Big Idea: The cross is too beautiful, powerful, and important to be captured by only one explanation. Scripture gives us a mosaic of images that together reveal what Jesus accomplished for us.

Look at the Cross

The New Testament does not explain the cross with only one word or picture.

At the cross, Jesus:

• bore our sins
• suffered for us
• reconciled us to God
• defeated the powers of evil
• broke the reign of sin and death
• redeemed us from slavery
• opened the way into new life

Each image gives us another tile in the mosaic. Don’t glance at the cross. Look. Keep looking. Behold Christ.

Love & Wrath

God’s wrath is his holy opposition to everything that destroys His good creation and separates us from him. The Father and Son act together in love to rescue us.

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

• At the cross, God does not stand at a distance from human suffering and sin. In Christ, God enters it Himself.

• The cross reveals both the seriousness of our sin and the depth of God’s love.

• Jesus bore our sins in his body, became a curse for us, condemned sin in the flesh, and gave his life as a ransom.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24).

• Jesus entered fully into the consequences of our rebellion so that we could receive forgiveness, cleansing, and life.

He acted:

• For us
• With us
• In our place

“While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Rom. 5:10).

Reconciled to God:

• At the cross, God acted to bring us home.

Victory

““He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Col. 2:15).

• The lion is the lamb, slain for us (Rev. 5:5-6).

• It looked like his defeat, but in the cross, Christ defeated sin, death, Satan, and the powers.

Mosaic

No single image says everything.

• He’s the Lamb who was sacrificed.
• He’s the ransom that sets captives free.
• He’s the substitute who bears our sins.
• He’s the reconciler who brings us home.
• He’s the victor who defeats evil.
• He’s the representative who begins a new humanity,
  and the King who reigns through self-giving love.

These are not competing explanations. They help us behold the fullness of what God has done in Christ.

Look again and again to the cross of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God.