A Reflection on the Savior’s Cross
The core of Jesus’ death on the cross was not primarily that someone died, but Who died; not merely the act of self-sacrifice, but the Self that sacrificed; not just that blood was shed, but Whose blood was shed. Two others were crucified alongside Jesus that day, countless others were crucified in the same way, and none but Jesus paid for any crimes but their own. The wonder of the cross, then, is not in the cross itself, but in He who died on it and, in dying, destroyed the dominion of death for all who are united with Him (Romans 6:5-9). So, when I say, “Jesus died for my sins,” I want to focus first on the subject of the sentence, Jesus, and only then on the verb and the prepositional phrase, because if any other subject was supplied, there would be no death for my sins except my own (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, Matthew 25:46, Revelation 14:9-11).