The unique death of Christ

Again Good Friday! Remembrance of Christ’s passion and crucifixion! Every year when we say we remember this day, but we actually don’t. We may go to church, attend the stations of cross or liturgy or Good Friday special mass. Did we ever try to know the actual meaning of death of Christ in its full depth and all perspectives? No, I know you dint, neither did I! Shame on us, the so called Christians!

Here I’m trying to share a few thoughts what I read, heard and think about the death of Christ, the redeemer.

I’ll say the death of Christ was unique, in all respects. No one ever had a death like that. Have you ever heard about any one who was totally aware of the mode and time of his death? With euthanasia, we could choose the mode and time of our death, but we're not masters of our spirits, able to dismiss them and expire. Jesus had that power, and he dismissed his own spirit.

Sometimes the spirit leaves peacefully while the person is asleep. It is quite usual that people who are facing death may show some agony. Sometimes spirit is violently removed, and there's a harrowing battle as the sufferer struggles frantically to hold onto life. John 19:30 (King James Version) says “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” Even as he hung suspended by Roman nails between earth and heaven, he was in control, bringing his life mission to its ultimate climax. In that way it was unique.

With the Old Testament sacrificial system in mind, we can see that Jesus Christ offered not a lamb or a bull but himself in sacrifice to God. Hebrews 9:14 makes it clear to us: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Jesus offered to God his own body - his own life - for our sins. In doing so, he demonstrated his complete obedience to God as his Holy Father, and the complete worthiness of God as the object of his worship. In this respect also his death was unique.

Then comes the mighty act of the God, the almighty! Praise the Lord!

Matthew 27:51-52 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose”

Now, by virtue of the atoning death of Jesus, his people's sins are forgiven and they are granted direct access into God's holy presence. (refer Jeremiah 31) The enormous, thickly lined curtain separating the holy of holies from the holy place was torn in two, symbolising that through the death of Jesus the way into God's immediate presence was open to all, regardless of the distinctions often made between clergy and laity, Jew and Gentile, master and servant, man and woman. All people now had equal access to God and to his salvation, and equal opportunity for worship and service.
The coming of Immanuel has already testified to God's intention to bring that fellowship to full realization. Now, by the rending of the veil, God demonstrates that through Christ's coming and death, the people of God are ushered into the most intimate imaginable fellowship with him. Through his teachings of three and a half years, Jesus himself clarified that the ceremonial deeds in the Old Testament had become obsolete through His coming. In another words, it is a visible demonstration that the temple ritual is no longer needed. Again we can say that His death was unique.

And then the earth shook and rocks were split in pieces! The nature responded to the death of its creator. Burial chambers broke open! Then something occurred that no earthquake could achieve: the bodies of many dead people returned to life! The death of Jesus Christ triggered the resurrection of God's people, and his resurrection guarantees our future resurrection when he returns to earth. There was no other death like it, before or since; in this regard also the death of Jesus was unique.

Jesus left no unfinished work; he accomplished everything he came to do. He completed his monumental mission. Hebrews 2:9 says with majestic simplicity, "In that death, by God's grace, he fully experienced death in every person's place".

Jesus not only died - he died in our place. He died so we could have life. He suffered so you could find peace. He endured the darkness of Calvary so you could experience the light of the Good News. He endured the curse so we could enjoy the blessing. He was alienated from God so we could be reconciled to God.

"There is one God and one mediator between God and men," says Paul to Timothy, "the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).

1 John 2: 15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Thank God for Jesus, and his great love for us! That's the good news of Easter!