Each month, we are releasing chapters from Dylan DeMarsico’s upcoming book “Made Perfect”. Due out Christmas 2020. The following is chapter two…enjoy!
The Cross
“It is finished.”
– Jesus Christ (John 19:30)
The greatest event in the history of the world is when Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, was crucified. From the beginning of time, to the end of the world, this cosmic event overrides everything else. The cross is where the children of God find healing, hope, and a power that knows no end. It is here that we were made perfect.
Even though we trusted the devil’s words and fell into terrible darkness, God decided to do the most incredible thing for us. “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Even when we ran off like lost sheep, the good Shepherd came running after us to save us (Luke 15:3-7).
It’s amazing how deep and how wide the heart of Jesus is for us. Remember . . . Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit had a dream for us. They created us to be a part of the Divine Family; to be sons and daughters of God. Even though we fell away into this horrible lie of the devil, Jesus never forgot His dream for us.
The Father, Son, and Spirit planned to reveal Their heart through the death of Jesus Christ. What the enemy meant for the darkest day in human history, God turned into the greatest day in the entire universe! It was on the cross that the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world (John 1:29). All of the sin, sorrow, and shame of this world was absorbed into the broken body of Jesus Christ.
There was never a moment where the depths of God’s love were revealed so much as the crucifixion of Christ. As He was being murdered by His own creatures that He made, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Even in the face of the worst sin of all—murdering the Son of God—He still tenderly loved us.
His love is so vast. It’s deeper than the oceans and wider than outer space.
You probably sometimes feel like Jesus doesn’t love you. You’ve probably done things or do things that make this very difficult to take in. But can you imagine actually killing Him, and Him still having His heart wide open to you?
He sees beyond all your stuff. He sees the real you. And He’s in love with you.
This is why Paul could confidently say, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). The cross revealed the love that God always had for us, even from before the world began.
The human race became blind to this love, but the cross came like a flashing light, illuminating us once more to love that existed in the heart of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Through His Son’s gracious and kind act, God spoke very clearly to us (Hebrews 1:2). The prophets of the Old Testament had spoken beforehand, but nobody spoke clearly about God’s heart. Only the original Word, who has been with God in the beginning—the only One who had ever truly seen God—has spoken clearly (John 1:1;18).
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. His love and His cross are bigger than all the sin on this planet combined. Sin really screwed up the world, but still, the cross of Jesus Christ is greater. Paul wrote, “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Romans 5:15). No one can stop God’s plan to redeem the human race.
Song of the Lamb
Revelation 5 gives us a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ’s victory on the cross. The apostle John was given a vision where we saw that nobody in the universe was able to open this special scroll in God’s hand. John wept and wept because he felt so hopeless and helpless about this.
But then an elder said to John, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered” (Revelation 5:5). And when John looked closer, he “saw a Lamb standing, as though it has been slain” (Revelation 5:6). The Lamb was a symbol for Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God. John saw how Jesus, the One who was crucified, was the only One in the universe who had the power to save the world.
And then John saw another scene, delightful and epic. John saw every creature in heaven, on earth, and under the earth singing a new song (Revelation 5:9-14). They were singing to the Father and His Son. They sang, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10).
This is a beautiful picture of what the future holds. All of God’s creatures singing joyful songs about what Jesus Christ did on the cross. By His blood, Jesus purchased us for God. This is the mystery of our existence. God created us for His pleasure, and though we fell and stumbled, His Son died and bled to restore us as His kings and priests on the earth.
We belong to him.
And the cross is the epicenter of the universe.
The Main Thing
There’s an important account of something Jesus taught on the day He rose from the dead. Later that day, in the early evening, Jesus came in a veiled way to two of His disciples who were walking down a road together. They were pondering why Jesus came and why He died on the cross. They didn’t know what to make of all of it, especially as students of the Old Testament who had certain expectations about the Messiah.
Jesus asked the two of them, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” It then says, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:26-27). Jesus explained to them how the whole Bible pointed to Him and His suffering.
All the divine signs and biblical stories from ancient history have pointed to the “main thing,” which is Jesus Christ and the salvation that He provided through His death. Jesus is the main point of all the Scriptures.
Jesus said the same thing in John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.” Again, He is explaining that He is the main thing. His cross is the place to find life. His love is the place to find wholeness.
Paul went to the city of Corinth and decided that he was going to focus on the main thing. He said, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul knew that the message of the cross revealed the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). It’s the only message in the universe with true power. The cross is where you see God’s heart for you.
Paul continued in 1 Corinthians, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24).
The world typically wants two things: signs or wisdom. They want to be dazzled with something impressive or listen to some fancy intellectual message. But the message we preach is a Messiah dying on a cross. To the world this either seems incredibly offensive or absolute nonsense. But to us, it’s the very power of God. The cross is everything to us.
Again, in Galatians, Paul made it clear that he only wanted the cross on the people’s minds. They were being tricked by the devil to try and earn their salvation, when the reality was that it’s a free gift. And so Paul scolded them, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” (Galatians 3:1).
Then at the end of Galatians he wrote, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). That’s where the power is. The God of the universe poured out His love and salvation for the world at the cross.
This was a common deception in the early church and it still exists to this day. It’s taking our focus off the free gift of righteousness—the perfection that Christ died for—and focusing instead on other methods and practices to try and make us happy. This is not good. The only place of satisfaction is the free gift of God’s love displayed on the cross.
Jesus made it clear to the disciples that the cross was to be the main thing for them and for all future believers as well. That’s why He instituted the Lord’s Supper. “Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take; eat; this is My body.’ And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-27).
Jesus was making a new covenant with the world. He was offering His body for the life of the world (John 6:51). Through His sacrifice on the cross, we were revealed as those who are embraced and included in the family of the Trinity. And because of the love He had for us, Jesus left nothing undone. He cried out, “It is finished,” declaring that God’s loving victory for us was fully accomplished (John 19:30).
And this victory is for you. Paul had the confidence to say, “The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is eternally loved by the Father, came to die on the cross for you. Your special and unique life was intimately covered by the outstretched arms of Jesus as He hung on the cross.
His love for you was from before the world began, and it flowed like a river through history and through your life. Nothing can stop His everlasting love for you. He is the one who holds your life together. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). He formed you in your mother’s womb and He cares for you, even in this very moment. The joy of knowing Him is the reason you are alive.