HIS PASSION – THE FOUNDATION OF OURS
I. INTRODUCTION
A. 1 John 4:19 gives us the key to understanding how to grow in passion for Jesus. We love Him at a commensurate
degree to the amount of our understanding of His love for us. In others words our love is not a self generated exertion
of mental energy. Our ability to love God is a response to reception and understanding of His love for us. David reflects
this truth in his prayer in Psalm 119:32, “Enlarge my heart that I might run the course of Your commands.”
We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart. (Psalm 119:32)
B. The reception and understanding of this love is more than subjective warm feeling. John has previously defined
the love of God which elicits the highest responses of love in the human heart. The Cross of Christ is the place which
you visibly witness the love of God to the uttermost.
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
C. The Cross is God’s big “YES!” to humanity. The Cross is a statement of God’s desire for and commitment to human
beings. It is the official stamp of His love. It is the place where humanity was eternally affirmed in the heart of God and
before the eyes of all.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. (John 15:13)
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will
one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. (Romans 5:6-9)
D. The Cross produces great affection in the heart of the individual believer. To ponder the Excellencies of Christ on
Calvary is to find the wellspring of all charitable emotion. The Cross becomes the object of meditation for the tenderizing
of the heart. See how much He loved us! See it! Look upon it! Look what God has done! Look how far His love will go
to secure our love, our salvation!
E. In fact, John commands us to behold what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we would be called
His children. John tells us to see how much He loved us! See it! Look upon it! Look what God has done! Look how far
His love will go to secure our love, our salvation! The Cross becomes the object of meditation for the tenderizing of the
heart.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world
does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed
what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:1-2)
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against
Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. (Hebrews 12:1-3)
You have put all things in subjection under his feet."For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is
not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste
death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:8-9)
F. Jesus desires that we behold His glory. God is looking for those who do not submit out of conformity to His might.
He desires that in the encounter with His self-revelation, His Word we would love Him with our heart as well as our mind.
God’s method is designed for a partner and is designed to create fascination, trembling fear, and love.
"Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have
given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)
II. THE CROSS WAS VOLITIONAL
A. The Cross was freely designed and implemented by the Triune God. God was not forced nor did He have to make
atonement for humanity. He is sovereign and absolutely free in all His decisions.
But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. (Psalm 115:3)
B. The Father’s Good Pleasure. We typically see the Cross as distant from the Father or wrongly as the loving Son
throwing Himself between sinful humanity and angry Father. The Cross is the loving and righteous Father’s answer to the
sinfulness of humanity.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall
see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. (Is. 53:10)
Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does
not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue
our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea. 20 You will give truth to Jacob And mercy to Abraham,
Which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old. (Micah 7:18-20)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. (John 3:16)
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have
which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one
shepherd. 17 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. (John 10:15-17)
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed
to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:19)
having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that
in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth -- in Him. (Eph. 1:9-10)
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made
us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God, (Eph. 2:4-8)
C. The Son’s Eternal Joy
1. Born to Die. By the Jordan, John the Baptist testified “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!” The herald from the wilderness announced, “Behold your King, the One marked for death. The One designated
from birth to be slaughtered for the sins of the world.”
Presently, our nation is spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year to keep someone alive two more months.
Three more months. And from the very beginning of Jesus’ life, He’s trying to get His way to the point of death. Everyone
tries to talk Him out of it. Peter didn’t want Him to go that way, “No Lord, never!” “Get thee behind me, Satan! I was born
to die.” Pilate looked for a way to release Him. Yet, Jesus’ utter tenacity in love was to go the distance. He was born to
die. From the very beginning of Jesus’ life, He was determined to have His way and die for the sins of the whole world.
2. In Glorifying the Father
Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again."
(Jn. 12:28)
Jesus Prays for Himself Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, (Jn. 17:1)
And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and
I in them." (Jn. 17:26)
3. An Eternal Reality in His Heart – The Bible tells us very clearly that Jesus who formed us in our mother’s womb died for us
because of love.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)
Walk in Love Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given
Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (Eph 5:1-2)
Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; (Lk. 22:15)
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8)
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout
the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold,
from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a
lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you (1 Peter 1:17-20)
4. His Joy to Serve and Make Intercession
Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." (Jn. 13:7)
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mk. 10:45)
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to
be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness
of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every
name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those
under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Phil. 2:5-11)
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make
intercession for them. (Heb. 7:25)
5. His Great Desire to Destroy the Works of the Evil One
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,
that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
D. The Holy Spirit’s Unseen Meekness
1. Involved in the Incarnation
And the angel answered and said to her,"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you;
therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (Lk. 1:35)
2. Empowered Jesus’ Ministry
John Baptizes Jesus (Matt 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; John 1:29-34) When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus
also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. 22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a
dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."
