0:00

I've heard a million sermons

0:02

about the nails and the

0:04

thorns, and granted, the physical

0:06

agony of crucifixion is a

0:09

ghastly thing. But there's been thousands of

0:11

people who have died on the cross,

0:13

but only one has received

0:15

the full measure of the curse

0:18

of God while on that cross.

0:21

I doubt if Jesus was even

0:23

aware of the nails and

0:25

the spear. He was so overwhelmed

0:28

by the outer darkness. Jesus'

0:37

death upon the cross at the

0:39

hands of the Romans was torture.

0:42

It was brutal, but what

0:44

was inflicted by man cannot compare

0:47

to his being forsaken by God

0:49

the Father, him becoming a curse

0:51

for us. And that's

0:53

what we'll reflect on today on this

0:55

Good Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

0:59

All week, R.C. Sproul has helped us

1:01

to reflect on the cross of Christ,

1:03

from our need for an atonement to

1:05

how we receive the salvation He secured

1:07

for us. And you can

1:10

revisit those messages and study this

1:12

topic in greater detail when you

1:14

request this week's special offer at

1:17

renewingyourmind.org. So

1:19

what was Jesus experiencing on the cross?

1:22

Why did He become a curse for

1:24

us? Looking

1:26

back to important Old Testament imagery

1:28

and then returning to the New

1:31

Testament, here's Dr. Sproul with a

1:33

message, blessing or curse? When

1:39

we consider the cross of

1:41

Christ, we see

1:43

an event in history that stands

1:45

out with so much importance and

1:47

so much significance that it's easy

1:49

to overlook the

1:51

fact that the cross was

1:53

not an isolated event in

1:56

history that sort of sprung

1:58

up spontaneously. in a

2:00

particular moment in time, sort of being

2:04

born full grown like Athena from

2:06

the head of Zeus. But

2:08

the atonement of Christ is

2:11

the culmination, the climax

2:14

of centuries of redemptive

2:17

history where God had

2:19

set certain things in motion, ages

2:22

and ages before, that then

2:25

reached its acme with

2:27

the death of Christ. Now

2:30

to get a glimpse of one element

2:32

of the atonement, I

2:34

want to direct your attention for a moment way

2:37

back in the Old Testament to

2:39

the book of Deuteronomy where

2:43

part of the terms of the covenant

2:46

that God makes with the people of

2:48

Israel are spelled out. If

2:51

we do a study of the

2:53

elements of a covenant in the

2:55

ancient world, we see that

2:57

though the content of covenants may

2:59

differ from culture to culture, there

3:02

were certain elements and

3:04

aspects of a covenant that

3:06

were virtually universal. Whenever

3:09

a legal agreement like this was

3:11

entered into, the sovereign

3:13

one in the covenant would

3:16

identify himself and give

3:18

a historical prologue

3:21

where he would rehearse the history

3:23

of his relationship to the subordinates

3:25

in the covenant. This would

3:28

be true among the Sumerians and

3:30

the Cadeans and other peoples of antiquity

3:32

as it was with the Jews. And

3:34

so when God would enter into covenant,

3:36

he would identify himself. He

3:39

said, I am Yahweh.

3:41

I am the Lord your

3:43

God who brought

3:46

you up out of the land of

3:48

Egypt, did this and did that. He

3:50

would give this historical prologue and then

3:52

the terms of the covenant would be

3:54

set forth. And with

3:56

the terms of the covenant, we

3:58

call those the stipulations. Any

4:02

covenant has stipulations. When

4:05

you get married, you enter into a covenant,

4:07

then you say, I promise to do certain

4:09

things, to love on or obey and so

4:12

on. Or when you sign an industrial

4:14

contract with an employer, you may say, I

4:16

promise to work eight hours a day and

4:19

he promises to give you so much money

4:21

and so many benefits, so much vacation time.

