Behind these taunts is the false assumption that the Messiah and Son of God must conquer Rome, not be killed by the Gentiles. They do not see that Jesus stays on the cross precisely because He is God’s Son. Love keeps Him there so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
Coram Deo
Many of Jesus’ contemporaries refused to accept the Messiah’s shame and curse on the cross, and many in the history of the church have done the same, denying the substitutionary nature of the atonement and the fact that God cursed our sin in Jesus. To show His great mercy and satisfy His justice, the Father condemned the sins of His people in His Son. Any attempt to make the cross merely a good example or an accident of history destroys the gospel of salvation.
Passages for Further Study
- Genesis 22:1–19
- Proverbs 14:9
- John 19:16b–27
- Galatians 3:10–14