(Lk. 3:21-22)
And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.
33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending,
and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the
Son of God." (Jn. 1:32-34)
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. (Jn. 4:34)
3. Involvement in Calvary
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb. 9:14)
III. THE CROSS WAS DIFFICULT
A. The Problem of Forgiveness
1. In today’s pristine theological discourse there is little room for the Cross. Modern minds consider the need for atonement
barbaric and antiquated. The Cross is the last vestiges of an angry God from a darkened age. Lawlessness is an
ancient concept. Atonement is cast aside for the language of liberation of an oppressed inner humanity. What the
Bible declares as lawless and iniquitous, the modern person views as liberation.
2. At the first Re-imagining Conference in Minneapolis, where women from mainline denominations gathered to
re-imagine the concept of God, Delores Williams, a Presbyterian professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York
boldly suggested, "I don't think we need a theory of atonement at all...atonement has to do so much with death...
I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses, and blood dripping, and weird stuff...we just need to listen to the god
within." Another speaker, Virginia Mollenkott, who serves on the National Council of Churches, claimed that the death
of Jesus was the ultimate in child abuse. She compared the traditional view of atonement to portraying God as an
abusive parent. At a later re-imaging conference Williams would call the removal of the Cross from a church’s
sanctuary as “life giving.”
3. Regardless of the modern attempt to re-imagine or replace the orthodox view of God, the biblical witness testifies
that the separation of God and man is more than an enlightenment issue. The solution to humanity’s lack of finding
God will not come by getting more in touch with some spiritual force within. The heart of the problem is that a breech
has occurred between God and humanity. The issue is not that humanity has difficulty finding God and articulating
how we are to properly relate to Him. The issue is that humanity has rebelled against God and hates His ways.
Thus, there is a divine collision between the sinfulness of humanity and the perfection of God’s holy love. They
are incompatible.
4. Before we can understand the greatness of the salvation worked at the Cross, we must first understand from whom
and what we were saved. If the Cross is to ever produce the fruit of humility and gratitude, we must understand the
gravity of human sin. The crucifixion of Christ was the crowning sin of the human race. The means by which we are
saved is also the display of our great depravity. The event clearly displays the heart of humanity, the greatness of God,
and means necessary to acquit a guilty race.
5. Archbishop Anselm stated that if anybody imagines that God can simply forgive us as we forgive others, that
person has not considered two realities: ‘the seriousness of sin’ and “the majesty of God.” Humans through willful
disobedience of and rebellion against their Creator have highly offended the honor of God.
6. “Sin is a defiance, arrogance, the desire to be equal with God . . . the assertion of human independence over
and against God . . . the constitution of the autonomous reason, morality, and culture.” Emil Brunner
7. Before we can see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us. Indeed,
“only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross,” wrote Canon Peter Green, “may claim his
share in its grace.”
8. Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) – Scottish Hymn Writer
Twas I that shed the sacred blood;
I nailed Him to the tree;
I crucified the Christ of God;
I joined the mockery.
Of all that shouting multitude
I fell that I am one;
And in that din of voices rude
I recognize my own.
Around the cross the throng I see,
Mocking the Sufferer’s groan;
Yet still my voice it seems to be,
As if I mocked alone.
(Taken from Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 60)
B. God’s Justice and Mercy and Holiness and Love
1. God’s holy covenantal love moved Him to satisfy His own desire for justice and for love by sacrificing His Son. The
Cross is the perfect expression, the perfect harmony of both justice and love; it represents the perfect balance and
symmetry of the beautiful God.
2. Quote from Stott p. 131 – So then, the cross of Christ “Is the event in which God makes known His holiness and
his love simultaneously, in one event, in an absolute manner” (Brunner, Mediator, p. 450). “The cross is the only place
where the loving, forgiving merciful God is revealed in such a way that we perceive that His holiness and His love are
equally infinite” (Brunner, Mediator, p. 470). In fact, the “objective aspect of the atonement . . . may be summed up
thus: it consists in the combination of inflexible righteousness, with its penalties, and transcendent love” (Brunner,
Mediator, p. 520).