4:24

This is the first of the stipulations. But in

4:26

the ancient world, every covenant

4:28

had sanctions. And

4:32

we speak of dual sanctions,

4:35

a two-fold sanction. That

4:38

these would be the rewards and

4:42

the penalties. Rewards

4:44

for keeping the

4:46

terms and the stipulations of the

4:48

agreement. These

4:50

if you violated the terms

4:53

of the agreement. Now

4:56

in the Old Testament, the

4:58

reward for keeping

5:01

the covenant was called

5:03

a blessing. And

5:06

the penalty for violating the

5:08

contract was called a curse.

5:11

Now let me just direct your attention for a

5:13

second to chapter 28 of the book of Deuteronomy,

5:19

where God is speaking and he says,

5:22

if you fully obey

5:24

the Lord your God and

5:27

carefully follow all his commands that I

5:29

give you today, the Lord

5:31

your God will set you high above all

5:33

of the nations of the earth. And

5:36

all these blessings will come upon

5:38

you and accompany you

5:40

if you obey the Lord your

5:43

God. Now listen to this litany.

5:46

You will be blessed in the city and

5:49

blessed in the country. The

5:51

fruit of your womb will be blessed. The crops

5:53

of your land, the young of your livestock, the

5:55

calves of your herd, the lambs of your flock,

5:57

your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6:00

you will be blessed when you come in and

6:02

blessed when you will go out. And so do

6:05

you see the litany? It's like if

6:07

you keep these terms. If you obey

6:09

the commandments that God is giving as

6:11

part of the stipulations of this agreement.

6:16

If you obey, I'll bless you when

6:18

you stand up, I'll bless you when you sit down, I'll bless

6:20

you when you roll over, I'll bless you when you're silent, I'll

6:22

bless you when you speak, I'll bless you when you're in a

6:24

city, I'll bless you in a highway,

6:27

I'll bless you when you're on the seas. Everywhere you go, everything you do,

6:29

you'll get blessed. Then we

6:32

turn the page, right? Where

6:36

we get to that scary part that

6:39

says, however, verse

6:42

15, however,

6:45

if you do not obey

6:47

the Lord your God and

6:50

do not carefully follow all His

6:52

commands and decrees I'm giving you

6:54

today, all of

6:56

these curses will

6:58

come upon you and overtake

7:01

you. You will

7:03

be cursed in the city and

7:05

cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading

7:07

trough will be cursed, the fruit of your womb

7:10

will be cursed, and the crops of your lands,

7:12

the calves of your herds, the lands of your

7:14

flocks, you will be cursed when you come in

7:16

and cursed when you go out. You see the

7:19

parallel there, and anesthetical

7:21

parallelism. If you obey,

7:23

you're blessed. If you disobey, when you stand up, you'll

7:25

be cursed. When you sit down, you'll be cursed. When you

7:27

go in the city, you'll be cursed. In the country, you'll

7:29

be cursed. In the sea, you'll be cursed. You know,

7:31

your children will be cursed. Your sheep

7:34

will be cursed. Your dogs will be cursed. Your

7:36

cattle will be cursed. Your baker

7:38

will be cursed. Curse everywhere, right?

7:42

The concept of blessedness is

7:44

understood in terms of the nearness,

7:47

the proximity, the

7:50

presence of God. Conversely,

7:54

the curse of the covenant is

7:57

to be cut off from the

7:59

dead. the presence of God, to

8:02

never see the light

8:04

of His countenance, to

8:07

be cast into the

8:09

outer darkness.

8:14

That's how the Jew understood

8:16

the curse. Now

8:20

when the Jew would describe the situation

8:23

of the Gentile in the Old Testament,

8:25

he would say that the Gentile is

8:28

a stranger to the covenant. He

8:31

is a pilgrim. He's a sojourner.

8:33

He's foreign to the household of

8:36

Israel. When

8:38

the Day of Atonement took place in

8:41

the Old Testament ceremony, we

8:43

know that the lamb was

8:46

sacrificed on the altar.

8:48

It's a blood offering. But

8:51

what happened to the scapegoat? The

8:57

sins of the nation were

8:59

ceremonially transferred to the back

9:01

of the goat, and

9:04

the significant thing is what happens to

9:06

the goat? Why

9:09

isn't the goat killed? That

9:11

symbolism is taken care of with the lamb.

