THE PLAN OF THE CROSS

Who planned the cross in the first place?!  After reading just the first several chapters in this study, I trust you are beginning to get more of the BIG PICTURE about the death of Christ. I hope that you are seeing afresh Who was really in control of all of all of these events - right down to the smallest of details.  These were not the capricious acts of men but the carefully orchestrated acts of the sovereign God of the universe.

 

It is crucial to see that the crucifixion of Christ was not just some unexpected fluke of fate. It was not the manifestation of cruel circumstances befalling an unsuspecting innocent victim. Neither was the crucifixion of Christ the plan of the Romans – even though they had perfected this cruel method of capital punishment. Nor was it the plan of the Jews – making anti-Semitism in any form a totally wrong prejudice.  The Jews of the day were no more “Christ-killers” than the rest of sinful humanity.  And the crucifixion was certainly not the result of some premeditated plan of the people who had gone from proclaiming “Hosanna!” to “crucify Him!” – in less than a week’s time!  Nor was the crucifixion the result of the heinous hand of Satan – although his manipulating presence was actively animating many of the people involved – especially Judas whom he possessed.  But any of these perspectives in and of themselves completely miss the central spiritual point in the Passion of Christ.

No.  The Passion Week was not some unexpected and out-of-control series of dark and diabolical events in human history.  This was not just the perverted passion of sinful man at work.  There was another sovereign hand and foreordained plan that was behind all of these events. This was not just the Passion of Christ that was being revealed. It was first and foremost the Passion of God!  As we have already seen, He had been planning this atoning sacrifice from the eons of eternity past. All of these events – even to the most minute detail, were the sovereign plan of the Triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Contrary to what some people wrongly believe, the old covenant sacrifices – and the crucifixion of Christ, do not reveal a cruel and angry “blood-thirsty God.” Quite the opposite is true. They reveal the Passion of the Triune God.  Let’s pause to see how each member of the Trinity was involved in the redemption story.

First, as we saw earlier, it was the Passion of God the Father who made provision for the first substitutionary atonement in the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. This was because of His love, mercy and grace – all of which reveal the God’s Passion for lost and sinful man. It was this Passion of the Abba Father, who “…so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Secondly, it was the Passion of Christ that compelled Him to give His life for the sins of the world. When speaking as the “Good Shepherd,” Jesus said this about His pending death:

“I am the good shepherd…I lay down my life for the sheep…The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father”(John 10:14-18).

Thirdly, it was through the Passion of the Holy Spirit that the atoning sacrifice of Christ took place on the cross. The writer of Hebrews expressed this redemptive truth with these profound words:

“…Christ…entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption… who, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself unblemished to God…so that we may serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:12-14).

The Apostle Peter further amplified the Spirit’s role in the plan of redemption this way:

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit…” (I Peter 3:18).

Therefore, if we only see the Passion of Christ, we are only seeing one third of the story. The total story of redemption is the Passion of the Father…the Passion of the Son…the Passion of the Spirit!

I also want you to carefully notice how the ancient Messianic prophecy of Isaiah clearly reveals how the hand of God was fulfilling the plan of God in the crucifixion. Read this very familiar passage again carefully and prayerfully:

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering…Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we consider Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities…Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer…” (Isaiah 53:3-5, 10)

On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached this same truth to the Jews – many of whom had cried out for the crucifixion of Jesus. Listen to his words…

“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross” (Acts 2:22-23).

Later in the Temple Colonnade Peter preached a similar sermon to the Jews:

“The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned Him before Pilate, though he had decided to let Him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:13-19).

There is one more similar example in Acts. Peter and John had been arrested for continuing to preach about Jesus and His resurrection – directly disobeying the orders of the Jewish leaders. When they were released, they found their fellow believers and made a report. This provoked a spontaneous prayer and praise service among them.  Listen to what they prayed:

“Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.’

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:24-30).

In these verses from Acts, we see the mystery of sovereignty and free will both in operation simultaneously. In reality they are two sides of the same theological coin. But it is God who holds the coin in His hand – not man!  And if we are honest, we have to confess that there is a great mystery here that goes beyond our full comprehension.

But in spite of God’s sovereign role in all of these events, there can be no misunderstanding of the human role in the crucifixion of Christ. All of the people are carefully mentioned who took part – Herod, Pilate, Jews, Gentiles.  Thus, human guilt and culpability cannot be excused or rationalized.  None of these people were mindless preprogrammed robots carrying out plans they had no control over.  Through an act of their wills, they each played a very conscious volitional role in all of these events.  So they are neither innocent or guiltless before God. man or the bar of human history.

However, behind all of these humanly orchestrated events, there is the controlling hand of the sovereign God.  Although He gives man the freedom for the full expression of the evil of the human heart, He is at the same time superintending His foreordained will over all of these horrific events.  He is transmuting them by His grace for His glory and for our eternal good.  So in the crucifixion of Christ we see actively at work the hand of man and the Hand of God. However, God always maintains the “upper hand.”

Notice then, how Peter and the disciples clearly acknowledge in their prayer the dual role of man and God in the crucifixion events. He specifically mentions the role of Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the Jews, as they prayerfully recount the crucifixion events. While not minimizing the role and responsibility of the Romans, Jews and Gentiles, they ultimately fulfilled the sovereign plan of God that was being fulfilled: “They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

The Apostle Paul affirmed this same truth when he wrote to encourage two young ministers, Timothy and Titus, to be faithful in their calling – even in the face of persecution and suffering. He reminded both of them that God’s plan for the Christ to suffer and die originated before time began:

• “Do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord…join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (II Tim. 1:8-10).

•  “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect…a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at His appointed season He brought His word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior” (Titus 1:1-3).

So who planned the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? Not Herod. Not Pilate. Not the Sanhedrin. Not the Gentiles. It was God who planned it from the very foundations of the world! And what God plans, God fulfills – but only in His own time and way.  These divine sovereign interventions are the kairos moments in human history that ultimately make it His-Story (*).  As the Psalmist proclaimed: “The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:11).

The conclusions then are unmistakable from a Biblical perspective: Jesus Christ was clearly “…the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). That’s when the first chapter of the Passion of Christ was written. That’s why the Gospel song rightly says: “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind!”  Or to quote the doxology that the Apostle Paul penned about God’s passion for us before the creation of the world:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will – to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ to put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:3-1).

The Gospel song writer captured something of the truth of Christ’s Passion when he wrote:

“Alas, and did my Savior bleed; and did my Sovereign die;
Would He devote that sacred head for such a one as I?
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away;’
It was there by faith I received my sight;
And now I am happy all the day.”
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(*) For a further study of this subject, read my book What Time Is It?