3. God, because in His mercy He willed to forgive sinful men, and, being truly merciful, willed to forgive them
righteously, that is, without in any way condoning their sin, purposed to direct against His own very self in the person
of His Son the full weight of that righteous wrath which they deserved.
C. God’s Self-Substitution
1. Anselm – There is none who can make this satisfaction except God Himself. But no one ought to make it
except man; otherwise man does not make satisfaction. Therefore it is necessary that one who is the God-man should make it.
2. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of
reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,
and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were
pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to
be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor 5:18-21)
3. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting
Himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices
Himself for man and puts Himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone;
God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.
4. It is this outstanding fact which differentiates the scriptural concept of propitiation from unworthy heathen notions
of celestial bribery and demonstrates that in Scripture propitiation means not ‘to make gracious’ but ‘to enable to be
gracious’. God is already gracious in intention, and is making a way for his mercy to operate without prejudice to his
justice and truth. Sin is the cause and sinners are the objects of his wrath, and in substitutionary atonement God turns
away his wrath by expressing upon the substitute, as a sacrifice for sin, all his holy indignation against sin, visiting
upon it the full penalty due to it from divine justice. Thus God himself provides the atonement for sin – both
symbolically in the institution of the Old Testament sacrifices and actually in the delivering up to sacrificial death of his own Son.
IV. THE CROSS IS EFFECTIVE TO THE UTTERMOST
A. The Cross is effective in both its depth and scope. The most heinous sins as well as the plentitude of sins are
cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Do you feel the power of Jesus’ first words on the Cross? “Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do.” The crowning sin of the human race was the murder of the innocent, sinless Son of
God who had already infinitely humbled Himself to take on our form and came serving us from the moment of His birth.
B. The Cross saves to the uttermost. The Fall ushered in four realities in which the Cross redeemed all four.
1. It separated us from God and we were brought under the just wrath of God for transgressions. We were by
nature objects of wrath. Jesus became for us an atoning sacrifice for our sins and died in our stead, bearing the
penalty of our sin, and drawing us near by the blood of the Lamb.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of
disobedience. (Eph. 5:6)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to
demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith
in Jesus. (Rom. 3:23-26)
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. (Rom. 5:9-10)
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once
were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight -- (Col. 1:19-22)
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Eph 2:13)
2. Guilt and condemnation. Sin had its effect on our body, soul, and spirit. We were not only eternally separated
from God. We were left in a depraved state with death entering our members and our souls depraved. Our hearts
became wicked, our minds deluded, and our wills bound by sin. The Cross not only justifies us but it sanctifies us.
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time
waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being
sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 "This is the covenant that I will
make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"
17 then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10:12-17)
Trained by Saving Grace For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the
blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He
might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
(Titus 2:11-14)
3. Sin brought us under the bondage of Satan. The Cross destroyed the power of Satan.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him,
having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was
contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and
powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. (Col 2:13-15)
• In the Greek it’s the sense that He stripped the enemy bare. He disarmed him.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to
the death. (Rev. 12:11)
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested,
that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death
He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of
Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High
Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered,
being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Heb. 2:14-18)
a. The weapon of soul-destroying sin and guilt is taken out of Satan’s hand. He is disarmed of the single weapon
that can condemn us – unforgiven sin. . . . only unforgiven sin can condemn the soul and make death a door to hell,
not heaven (Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus, p. 83).
b. In Rev. 1:17-18 Jesus was saying to John, “John don’t be afraid. I have the keys of death and hell. I’ve conquered
and vanquished the foe. I’ve stolen the right. I now possess the access for human beings so that when they die, they
go right to God. I’ve stripped the power of Sheol. The abode of the dead has been stripped. Don’t fear, John. You will
never die!”
c. C.S. Lewis once stated, “On the back of Satan’s neck is a nail scarred footprint.” Can you imagine when the
hour of darkness reigned, when the enemy convinced Jerusalem and Israel and the leadership and the people to kill
the Son? And in that moment when holy blood was spilled on that beam, a tremor was loosed through the powers of
darkness? The hordes of hell realizing that the blood of Jesus is interceding for the forgiveness of humanity’s sin.
Jesus, the military general, sized up the battlefield from the high ground, from the vantage point of Calvary. When the
Son of Man was lifted up, the general of generals had viewed the battle field and knew He had won. And in that
moment, when His holy, precious blood touched the ground and atonement was made, the battle was won. The
Cross is a military victory! And He did this in meekness. The first battle was won by the Lamb in meekness. The
next battle will be won by the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in an open display of power as He binds Satan and sets
the captives free!