9:14

But the goat is sent outside

9:18

the camp. He's

9:21

driven into the wilderness,

9:23

into the place of darkness, into

9:26

the place that is removed from

9:28

the light of God's countenance, into

9:32

the outer darkness. Now

9:36

that, because of the constraints of

9:38

time, is the tip of

9:41

the iceberg, you hope you understand, of

9:43

the dynamic that's going on in the

9:45

Old Testament symbolism

9:47

of blessing and curse.

9:50

So let's turn now quickly to

9:52

the New Testament, to one of

9:54

the most extraordinary statements that we

9:56

read from the Apostle Paul with

9:58

respect to the cross. cross of

10:00

Christ that we find in

10:03

Paul's letter to the Galatians. In

10:05

the third chapter, he

10:09

reminds us of the covenant that God made

10:11

with Abraham and how that when God called

10:14

Abraham, he called Abraham and

10:16

blessed Abraham and said, Abraham,

10:19

you are blessed for what?

10:23

To be a blessing

10:28

so that through you all

10:30

of the nations of the world

10:32

will be blessed. That

10:35

is through what I do with you Abraham

10:37

and what comes out of this, I'm going

10:40

to spread out this blessedness from the center

10:42

and I'm going to let it pour out

10:44

and over all of the nations

10:46

of the world. Now,

10:51

all nations will be blessed through

10:53

you so those who have faith

10:55

are blessed along with

10:57

Abraham, the man of faith. All

11:01

who rely on observing the

11:03

law that is trying

11:06

to achieve a relationship

11:08

with God by trusting in

11:10

their own good works and

11:12

their own performance are

11:16

under a curse. For

11:19

it is written, cursed is

11:21

everyone who does not continue to

11:23

do everything written

11:26

in the book of the law. Paul

11:29

is thinking back in Deuteronomy. He's

11:31

remembering the terms of the covenant. If

11:33

you don't keep every one

11:35

of these laws, you're under the

11:38

curse. And

11:43

then he says, clearly no one

11:46

is justified before God by the

11:48

law for the

11:50

just shall live by

11:53

faith. The law

11:55

is not based on

11:58

faith. On the contrary, the man who

12:00

does these things will live by them." Now

12:02

here it comes. Christ

12:05

redeemed us from the curse

12:07

of the law by

12:10

becoming a curse for

12:13

us. Christ

12:17

redeemed us from the curse of

12:20

the law by becoming

12:22

a curse for

12:24

us, as it is written, cursed

12:27

is everyone who

12:30

is hung upon the tree.

