Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Turn your thoughts today to the cross of Christ, in a special sense. Contemplate what crucifixion meant in the days of the old Roman Empire. It was the utmost humiliation that could be inflicted on a human being. Dear old Moses didn't help in that regard, for he had said that "if a man ... is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ... he who is hanged is accursed of God" (Deut. 21:22, 23).
How many innocent people have been crucified in ancient times under the impression that they were "cursed of God"? No one knows. But that was exactly what the leaders of the true church in the time of Jesus projected onto Him. Those Sanhedrin members, the scribes and Pharisees, couldn't wait to get Him on that pole, and when He was crucified they probably laughed and congratulated each other, "See, this is proof, even the great Moses said that anyone 'hanged on a tree is cursed of God.' Hooray, now we know for sure that this Jesus of Nazareth is 'cursed of God.'" In the Roman Empire, their victims were subjected to the utmost ridicule and indignity possible--they were invariably crucified naked.
And the disciples had to fan out around the world with the message of "Christ and Him crucified," a message that to Jews seemed a "stumbling block" and to the Gentile world, "foolishness." The apostles therefore had everything against them, everything that is, except the Holy Spirit. When Paul said to everyone, "I have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20), he was proclaiming a message that seemed to be utter nonsense.
When the divine Son of God came to this world incarnate, "we" humans could think of nothing better to do to Him! Paul says that "the carnal mind is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), and the apostle John says that "enmity" equals murder (1 John 3:15), so the inspired conclusion is that we all have had our share in the crucifixion of the Son of God. We have not finished "confessing our sins" until we confess that one!
But Jesus says that "[we] know not what [we] do" (cf. Luke 23:34), and therefore He prayed to the Father to forgive us, and He did.
Pray that the Holy Spirit may arrest us with the genuine conviction of guilt in truth! Because with it comes the inestimable gift of repentance and forgiveness.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 5, 2009.
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