I am very thankful for certain things. I'm glad I did not live before anesthesia was discovered. I'm glad for paved roads. I'm glad for the abolition of slavery. I'm glad I never had to witness a crucifixion.

By all accounts, ancient and modern, crucifixion was brutal, hideous and demeaning. We can only imagine the sights, sounds and smells that must have come from the victim. We can only imagine what mothers had to do to comfort their children who saw a crucifixion. No soldier has left a memoir to describe what it felt like to be the one, who carried out the imperial order to crucify a man.

The event is so horrible that it seems like a kind of lunacy that within a few years the Apostle Paul could look back on the crucifixion of Jesus and say, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. How could he, whom Jesus never knew personally, come to interpret the unjust, capital execution of Jesus as an expression of personal love and sacrifice for him?

The answer begins with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What does it mean that one person out of all human beings has defeated death permanently? What does that tell us about that person? How does that change the way we think about human existence? What does it mean for the future of humanity? Those questions and other like them look forward to the future. Another set of fundamental questions looks back to the past.

If Jesus came back to life permanently, and if only God could make that happen, what does that tell us about Jesus' relationship with God? Why did He find such favor? Furthermore, if He overcame death permanently, we need to take another look at His life and especially at His death. What He did and what He said may hold new and unexpected meaning in light of His resurrection. We don't read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as historical curiosities. They tell us all we know about the only human being to have defeated death permanently.

So, in light of the resurrection what are we to make of His death? If God raised Him permanently from death, God surely favored Him highly. On the other hand, if God favored Him that highly, why did God let Him die like that? Did that gruesome death mean anything more than the passing of another human being? Did it express more than a miscarriage of justice? If so, what does it mean? What does it express?

Clues to the Meaning of the Death of Christ
Jesus Himself gave two clues to the meaning of His suffering and death. He said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many," (Mark 10:45). The keyword there is ransom.

At His last supper with the disciples, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins," (Matt. 26:28). The keywords there are forgiveness and blood of the covenant.

Both sayings anticipated His death. They serve as clues to the meaning of His death. Those words - forgiveness, blood of the covenant and ransom had a history in Jewish minds. Let's see how those ideas shaped the apostle's understanding of the death of Christ. That will take us back to the central passage, Romans 3:21-26. We have to focus on verses 24-25.

The Death of Christ as Redemption
Verse 24 uses the word redemption. Redemption means liberation by payment of a ransom. Three pieces of evidence from the Bible illustrate the Jewish understanding of redemption.

The first one comes from Exodus 6:6 and refers to the nation Israel's exodus from Egypt. "Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.'" In this passage redemption meant liberation from Israel's oppressor, Egypt.

This same theme reappeared after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and deported Jews to Babylon. Some Jews began to dream of another exodus. Jeremiah 31:11 expressed it powerfully. For the LORD will ransom Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. Isaiah echoed the same theme in Isaiah 51:11: The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Here again redemption offers a beautiful vision of a nation set free from its captors.

At Jesus' birth the same longing for deliverance from Israel's new oppressor, Rome, filled people's hearts. In Luke 2:38 the prophetess, Anna, encounters Mary and Joseph and their baby, Jesus. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. In first century Jewish minds the redemption of Jerusalem referred to Jewish liberation from Roman oppression.

In each case (Egypt, Babylon, and Rome) liberation from the oppressor is the dominant meaning of redemption in Jewish thought. However, under the impact of Jesus' death and resurrection a new notion of deliverance dominated the apostles' thought.

The writer of Hebrews 9:12, for example, says that Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The apostlese had caught a vision of something more breathtaking and more permanent than deliverance from an earthly tyrant. Jesus' death made possible an eternal redemption.

Ephesians 1:7 gives substance to that eternal redemption. Paul says that in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Redemption means forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ.

The Apostle Peter deepens the thought when he says in 1 Peter 1:18-19, For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. Not only does Christ's death provide forgiveness; it also delivers forgiven people from their empty way of life, when they were without God.