12:34

What Paul now says is that in

12:37

the cross, Christ

12:40

becomes a

12:43

curse for

12:46

us. That

12:50

all of the sanctions of

12:53

the penalties of the law are

12:56

born by Jesus. And

12:59

he cites this strange statement,

13:01

cursed is everyone who hangs

13:03

upon the tree. And

13:06

if you go back into the

13:08

Old Testament, there were certain negative

13:10

sanctions that were imposed for certain

13:12

kinds of situations that were considered

13:15

sacrilegious or

13:17

desecration, where a person

13:19

was becoming unclean. The

13:21

Gentile was unclean. He was

13:24

outside the king. Now

13:27

if you look at the intricacy

13:29

of the drama of the

13:32

events of the crucifixion of Jesus, there

13:35

are some amazing things that take

13:38

place so that Old

13:40

Testament prophetic utterances are

13:42

fulfilled to the minutest

13:44

detail. In

13:47

the first instance, the Bible says

13:50

that the Messiah will

13:53

be delivered to the Gentiles

13:55

for judgment. It just

13:57

so happened in the course of history that

13:59

Jesus is put on trial

14:01

during a time of Roman

14:03

occupation. Where

14:06

the Romans, though they allowed a certain

14:08

amount of home rule to their conquered

14:10

vassals, did not permit

14:12

the death penalty to be imposed

14:15

by the local rulers. And

14:18

so the Jews did not have the

14:20

authority to put Christ to

14:23

death. The only thing

14:25

they could do would be to

14:27

meet in counsel and deliver Jesus

14:29

to Pilate, and get Pilate

14:32

to do it. And so

14:34

Jesus is delivered from

14:36

his own people to the Gentiles

14:38

who are where? Outside

14:42

the camp. He

14:46

is delivered into the hands of the

14:48

pagan. Outside

14:50

of where the face of God

14:52

shines. Outside of where the

14:55

light of his countenance falls. And

14:57

he's delivered into their hands for

14:59

judgment. The

15:03

Jews didn't kill or execute by

15:05

crucifixion, they did it by stoning.

15:08

But the Romans do it by

15:10

crucifixion. And

15:13

so the method of Jesus' death

15:15

is by what? Hanging

15:18

upon a tree. The

15:21

Bible doesn't say, cursed

15:23

be everyone who is

15:25

stoned. Cursed

15:28

is everyone who hangs upon the

15:31

tree. Then

15:36

where is the site of the

15:38

actual execution? Outside

15:43

of Jerusalem. So

15:46

that Jesus is first of

15:48

all delivered to the Gentiles for

15:50

judgment, and once he is

15:52

judged, condemned to

15:55

be executed, then he

15:57

is physically led. out

16:00

of the fortress onto

16:03

the Via Dolorosa, outside

16:06

of the walls of

16:08

the city. And

16:11

like the scapegoat is

16:13

driven outside

16:16

the camp, outside of Zion,

16:18

outside of the holy city where

16:21

the presence of God is

16:23

concentrated. He is

16:25

sent into the outer darkness.

16:29

And think again of the

16:32

imagery of the

16:34

cross itself. When

16:36

Jesus is put on the cross, we

16:40

have an astronomical perturbation

16:42

that takes place. In

16:45

the middle of the afternoon, it

16:49

becomes dark. Literally,

16:53

physically dark. Darkness

16:57

descends upon the land.

17:00

And in the midst of the intensity

17:02

of this darkness, which involves some kind

17:05

of blotting out, obscuring, or perhaps even

17:07

an eclipse of the sun, in

17:11

the midst of that physical, literal

17:14

darkness, Jesus cries.

17:19

And what does he cry? My

17:21

God, my God,

17:24

why hast thou forsaken

17:26

me? It's

17:30

one of the most pregnant utterances

17:32

that ever came from the lips of

17:35

Jesus. While he's on the

17:37

cross, there's been all kinds of

17:39

interpretations that Albert Schweitzer looked at

17:41

that and said, here's proof positive

17:43

that Jesus died in disillusionment. He

17:45

had all kinds of expectations that

17:47

God was going to deliver him

17:49

and God let him down in

17:51

the final moments. And so that

17:53

Jesus dies as a disillusioned, tragic

17:55

Shakespearean hero. Or

17:58

Others, notice that. The words of

18:00

course are found verbatim in Song Twenty

18:03

Two and I say will hear Jesus

18:05

as a den of fi himself with

18:07

a suffering servants of saw Twenty Two

18:09

and is reciting poetry on as desperate.

18:13

I don't doubt that the origin for the

18:16

actual worse comes from the Somme and season

18:18

was aware that some I'm sure and reddit

18:20

many, many times. Others

18:22

in my favorite him my ordination him was

18:24

his midnight and on all of his brown.

18:26

I love that him in spite of the

18:28

fi that there is a statement in their

18:30

of heresy. On.

18:32

It talks about Jesus as

18:34

says was not forsaken by

18:36

his God. And

18:39

he says he loves to say

18:41

well Gee says in his humanity

18:43

felt forsaken on the cross. But.

18:47

He was a really for

18:49

sake and I say this

18:51

if Jesus was not really

18:54

forsaken on the cross you

18:56

are still in your since.

18:58

You. Have no redemption. You have

19:00

no salvation Because the whole point

19:02

of the cross is that if

19:05

Jesus is going to bear our

19:07

sins and bear the sanctions of

19:10

the covenant, Let.

