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by Doug Laird

11/30/24
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Why His Blood Had To Be Shed While On The Cross

Part One

The Old Testament blood sacrifice of animals all pointed to the one time, ultimate blood sacrifice that would be made by the Lord Jesus Christ while ON THE CROSS (1).

As we will see, the shedding of His blood at any other time, under any other circumstances, would NOT have atoned for the world’s sin debt.

For example, had He cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple (2), He obviously would have shed His blood, but atonement would not have been made.

During the Matt. 4 temptations and afterwards, it was the objective of the devil to either have Him compromise His status as the spotless Lamb of God, or to kill Him BEFORE reaching the cross where the atoning bloodshed was to take place.

The shedding of His blood, as a result of His fervent praying (3); the beating (4) He received; the flogging He received (5); the placement of the crown of thorns on His head (6); the nailing of His hands and feet to the cross (7); all resulted in some shedding of His blood, but as we will see, the atoning bloodshed had not yet taken place.

Jesus was on the cross for six hours from 9 am to 3 pm. It was at noon that He (in His humanity) was forsaken by God the Father, when the past, present, and future sin load of the entire human race was placed on His Humanity.

It was from noon to 3pm, while ON THE CROSS that He experienced spiritual death. Spiritual death is not the termination of existence, but existing while separated from God.

It was the shedding of His blood during that time frame that accomplished the divine objective of atonement.

This is what distinguished the shedding of His blood while ON THE CROSS from any other time.

The atoning bloodshed was not accomplished before, as we have already noted, nor it accomplished when the side of His physically dead body was pierced with a spear (8).

It was at noon that He cried out (quoting Psalms 22 1 NASB2020), “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

Jesus was NOT asking God the Father why He was being forsaken. Jesus knew all along what was required of Him to make atonement for the sins of the world. It was the very reason that He had come to Earth.

Jesus was quoting Psalms 22. As with everything He did, He did it for a reason.

Psalms 22 was composed 1,000 years BEFORE the crucifixion took place, foretelling several details (see vss. 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) about what would take place when the time came.

By quoting THIS psalm, Jesus was declaring to those who understood (and to those who would come to understand) that His period of spiritual death (separation from God) ON THE CROSS had begun.

It was three hours later, at 3 pm, while He (obviously) was still physically alive (being able to speak) that He declared that His atoning Work had been accomplished (9).

His three hours of spiritual death (being separated and forsaken by God in OUR place) was over.

The sin debt of Fallen Man had been paid in full (10).

It is important to note that Jesus was still physically live when His atoning Work was FINISHED (11). He did not say that it was about to be finished (when He died physically), He declared that it was ALREADY finished.

It was AFTER providing the means of salvation that He died physically in order for Him to move forward in the plan of God.

His enemies had not killed Jesus. When the time came for Jesus to physically die, Jesus placed His spirit in the hands of God the Father (12).

When the time of departure for a born again believer comes, it will be the means through which he or she too, will move forward in the plan of God.

Little children in Sunday School will tell you that Jesus died for them on the cross, but it is not until many of them advance in Biblical discipleship that they come to understand that there were two types of death (spiritual and physical) that Jesus endured in our behalf.

One was spiritual death (separation from God) while He was still alive, the other was physical death), with each one having its own purpose and objective.

It was the atoning blood shed during the three hours of spiritual death on the cross that provided us with the means of salvation.

His physical death provided Him with the means to move forward in the plan of God.

End of Part One

Heb. 10: 4, 9, 10 (2) Matt. 4: 5, 6 (3) Luke 22: 44 (4) Luke 22: 63 (5) John 19: 1 (6) John 19: 2 (7) John 19: 18 (8) John 19: 34 (9) John 19: 30 (10) 1John 2: 2 (11) John 19: 30 (12) Luke 23: 46

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