Paul takes the thought another step further in Titus 2:14, where He says that Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Christ not only delivers us from sin and our empty way of life; His death creates for Himself out of disparate humanity a new people of God, eager to do what is pleasing to Him.

Paul fills out the notion of eternal redemption in Romans 8:23: We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Eternal redemption promises to deliver the body from its frailty and mortality.

Thoughts like these, growing in fertile Jewish soil, came to see the death of Christ, not as tragedy or injustice, but as a ransom that made possible permanent deliverance from sin and its consequences. That deliverance includes forgiveness, escape from an empty way of life, incorporation into a new people of Christ and a new, resurrection body that will not be subject to sickness and death.

The Death of Christ as Atonement for Sins
But how does it work? How did Christ's death provide this eternal redemption? Again, our text in Romans 3:25 comes to our aid by drawing on Old Testament images. God presented him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement.

I need to do something technical here. Be patient and track with me. This is a piece of our Christian heritage I don't want us to lose. The phrase here, as a sacrifice of atonement, translates one Greek word. Why did the translators use so many English words to translate one Greek word? Let me show you. That Greek word refers to a piece of sacred furniture in the temple worship of ancient Israel. Look at Exodus 25:17.

You remember the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The lost ark referred to that small container that rested in the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple and then disappeared after the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 586 B.C.

Exodus 25:17 describes the cover of that lost ark. The Lord says, "Make an atonement cover of pure gold." The words atonement cover translate the same word that Paul uses in Romans 3:25. Exodus 25:22 begins to explain the spiritual significance of that atonement cover. The Lord says, There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my comands for the Israelites. This atonement cover is the place of meeting between God and the representative of His people. To know what the representative of Israel did there, please look at Leviticus 16:15.

The Lord says of the High Priest, Aaron, "He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it." This golden cover of the lost ark was the place where sacrificial blood was sprinkled to atone for the sins of Israel.

Paul had all this in mind in Romans 3:25 when he wronte that God presented him (Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement. On Good Friday God met with the representative of all humanity, Jesus Christ, and on the cross Christ offered His sacrificial blood to atone for the sins of the whole world.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
We like to say that God displays His almighty power in mercy and pity. They are comforting words, but how do we know they are true? We like it every week, when the angels on Touched by an Angel say to troubled human beings, "God loves you." They are comforting words, but how do we know they are true? Does God demonstrate to us clearly now that He will treat us with mercy on the great Day of His Judgment? All right thinking about humanity starts with that question. The renewal of our mind and the transformation of our character begin with that question.

The death of Christ answers that question. How can any of us have grounds for hope on the day of God's wrath, when He judges us impartially according to our actual deeds? The death of Christ was an atonement for the sins that separated us from God. His death makes it possible for God to absolve the people of Christ of guilt for their sins.

How do we know that God displays His almighty power in mercy and pity? The death of Christ displayed that mercy. How do we know that God loves us? The death of Christ embodies that love for all to see.

What do you say of a God, who acts thus toward His rebellious creatures? The only attribute that filled the apostle's heart was that of love; and when God's love occupies the command and control center of your whole being, it will seem that He did it all just for you. You will say with Paul, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Jesus Christ in His life and, decisively in His death and resurrection, is the permanent and material sign of God's merciful intentions toward humanity. He offers His mercy regardless of moral failure or religious merit. He offers it to all, who will trust His merciful intentions, as He has demonstrated them in Jesus Christ.

Trust Him. Trust His intentions. We here do trust Him. Hundreds of churches in the Brandywine Valley trust Him. That is why by the authority invested in me by Jesus Christ, I can say that our guilt is absolved; we no longer walk an empty way of life through this world; we are incorporated into the people of Christ with all the privileges and obligations that go with it; we have the good hope of a resurrection of the body with which to enjoy a renewed nature. The renewal of our mind and the transformation of our character arise majestically from this foundation.