In Christianity: Christ Crucified

CHRIST CRUCIFIED

1 Corinthians 2:1-2
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of
speech or of wisdom declaring to you the *testimony of God. 2 For I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.

Nowadays we're preaching the Gospel to non believers with Wisdom, and
trying to give the complexities of God.  Teaching people about the
fruits of the Spirit, and the Parables of Christ.  But the 1st thing we
should preach to them is Christ Crucified.  This is the foundation of
our religion, that Jesus Christ died for our sins.  That he was
sacrificed so that His blood can cover us.  If it wasn't for this
selfless deed then nothing else would matter, we would still be in our
sin, we Gentiles would still be worshipping our gods, instead of GOD.
So in this email I'll be talking about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

Some might think that the only place it talks about Jesus Christ's
crucifixion is in the New Testament.  However those of us that really
know God, and are in the word, know that our God is a Thorough God.  And
if there is anything that we should place Close attention to in the
Bible then it's repeated throughout the bible.  Well this is the same
thing that happens when He talks about the crucifixion.  Jesus Christ's
crucifixion is prophesied about throughout the Old Testament by the
Prophets and by David.  God did this so that when the time came for
Jesus to be sacrificed for us that there would be no doubt about what
was happening.  Like I said we serve a Thorough God.  He is not the
author of confusion.  He won't leave you wondering.  If God does
something, he'll let you know what's about to happen so when it does
happen you'll know that it was God, and nobody else but God.  So the
Following verses are going to help us to understand Jesus Christ and Him
crucified more.  The most amazing thing to me besides God, is him
showing me how His prophesies come true.

Isaiah 53:4-12
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His
stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His
generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions
of My people He was stricken.
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He
shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in
His hand.
11 *He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall
bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall
divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto
death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin
of many, And made intercession for the transgressors

Mathew 27:35
35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:

"They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots."*

Psalms 22:18
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots

Mathew 37:38
Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another
on the left.
Isaiah 53:9
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked--

Mathew 37:43
43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for
He said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
Psalms 22:8
8 "He *trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him,
since He delights in Him!"


Mathew 37:46
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?"* Psalms 22:1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

Mathew 37:57-60
Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named
Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man
went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded
the body to be given to him. 59 When Joseph had taken the body, he
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his new tomb which
he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the
door of the tomb, and departed.
Isaiah 53:9
9 And *they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His
death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

John 19:31-34
Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should
not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high
day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that
they might be taken away. 32 Then the soldiers came and broke the legs
of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. 33 But when
they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break
His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and
immediately blood and water came out.
Psalms 34:20
He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken
Psalms 22:14
I am poured out like water

Luke 24:34
34 *Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what
they do."
Isaiah 53:12
And made intercession for the transgressors


I'll stop here, but there is so much more, I just did this to show you
why this is important.  There is soo much in the bible about Jesus, more
then what is shown in the Gospels.  So many prophecies to let us know
that he truly is the Messiah.  This is why Paul said that I came to you
knowing nothing else but Christ crucified, because once you can
understand Christ crucified then it will make you appreciate being a
Christian that much more.  God loves us so much that he told us that
Jesus was going to come, and be a Savior not only for the Jews but also
for the Gentiles, he told us that Jesus was going to suffer for us so
that we might be saved.  Jesus knew what he had to do long before he was
Crucified, and yet he Loved us so much that he went through with it
anyways.  Can you imagine being able to read in the bible about
yourself, and know everything that you're going to suffer for people
that won't appreciate it until you've suffered.  That's love, that's
AGAPE  We need to start being more obedient, to show Jesus that it
wasn't in Vain.  That we truly appreciate what he did for us.  It was no
small thing.

In Christianity: Forgiveness

 
Mathew 18:34-35
34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he
should pay all that was due to him. 35 So My heavenly Father also will
do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother
his trespasses.

We all know that forgiveness is important.  In the above scripture Jesus
talks about what will happen to us if we don't forgive our brother from
our heart of their trespasses.  But an important thing to remember is we
will not be forgiven also if we can't forgive ourselves of our own
trespasses.  Being a Christian we believe that Jesus Christ was
crucified on the cross and died as a sacrificial lamb to take away all
of our sins.  By that selfless act all of our sins were forgiven.  So
why do we not forgive ourselves when we stumble?  Why do we call
ourselves a failure, or an idiot.  Why do we walk around ashamed of
ourselves when we slip.  There are something's that we have going on in
our life that we are trying to be delivered from.  And just when we feel
we've been delivered from it we will slip up and do the very burden that
we feel has been taken off of us. And what do we do when that happens,
we curse ourselves.  We condemn ourselves and sometimes we turn our
backs on God because of it.  We'll turn our backs on our brothers and
sisters in Christ because of the shame that we feel.  How can we forgive
others if we can't forgive ourselves.  How can we love others if we
don't love ourselves, how can we love God if we can't love ourselves? 

We are told to always speak nice about others, and not gossip, we're
taught that if we don't have anything nice to say then don't say
anything at all, but do we practice that when it comes to us?  Jesus
says:  Mathew 12:35 "36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may
speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment. 37 For by
your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be
condemned".  So if by our words we will be justified or condemned, why do
we speak negative things to life?  If you call yourself a failure then
you're a failure and you won't be delivered, but if you say I will be
delivered from this and give it to God then you will be delivered.  We
expect it in our own time, instead of in God's time.  God knows that he
wants you to be delivered from your afflictions.  God doesn't want us to
keep sinning, but God also knows that we are human.  God knows that we
rely on him.  God wants us to know that we rely on him.  When God
delivers you from something he doesn't ever want you going back to it.
So when you keep on going to God eventually he'll make you so turned off
by the very thing that makes you stumble that you won't even think about
doing it again.  Some things are detrimental to us so he'll deliver us
from it right away.  Others we have to struggle with for awhile, but the
whole time we're struggling we're supposed to be going to God.  Paul
talks about this in his letter to the Corinthians in it he says:  2
Corinthians 12:7-10 "7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the
abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might
depart from me. 9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I
will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am
weak, then I am strong".  Paul said that he will boast in his
infirmities.  He boasted and praised God in everything that we will cry
about and beat ourselves up over.  We need to stop doing this.  We need
to praise God no matter what. 

Christians aren't supposed to have Low self esteem, Christians aren't
supposed to have a bad attitude at all, whether it's because of
something that somebody did against us, or what we did against
ourselves.  We can't sin, and then because of the sin, sin.  That
doesn't make since.  When you sin you're sinning against God, whether
you sin against a brother, or you sin against yourself, Paul also says
that:  1 Corinthians 3:16 "16 Do you not know that you are the temple of
God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"  So if you are the temple
of God and you stumble, ask for forgiveness and move on don't talk down
about yourself, because when will it go from us beating ourselves up, to
us putting God down.  People know that we belong to God by our actions:
Mathew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father in heaven".  So we need to start doing
what we're called to do without any negative thoughts, whether directed
towards God or other people or ourselves.  If you stumble praise God,
because you know that eventually that'll be something that'll be taken
from you, at least you know what you stumble over:  Proverbs 4:19  "The
way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them
stumble+.  If you're happy praise God, if your sad Praise God, no matter
what Praise God, because in your Praise is redemption, in your Praise is
Love, in your Praise is God