Word Play - The Word on the cross

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Today is Friday, April 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Megan Basham.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. In times like these we cannot repeat the gospel to ourselves enough. Here’s George Grant with a special, Good Friday edition of Word Play.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: He was the Word of God. And by His Word, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible—all things were created as He spoke them into existence. 

He was the king of glory and the image of the invisible God. In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. By His Word, all things hold together, that in everything He might be preeminent.

Though Pilate had acquitted Him three times, He was cruelly, unjustly punished. He who bore no sin, was wounded on our behalf. Though He was very God of very God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped: He made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He was crucified for us and for our salvation.

Amazingly, He was born for this moment. It was for this humiliation that He came into the world. He was made incarnate so that His holy brow might be crowned with thorns. He was made in the likeness of a servant so that He might be mocked by the ones He had come to save. He left His throne in glory so that His back might bear the stripes for our iniquity, so that His hands and feet and side might be pierced for our transgressions.

Through the whole ordeal, He who was the Word spoke not a word. He stood silent in the face of the cursing, the mocking, the jeering. He quietly endured the shame of the crowd crying “Crucify Him,” the brazenness of the Sanhedrin falsely accusing, the centurions coarsely jesting. Not a word at the horror of the betrayal, the trial, the scourging, the condemnation. 

It was just as Isaiah the prophet had predicted: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers is silent, He did not open His mouth” (Isa 53:7). He did not speak because He was guilty. The guilt He bore was not His own of course. It was ours.

But then, at last hanging on the cross, receiving our chastisement, the Word of Truth, the Word of Life, the Word of God spoke. On the cross He cried out seven times—with words of forgiveness, redemption, covenant, substitution, suffering, triumph, and resolution. 

Three times He addressed men: to the thief He promised Paradise; to His disciples He proffered covenant; to His tormenters He professed His agony. 

But those words were punctuated by His perpetual communion with the Father. He prayed: once interceding for His murderers, once mourning His separation, once declaring His work finished, and finally, commending His spirit to the Father.

Seven times the dying savior spoke. For more than 12 hours He had been in the hands of men. Now He was again in the Father’s hands. The victory was won. “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”

I’m George Grant.

(Photo/iStock)

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