What Christ Bore

GWD Open Bible with Sunshine

GOD’S WORD DAILY

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 141 APRIL 1, 2002

JESUS CHRIST:
The Foundation of Our Faith

VICTORY IN CHRIST;
The Cross He Bore!

PART THREE

Today we continue Cathy, LucySunshine's teaching from Isaiah 53. I transition into her
teaching with the bracketed statements.

     [What was the cross Christ bore? Some suppose that Jesus bore the wooden cross he
     was crucified upon. Three gospel records clearly indicate that a man named Simon
     of Cyrene bore the cross after him. As they lead Jesus away from Pilate's judgment
     seat where he was beaten, as they came out of that place, they made Simon carry
     his cross all the way until they reached the place where he was crucified.]

Matt 27:32

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene,
Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

33 And when they were come unto a place called
Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull...

35 And they crucified him...

Mark 15:20b, 21

...and led him out to crucify him.

          21 And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by,
          coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus,
          to bear his cross.

Luke 23:26

          And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon,
          a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid
          the cross, that he might bear it after [Greek: "opisthen,"
          meaning:" from the rear of"]Jesus.

     [A prevalent teaching is that Simon bore the cross after Jesus bore it and could not carry it any
     longer. The Greek word for "after" indicates, instead, that Simon carried the cross behind
     Jesus, or from the rear of Jesus, not after him in succession of time. Also, these verses describe
     that as they left the place where Jesus was scourged by Pilate, they found Simon and made him
     carry the cross. He was probably the first sucker that passed by the door of the judgment hall
     as they came out of it! As they came out, the soldiers decided to get Simon to do the dirty work
     of bearing this heavy instrument of death.

     Remember, also, by this time, Jesus had been kept awake for a long time, all night long in the
     judgment hall, questioned by Pilate, harassed by the crowd, beaten and ruthlessly tortured. After
     all of that, wouldn't Jesus be too fatigued and too brutilized to carry such a heavy load on his
      open sores, and bloody, wounded back?

Then what was the cross Jesus Christ bore?

John 19:16b-18a

...And they took Jesus, and led him away.

17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called
the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

18 Where they crucified him...

Isaiah 53:11b, 12b

...for he shall bear their iniquities.

          ...he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was
          numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of
          many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Simon and Jesus did not carry the same cross.
Simon bore the physical cross behind Jesus
on the way from the judgment hall to Golgatha.
Jesus carried a spiritual cross to the same place.]

     "The cross Jesus bore was composed of our sins and our transgressions. If it had
     been a wooden cross, what good would that have accomplished? He did not bear
     a piece of wood nor a tree. He bore our sins! Note that Colossians and Isaiah tell
     in part, at least, about the kind of cross Jesus bore." 1.

Colossians 2:14

          Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances [The Law
          and bondage of legalism] that was contrary to us,
          and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross.

Isaiah 53:6

          All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned
          every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid
          on him the iniquity of us all.

"He took all the faults that were against us-the transgressions, the sins, the bondage,
the sickness and the pain-and made them a part of His cross. "2

2 Corinthians 5:21

          "For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us
          .....that we might be made the righteousness of God in
          him [that we might be made as righteous as God].

Isn't that wonderful! You ask, "Me, as righteous as God ?" Yes, you!"

(See Galatians 5:1)

     "Jesus bore that cross of bondage, the law, just for you and for me that we need not live
     under that bondage, "which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear," according
     to Acts 15:10.

Not only was Jesus' cross composed of our transgressions and sins, plus the bondage of
the law, but also of our sicknesses. [Matthew 8:16, 17].

He became sickness just like he became sin. The very last clause of Isaiah 53:5 says,
"...and with his stripes we are healed."

      The cross of Jesus-what was it? John says they "led him away. And he
     bearing his cross....." The cross Jesus bore was of sin , bondage, sickness and pain. A
     wooden cross could not accomplish anything, but the cross of Jesus did much."3

And that was fellowship this morning. Have a blessed week!

-Cathy, Lucy Sunshine

Galatians 5:1

          Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
          Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
          again with the yoke of bondage.

FOOTNOTES

     1. The Word's Way, by Victor Paul Weirwille;
     published by American Christian Press, 1971; chapter 14,
     "Simon of Cyrene and the Cross Christ Bore," page 224.

2. Ibid. pages 224, 225

3. Ibid. pages 226, 227

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