What Calvary has done for humanity

By Pastor (Dr.) Elisha Olusheye

Dear Reader,
This week, let us quickly but carefully examine“What Calvary has done for humanity.” Calvary is the mount where our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified in Jerusalem, for the sins of the world. It is the Greek equivalence of the Hebrew word “Golgotha” of Matthew 27:33, meaning ‘skull’. Calvary in essence stands for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by which God was reconciled to the world, and the world to Him.

Why did Jesus die? This is a question of vital importance to you, because your eternal destiny depends upon your answer to it. Do you know why Jesus died? You and I die because we are sinners of Adam’s fallen race (Rom. 5:12). We have forfeited our right to live on the earth (Ezek. 18:4). We have come under God’s righteous sentence of death and of judgment (Heb. 9:27).

The Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven (John 6:38), being born of the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:18-25) in Bethlehem’s manger (Luke 2:7-12). He did not have a sinful nature as we have; He never sinned (Heb. 7:26). Therefore, death had no claim upon Him. He willingly let the wicked men crucify Him on Calvary (John 10:17, 18). All the wealth of the world were not sufficient to pay for the redemption of man from sin. Hence it was paid with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

At the end of Christ’s 3½ years of public ministry on earth, and by the pre-determinate counsel of God as prophesied in the Old Testament, Christ was arrested on the day of the Passover in Jerusalem. His trial was a total mockery and miscarriage of justice, as He was condemned to death on frivolous charges. Right from the early morning of that fateful Passover day in about 30 A.D., Christ Jesus, the holy Son of God, who became man, underwent various forms of blood-chilling and inhuman torments. He received 39 strokes of lashings from the Roman soldiers. He was crowned with thorns forcefully. He was made to carry his heavy cross from Pontius Pilate’s palace to the place of crucifixion on the mount of Calvary in a most disgraceful manner. Christ was de-robed by soldiers, abandoned by His apostles and friends, and mocked by His enemies. Jesus was nailed to the cross in a most cruel manner, with His precious blood gushing from His hands and feet pierced with nails.

The Son of God was crucified between two condemned robbers, and underwent the most agonizing pains, physically, emotionally, and spiritually for six hours from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. on that day before He died. Death by crucifixion seemed to include all the pain and suffering that could possibly go with death. Even at His death the soldiers lacerated His body with spear through which blood and water poured out. A man of sorrow! Christ lived in sorrow and died with a broken heart. Judas Iscariot betrayed Him, Apostle Simon Peter denied Him, the other apostles forsook Him, those who had followed Him turned back, His mother and other women stood afar off while He died. It was enough to break His heart.

In addition to all this, the sins of the world were upon Him. There was no one near the cross to comfort Him. His Father had forsaken Him until He could taste death for every man. The fearful attitude of His disciples wearied Him. The sinful and careless condition of the world broke His heart. His physical pains were unbearable. All these He suffered that the world through Him might be saved!

In Isaiah 53:3-7, the Bible says: (3) “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. (4) Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. (5) But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (6) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (7) He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” (N.I.V.).

This prophecy was literally fulfilled in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. But wait! Think a moment about what Jesus Christ did for you on Calvary’s cross. “For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (I Pet. 3:18). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

(I John 4:10). Think of what it cost Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, to suffer on the cross that we might be set free from the coming judgment and be in heaven with Him for ever! “For greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13).

I fervently pray that God will give you the spirit of repentance today, and remove whatever may be hindering your salvation, peace and success, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Those nails through His hands and His feet could not have held Him on that cross; all the power in the Roman Empire could not have held Him there if He had desired to come down. It was love to your precious never-dying soul that brought the Lord Jesus Christ down from heaven, took Him to that shameful cross and held Him there until He had finished the work of redemption to the glory of God. (John 19:30). He died for you!

The all-wise God could find no other way to save you from the just penalty of your sins (I John 4:9, 10, 14). No one else in all the universe could have done the work necessary to save you.

God showed His approval of that mighty work by raising the Lord Jesus from among the dead and seating Him at His own right hand in heaven (Acts 5:30,31). He is there now, a living, loving Man, with the marks still in His hands and in His feet which He received when He died for your sins upon the cross. (John 20:27).

As you read these lines, He looks down from heaven upon you and He reads the thoughts and the motives of your heart. He knows your attitude toward your sins, and He knows your attitude toward Him. He wants to be your Saviour.

Dear reader, though you may be a stranger to me, you are not a stranger to God, and I beg of you not to lay aside this little message until you are very sure, on the authority of God’s Word, that the Lord Jesus is your personal Saviour from the penalty and from the power of your sins. If you do not trust Him now in time, you will meet Him by and by as your Judge (John 5:22), and then it will be for ever too late! (Rev. 20:11-15).

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. … He who believes in Him is not condemned: but he who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16, 18). “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3). Therefore, “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. (Acts 16:31). Amen.

Jesus Christ’s power and authority over nature (1)

By Pastor S.S.Jemigbon

(To be continued)And when He was entered into a ship,
His disciples followed Him.

And behold, there arose a great tempest in the Sea; in so much that the ship was covered with the waves: but He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And He saith unto them, why are ye fearful 0 ye of little faith? Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the Sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him!” (Matthew 8:23-27)

This scriptural portion unravels Christ’s power and authority over nature. The event recorded in this portion is about how Christ had given sailing orders to His disciples, that they depart to the other side of the sea of Tiberias. No sooner had they started the sail than the ship they were in was buoyed in tempestuous waves of the sea and boisterous wind.

Jesus rebuked the storm and it obeyed, and the situation became still. The disciples were all marveled, seeing one, whose Voice, the storm and turbulence of the sea yielded to, and became silent.

A cursory look at the event reveals that the way of our duty is often the way of trouble and temporal peril. Thus, no matter how most devout you may be, and your ardent affection for Christ, it does not exempt you from sorrow and tribulation. Hence, it is commonplace to see the most eminent saints passing through winds and storms in their way.

The world is full of troubles, because of the devil. His duty is to trouble the world and its inhabitants. Therefore, anyone who comes to this earth is not spared his trouble. The devil has the power to taunt, tempt or trouble anybody irrespective of the position, status or height.

Not minding who Christ is, satan went to Him and asked Him to bow down for him, which if He did, he would give Christ the glory of the world. But the only way by which Jesus Christ could overcome him and take the power and authority from the devil was by the way of the cross. This the devil in his subtlety, wanted to void by asking Jesus Christ not to go by the Cross but by first bowing down to him, the devil.

But Jesus Christ rebuffed the devil by rebuking him and thus overcame him. On the first day of this year, we had started a journey that will take us 365 days, just like the disciples started their journey with Jesus.
(To be continued)