Thanks Be to God

Before you start todays devotional, ask the Lord to use it to grow you up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Cross of Jesus Christ is both the greatest tragedy of the ages and the most glorious victory of earth and heaven. All of creation and the purposes of God from all eternity have moved towards this moment.

The horrific scenes are hard to watch, but the cruel injustice should not make us pity Jesus. He doesn’t want our sympathy—He wants our faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Read Romans 10:9-10.)

Now in Mark 15, the Sanhedrin had condemned Jesus to die, but only Rome could carry out the execution. Pilate, their Roman connection, was motivated by expediency rather than justice. He knew the charges brought against Jesus were false, but he yielded to the mob and delivered Jesus to be crucified.

Jesus was turned over to brutal soldiers who humiliated and tortured Him. Jesus was a strong, muscular young man, but they beat Him viciously—which is why they needed to pull a man out of the crowd to carry Jesus’ crossbeam. Theirs was more than ordinary human hatred; it was brutal and cruel, revealing the sinful depths of the human heart.

No Gospel writer records the details of the Crucifixion; we only get snapshots. God drew a veil over the scene as if to say, “It’s too horrible.”

Mark gives us the Crucifixion by the clock. The first three hours were from 9 a.m. until 12 noon; the second three hours were from 12 noon to 3 p.m.

Jesus suffered at man’s hands in the first three hours; He suffered for man in the last three hours. In the first three hours, He was dying because of sin; in the second three hours, He was dying for the sin of the world. In those first three hours, sin did all it could to destroy Him; in the second three hours, He made His soul an offering for sin. He paid for the sins of the world by becoming sin for us. He was forsaken of God and yet, even at that time, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself (read 2 Corinthians 5:19). What a paradox!

Then when our salvation was complete, Jesus cried out and gave His last breath. He did not die because the bodily organs refused to function. He dismissed His spirit. This made His death different from ours even in a physical sense.

Jesus died right before the Sabbath began on Friday evening. The Sabbath ended at sundown on Saturday. Now, before dawn on Sunday morning, the same women who were with Jesus at the Cross came to His tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. But they were never able to use their oils and spices because when they got to the tomb, Jesus was gone—He was alive again.

Mary Magdalene lingered at the tomb and was the first one Jesus greeted in His resurrected body. When she told the disciples that Jesus was alive, they didn't believe her.

Believing that Jesus, in His body, rose from the dead is the heart and core doctrine of what it means to be a Christian. Every sermon in the book of Acts is a message on the Resurrection. The early church talked and thought about it constantly. The message that Jesus rose from the dead electrified a lethargic and sinful generation in the Roman Empire. It turned them upside down, wrong side out, and right side up; and those who believed went out to tell the world about it.

This is the Gospel of action. May we be men and women of action for God!

1. Jesus’ death on the cross is a fact of history, but it is also so much more than that. What are some of the ramifications for us of the Son of God giving up His life on our behalf?

2. Why do you think Jesus did not defend Himself against the false charges brought against Him?

3. Why is it significant that Jesus gave up His spirit rather than having His life taken from Him?

Additional Resources

Listen to Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s complete teachings on Mark 15:1-37 and Mark 15:38—16:20.