Son of Man is seen lifted up. The world’s hatred is exposed. God’s love is revealed. The serpent’s poison is answered. The way of life is opened.

Again, the full saving accomplishment will be treated later. Here the Christological point stands: the Son of Man’s crucifixion belongs to His revealed identity. He is the lifted-up One.

Christ was crucified according to the Scriptures.

After His resurrection, Jesus rebuked the disciples for being slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). Then beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded the things concerning Himself.

The cross was not a failure of prophecy. It was what the Scriptures had foretold. The suffering of Christ belongs to the biblical witness. The Seed of the woman would have His heel bruised. The rejected stone would become the head of the corner. The Servant would suffer. The Shepherd would be smitten. The pierced One would be mourned. The Messiah would be cut off, but not for Himself.

The crucified Christ is therefore the Christ of Scripture. A messiah without suffering is not the biblical Messiah. A Christ without a cross is not the Christ Jesus expounded from Moses and the prophets.

This is why the disciples had to be corrected. They had hoped for redemption, but they had not understood the necessity of suffering. Christ teaches them that the glory comes through the suffering appointed in Scripture.

The cross is not a contradiction of messiahship. It is essential to it.

Paul says, “we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The cross offends human pride.

To those seeking signs of power on their own terms, a crucified Christ appears weak. To those seeking wisdom according to the world, a crucified Christ appears foolish. Men want glory without shame, salvation without judgment, God without holiness, kingdom without repentance, and Christ without a cross.

But God has chosen to reveal His wisdom and power in Christ crucified.

This must shape the church’s message. The church must not hide the cross to make Christ more acceptable. It must not preach Christ merely as moral teacher, cultural symbol, political mascot, healer, example, or religious inspiration. The apostolic message is Christ crucified.

That does not mean every sermon says everything about the atonement at once. But it does mean the Christ preached by the church is never detached from the cross. The crucified Christ is the wisdom and power of God.

The crucified Christ is not a failed Christ.

His enemies thought they had silenced Him. The rulers mocked. The soldiers gambled. The crowds wagged their heads. The disciples scattered. The tomb was sealed.

But none of this meant His mission had failed. He had said beforehand that the Son of Man must suffer. He had set His face toward Jerusalem. He had told His disciples He would be delivered, killed, and raised again. He had said no man would take His life from Him, but that He would lay it down of Himself.

The cross is not Christ losing control. It is Christ obeying unto death.

This does not lessen the wickedness of those who crucified Him. Their sin is real. But their sin does not rule the story. God does. Christ does. The cross is the place where human rebellion and divine purpose meet, and divine purpose is not defeated.

The Christ who is crucified is not overthrown. He is accomplishing the work given Him by the Father.

The church must remain near the cross.

Not because the cross is the only truth about Christ, but because no truth about Christ is rightly understood without it. His incarnation moves toward it. His obedience climaxes there. His priesthood centers there. His kingship is mocked there and vindicated beyond it. His servanthood is displayed there. His love is revealed there. His glory shines there in the form Scripture gives.

A church that speaks much of Christ but little of Christ crucified will soon speak of another Christ. It may speak of a therapist Christ, a political Christ, a sentimental Christ, a prosperity Christ, an example-only Christ, or a vague spiritual Christ. But the apostolic Christ is crucified.

This is why Paul determined not to know anything among the Corinthians “save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). He did not mean he never taught resurrection, holiness, church order, gifts, judgment, or hope. He meant the crucified Christ stood at the center of his message.

The church has no better center.

The cross belongs in the doctrine of Christ because it reveals the person of Christ in His mission.

The One crucified is the Lord of glory.

The Son given by the Father.

The Son who gives Himself.

The obedient One unto death.

The sinless One numbered with transgressors.

The rejected King.

The suffering Servant.

The Priest who offers Himself.

The Lamb of God.

The Shepherd who gives His life.

The Bridegroom who loves His bride.

The lifted-up Son of Man.

The Christ of Scripture.

The wisdom and power of God.

The next chapters will unfold Christ as Prophet, Priest, King, Mediator, Servant, Shepherd, Bridegroom, and Head. But none of those offices can be understood apart from the cross. The Prophet is rejected. The Priest offers Himself. The King is crowned with thorns. The Mediator gives Himself. The Servant suffers. The Shepherd lays down His life. The Bridegroom loves and gives Himself. The Head purchases and nourishes His body.

Volume 6 will ask what the cross accomplishes.

This chapter has asked who the crucified One is.

He is Christ crucified.

The Lord of glory.

The Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.