The Calvary Excellence.

[Nov. 13, 2018]
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In Luke 23, there is an awesome occasion of great power and transformative excellence. 

In verse 23-31, we see the pathos of judgment prophesied by Jesus, the Prophet of Jehovah. The reason why the nation of Israel would be judged, and the children slaughtered in gruesome brutality was because the collective conscience of the nation was smeared by the betrayal and the rejection of Jesus, the Messiah. The Lord foretells the dreaded prophecy of Roman invasion and siege of Jerusalem (AD 70), in Luke 23:28-31. And all this, as a result of Jewish transgression and unbelief in Christ.

But all of a sudden there is a breathtaking change - as soon as the Lord reaches the 'place, which is called Calvary' (verse 33). Then, as if time stopped, or as an ancient oracle of hidden revelation suddenly brought to happen - Jesus, the Lord speaks of forgiveness for the nation: 'Father, forgive them...' (v34)!

It is the place that is called Calvary', that creates this epic shift of oracular focus, from judgment to forgiveness! The Lord who had just now assumed the voice of judgment against the nation, shifts to the new iconic definition of grace as delved into the mysteries of the Calvary. 

The Lord as and when He enters the mount of Calvary shifts the theme from condemnation to mercy, from judgment to forgiveness. For Calvary, ever happens to be the only piece of fabric in the entire cosmos, where judgment turns to mercy and indignation becomes into grace.

Not only do we find Calvary to be a place of forgiveness, but we find some other excellent oddities and peculiar honours embedded upon this mount. 

Verse 40 and Verse 41 speaks of universal condemnation. The thief responds to the other thief, and in an aura of enlightening power, speaks of the 'same condemnation'. But in reality, not just the two thieves on Calvary, but everybody and everything is judged at the cross and suffers the divine wrath of indignation against sin. All earthly systems according to the order of the flesh had been judged at the cross. It is the 'same condemnation', that horrendous weight of indignation common for all for reason of universal sin. But in this ever torturous  idea of condemnation in the hands of the righteous God, Calvary opens up its chapter to a new discovery: 'but this man hath done nothing amiss' (verse 41)! What does this mean?! It means that in the midst of the rubric of chaos and judgment on the cross against man's deviant sins, there is found a Man, who has partaken of the condemnation despite being sinless. In other words, a substitute is found, a vicarious script is written on the sacred head of Christ! He partakes of the condemnation that is fallen on man. This is the sacred truth of Calvary': *it is forgiveness, but by the agency of substitution*. 

Not only so, but we find some more in the next verses. 

The thief asks the Lord, to be remembered in His kingdom. This reveals a profundity that is most often missed. The thief is not merely requiring for a participation in the kingdom of the messianic power that is to be revealed hereafter: but most startlingly, the thief admits that it is the death of Jesus, at Calvary that assumes the basis and foundation for His kingdom to appear!

In verse 42, we find in the thief's admission, a revolutionary idea: the kingdom was to be founded not just upon the acceptance by the nation, but more critically on the hallowed work of Christ' death at Calvary. It is this, the death on Calvary that forms the bedrock of the millennial kingdom!

The thief sees the Lord to have decided to taste death, but it is faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, that impels him to seek a place in the earthly kingdom to come; and more importantly, this reveals his mind as having appreciated the death of Christ, as being the single biggest event on which all hopes of a future kingdom are based upon.

But the next verse 43, is even more lovely. It sheds such a powerful pointer to the fact that Christ' work on Calvary is not simply to restore Davidic kingdoms and institutions on the face of this earth - but more important than that, is to pave way for humanity to access the paradise of God: '... today shalt thou be with me in paradise' (verse 43)!

In verse 42, the earth and the Davidic hopes of restitution are founded upon the work of the cross. True, but in verse 43, Calvary opens a way for earthly saints to reach the heavenly portals. In other words, it is not mere earthly blessings but blessings of heaven that await upon the redeemed, for what has been transacted on mount Calvary.

And the last, was verse 45-47.

In verse 45, the veil of the temple was rent. Judaism succumbed to oblivion. The temple that stood as the Jewish signature for glory and triumph was washed out to nothingness. All traditions perished and ran obsolete with one stroke. 

But then, a new epoch had emerged - verse 47! 

In verse 46, Jesus the Lord dies! And in verse 47, the Lord's death becomes the new ground for men to glorify God: '...the centurion'...glorified God' (verse 47).

Verse 47 is truly epic. Nothing of its kind in the old economy of Sinai. It is the death of Jesus Christ the Lord, that now assumes the only ground on which the institution of worship and thanksgiving rests. God is finally glorified and perpetually glorified. The temple era along with its vicissitudes of Jewish traditions had ended. The new era, an eternal page on the history of God's prerogatives had been stamped in divine approval only upon the death of Jesus, His beloved Son.

So we find a milieu of excellent beauties at mount Calvary. First, the principle of forgiveness (verse 34), and then the truth of vicarious substitution (verse 41), and the reconciliation of earth and heaven (verses 42 and 43) and finally the beginning of an eternal era of praise and glory (verse 47)!

P.B.

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