Jesus Looking at His Own Cross

A Walk with Paul

#isovs Gu Na3i Ir Qa[in

B0.osi Tidangivnen

Romans 3:21-24

In this coming five weeks we will make a journey to Calvary. The four gospels have more writings about this than anything else. The cross and resurrection is the central theme of the New Testament writings. It is called the Doctrine of Atonement. There are two ways to look at these events.

The Objective understanding means when Christ died on the cross and was risen from the dead, God brought new possibilities for the salvation of humanity from sin and death.

The Subjective understanding is, “What does this event mean to me? How does this event transform my life?”

Each week I will take this topic from a different author’s perspective. Today, we will be taking a walk with Paul.

When we say Paul it means his letters. Paul wrote his letters after 50 AD. His audience ware Jews who were converted to Christianity and Gentiles who were brought up in Greek and Roman cultures.

Paul presents six metaphors relating to the cross and resurrection. I will cover only three of those:

First: The metaphor of the Judge in the Law Court (Romans 3:21-24)

Paul says: “And now a righteousness from God, apart from law (Torah), has been made known….”

Paul is a Jew and he knows what righteousness of God in the Torah means. When he speaks of law, he is talking about the first five books of OT. There are laws, but more than that. Torah is a narrative book where the author is telling the audience stories how God is saving his people. God chooses Abraham, then he and his people go to Egypt; then God rescues his people from there; He walks with them in desert all the way to the Promised Land. It is the story of how God acted in history to save His people. The righteousness of God means God acts to save.

Now Paul describes that the cross and resurrection bring a new and fresh way to bring salvation in history. Then Paul uses the metaphor of Judge.

Imagine, God is the judge, and He is judging the prisoner, the sinner like you and me. He stands up from his chair, takes off his robe, and puts on the prisoner’s robe. He leaves his place and walks around the judging table and comes next to the prisoner looking up to himself where he was sitting before. Then he says, “Your Honor, I will die in the place of this prisoner.”

“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ” (2 Cor 5:19).

God is just and righteous. God is our justifier. He makes justification possible through the cross and the resurrection.

We will continue in English.