The Crucifixion
There is only one place where we can have a secure footing. Look back in time to the crucifixion of Christ. Upon the central cross hangs One who certainly did not deserve such a place. He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), and only good. He was none other than the Son of God. In His life among men He was, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). But on Calvary He was “numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12), numbered with them by an unjust verdict, though not of them. But in being given a place among them He fulfilled all that had been prophesied by the Old Testament prophets long before.
He died, but in His death He is as different from those crucified with Him as He had been in His life. They acknowledged their condemnation to be a just one while He, at the end of the three hours of darkness, cries, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34).He took our sins on Himself, and now we have a perfect and firm standing before God as a result. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
