A Costly Salvation

Not only did our Triune God work together to save us, but it came at the ultimate cost.

As Augustine puts it:

"Among all kinds of death, there was nothing worse than that death.

In short, that wherein one is racked by the most intense pains is called cruciatus, which takes its name from crux, a cross. For the crucified, hanging on the tree, nailed to the wood, were killed by a slow lingering death.

To be crucified was not merely to be put to death; for the victim lived long on the cross, not because longer life was chosen, but because death itself was stretched out that the pain might not be too quickly ended.

He willed to die for us, yet it is not enough to say this; He deigned to be crucified, became obedient even to the death of the cross. He who was about to take away all death, chose the lowest and worst kind of death: He slew death by the worst of deaths."

I love how Augustine puts it. "He slew death by the worst of deaths."

The crucifixion is a sobering event to reflect on.

In Hebrews 9, the author states:

"But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?"

As a city boy, I shudder to think about even a goat being slaughtered as a sacrifice to God.

So, to contemplate Jesus willingly giving up his life on the bloody cross? My mind recoils, even as I know his sacrifice is the means of our salvation.

But what we've remembered today is that God intended to die this way - from before the Creation of the world.

He never stopped thinking about it. Why? Because he loves us. Because he is our First Love.