19:12

Me ask you this: What was the signs

19:14

of the Old Covenant? Circumcision.

19:19

Talk. About primitive and obscene

19:22

signs. Why?

19:25

Did the Jew cut off the for

19:27

skyn of his flesh? It.

19:30

Had to significance as a

19:32

positive and negative for the

19:34

to sanctions. The

19:37

symbolic gesture of the cutting of

19:39

the for skin was that God

19:41

is cutting out this group of

19:43

people from the rest, separating them,

19:46

setting them apart to be a

19:48

wholly nation to be a blessing.

19:51

The negative is that the jew was

19:54

saying this are got. If

19:56

I fail to keep every one

19:59

of the. Terms of this

20:01

Covenant: may I be cut off

20:03

from you. Cut off from your

20:05

presence, Cut off from the light

20:07

of your continents, Cut off from

20:09

your blessedness Just as I have

20:11

now. Ritual A got off the

20:14

for skin of my flesh. Do.

20:18

You understand that the

20:20

cross is the supreme

20:23

circumcision. Because.

20:25

When Jesus takes the curse

20:28

upon himself so identifies with

20:30

our said that he becomes

20:32

a curse, God cuts him

20:34

off. And. Just

20:37

lay so because it's a

20:39

moment that price tags upon

20:41

himself to send of the

20:43

world's that figure that is

20:45

on the cross is the

20:47

most grotesque, most of seems

20:49

mass of sin concentrated in

20:51

the history of the world

20:53

and God is to holy

20:55

to even look at iniquities.

20:57

And when crisis hugging on

20:59

the cross the father as

21:01

it were turns his back.

21:06

He removes his face. He

21:10

turns out the lights he

21:12

saw of his sons and

21:14

so here is ceases bearing

21:17

the since it touching his

21:19

human nature who has been

21:21

imperfect bless relationship with god

21:23

throughout his ministry now. Gone.

21:28

For. Six. I've.

21:30

Heard a million sermons about

21:32

the nails and the thorns.

21:36

And granted, the physical agony

21:38

of crucifixion is a ghastly

21:41

thing. But.

21:43

There's been thousands of people who

21:45

have died on the cross. But.

21:49

Only one. Has

21:51

received the full measure.

21:54

Of The Curse of. While.

21:57

On that cause. I'd.

22:00

If Jesus was even

22:02

aware of the nails.

22:05

And the spear. He

22:08

was so overwhelmed. By.

22:11

The outer darkness.

22:15

Their Friends on the

22:17

Cross ceases is in.

22:23

Right there. Total.

22:30

A rest of the

22:32

grace and the presence

22:34

of God I hurley

22:36

separated. From

22:38

all blessedness of the for.

22:42

He becomes a

22:45

curse. We.

22:49

Saw that. You.

22:55

Sunday. Will.

22:57

Be able to see the face of God. So

23:01

that the light of his countenance will

23:04

fall on you. Got

23:07

turned his back. On

23:09

is. No

23:12

wonder. He screamed.

23:17

He screen from the deaths of his

23:19

so. How

23:22

long did he have to endure it? A

23:26

second of it is of infant advise.

23:29

It's enough. And

23:32

finally. He

23:34

says. It's and. It's

23:37

finished. It's over what

23:39

His wife. The

23:42

pain of the nails know

23:44

some nice compact. And

23:47

he says in to fly

23:50

here. I

23:52

come in my spare. Credible

23:57

look for it as you read the scriptures.

23:59

Look. For the imagery of

24:01

the curse and the blessing

24:03

because again this is the

24:05

tip of the iceberg every

24:07

time I read it and

24:09

just in awe of what

24:11

happened. That.

24:20

Was our sprawl on this Good

24:22

Friday edition of Renewing Her Mind.

24:24

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24:27

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24:30

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24:56

message was from Our Sea Scrolls

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25:00

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want to? People who holds a

25:45

Reformed theology believe the Bible teaches

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you'll hear messages from Our Sea

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Scrolls series. What is Reformed Theology

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Beginning Monday? Here on Renewing Your

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Mind.