Do any of you know where this word came from or what it means? (The title is the word) The literal translation of this word from its original language is, "from the cross" or "from crucifixion. Most often in our modern language we use this term when we are describing some sort of pain. I guess this is an appropriate use of the term minus the fact that none of us have ever felt the pain of the cross and therefore shouldn't be equating our menial pain to that of the cross. But it is used accurately in the sense of the word being created to describe pain. Interestingly, pain is not the only thing which happened on the cross.
There are a lot of chapters in the old testament about sacrifices and offerings. There were 600 something laws scribed in the old testament. The point of a sacrifice was to make you right with God; to make you once again pure. But then there were also the sacrifices as part of the annual festivals/celebrations which were designed to constantly remind people of Gods existence but on the flip side it also reminded them of their sins constantly. The laws were perfect in their time and were designed for the purpose of salvation. Before the death of Christ the Holy Spirit was with God and not with the people and therefore made salvation based on an individuals submission/obedience to the laws. Please keep this message in context to the whole message, don't start taking things like the most previous statement out of context.
There was a law written about redemption of gifts offered to the LORD in Leviticus 27. The law is written in way which makes redeeming your sacrifice to God possible through purchase. For example, let's say you were suppose to sacrifice a bull as a sin offering, but you choose to keep the bull instead. Per this law, it is OK to do so as long as you pay the church the full price of the bull plus 20%. Under this law your sin is still forgiven but the whole pleasing aroma to the LORD did not happen. However, the exception to the law is in verse 28, "However, anything specially set apart for the LORD-whether a person, an animal or family property-must never be sold or bought back. Anything devoted in this way has been set apart as holy and it belongs to the LORD." Now you are asking how this relates to excruciating but follow along.
As we continue on in the bible we come to the time of Jesus. Yes I skipped like 500 pages, I know. Jesus spends his time on earth teaching and preaching and being perfect in every way. One of the stipulations for the offerings/sacrifices to God was perfection; the animals, the grain and the wine all had to be perfect in order to be presented to God. Christ being perfect in every way was acceptable to God as a sacrifice. Please understand this, you are not perfect, hence it wasn't your butt on the cross. Your grandfathers, grandfathers grandmother wasn't perfect, therefore it was not her butt on the cross either. Paul was not perfect or John the Baptist either, it was and can only ever be Christ as the sacrifice.
The whole thing about sacrifices and redemption through those sacrifices was flawed, thus Christ on the cross. In Romans 8:1-4 it tells us the law was flawed. Romans 8 says "God did what the law could not do." And in Hebrews 10:1-10 it shows the flaw with the law and it inability to provide complete redemption. The law ended the day Christ was nailed to the cross; hung naked in excruciating pain. As Christ died he declared it was finished. All the sacrifices, the pain, suffering and condemnation is finished because of the moment he died.
How uncomfortable would it be if I told you how you cause the excruciating pain to come back to Christ? Even though many of us think we are Christians we often get confused when we are asked to define our religion. Partly because God didn't want religion so right off the bat we are wrong, but also we focus so much on what God does for us when we describe our faith. We say things like, "Yeah I am a Christian. God has blessed me so much…" But some blessing, though allowed by God, are not always given by God. For example, some riches come from a place of darkness because it pulls you further from the father which causes His heart to hurt with excruciating pain. Some of those blessing are a curse only because of the way we use them. God allowed those things into your life because they have the potential to be used to glorify His name. But when we praise Him for those things but don't glorify His name with them, we give the darkness more room to grow and blaspheme His name.
I am sorry for this blog ending abruptly, but it will have to be finished later. Internet is very precious and about to end, therefore the blog must end here for now.
As He leads me,
Jason
