4.6 The Cross:
Sin, Sacrifice, Atonement, and Obedience
According to the Gospels, Jesus was betrayed by one of His disciples and arrested in Jerusalem after conflict with certain religious leaders had grown more serious. He was questioned by Jewish authorities and then brought before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
The Gospels portray Pilate as hesitant to execute Jesus. Pilate questioned Jesus and did not seem convinced that Jesus had committed a crime deserving death. However, the religious leaders continued accusing Jesus, and a crowd called for Him to be crucified. According to the Gospel accounts, the crowd also asked Pilate to release another prisoner instead of Jesus. In the end, Pilate gave in to the pressure and sentenced Jesus to crucifixion.
Since Rome controlled the region politically and militarily, Roman authority was required for crucifixion. The Gospels describe Jewish leaders accusing Jesus, but Jesus was ultimately sentenced and executed under Roman authority.
Because of the way the Gospels describe conflict between Jesus and certain Jewish religious leaders, some have blamed “the Jews” as a people for Jesus’ death. Jesus was Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. His earliest followers were Jewish. The Jesus movement began within Judaism. Historically, however, Jesus was executed by the Roman state, even though the Gospels also portray certain Jewish leaders as involved in accusing Him.
Crucifixion was a brutal and humiliating Roman form of execution. The person was usually beaten, publicly mocked, and then fastened naked to a wooden cross or stake until death. It was slow, painful, and public. Rome used crucifixion especially for slaves, rebels, criminals, and people viewed as threats to public order.
Crucifixion was not only meant to kill a person. It was meant to shame the person and warn others not to challenge Roman power. When Christians talk about the cross, they are usually referring not only to the wooden instrument of execution, but to Jesus’ suffering, death, and the theological meaning Christians find in His crucifixion.
Many people wondered if Jesus was the Messiah. They hoped for Him to bring national restoration, political victory, and religious freedom. Thus, it was shocking when Jesus was crucified.
Why the Cross Was Shocking
For many people in Jesus’ world, crucifixion looked like failure, shame, and defeat.
If the Messiah was expected to bring restoration, victory, justice, and freedom, then being executed by Rome looked like the opposite. A crucified Messiah was not what people expected.
Christians came to believe that the cross was not an accident or defeat, but part of Jesus’ mission.
The cross is seen by many Christians as the place where Jesus revealed what obedience, mercy, forgiveness, sacrifice, and faithfulness to God looks like even under the worst possible circumstances—betrayal, false accusation, unjust trial, humiliation, suffering, and wrongful execution.
Sin: Living Outside God’s Rule
To understand why the cross matters in Christianity, it is important to understand the Christian idea of sin.
Sin is often described as disobedience to God, but it is deeper than simply breaking rules. Sin includes rebellion against God, corruption of the heart, separation from God, and failure to live according to truth, mercy, justice, and love.
Sin connects to Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God means living under God’s rule, then sin is what happens when one lives outside God’s rule.
Sin can appear in many forms including pride, greed, hatred, violence, hypocrisy, cruelty, selfishness, deceit, or simply a passive refusal to do what is good.
Though debates exist over exact definitions, all Christians generally agree that humanity needs rescue, forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, and transformation.
Sacrifice and Atonement in Jewish Context
Christians often interpret Jesus’ death using the language of sacrifice and atonement. Atonement means dealing with sin or impurity so that relationship with God can be restored.
In the Hebrew Scriptures, regular sacrifice was part of Israel’s covenant relationship with God. Offerings were brought to the temple. Priests served as mediators. Animal and grain sacrifices could express worship, thanksgiving, repentance, purification, and reconciliation.
The Gospels place Jesus’ death near the time of Passover. Passover is the Jewish festival remembering God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Early Christians connected Jesus with Passover imagery, especially ideas of deliverance, sacrifice, covenant, and freedom from bondage. This connection helped Christians understand Jesus’ death as part of a larger story of God rescuing His people. It is why some New Testament writings refer to Jesus with language like “the Lamb of God” or “our Passover Lamb.”
Drawing on temple sacrifice, atonement language, and Passover imagery, many Christian traditions teach that Jesus’ blood is central to forgiveness and salvation. They often point to biblical language about blood, sacrifice, and atonement. These ideas then connect Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross, with the sacrifices associated with atonement and reconciliation with God.
It’s important to note, however, that the Hebrew Scriptures include examples where grain offerings could be brought for certain sins when a person was poor. The Hebrew prophets also repeatedly emphasize repentance, mercy, justice, and returning to God. They often teach that God desires obedience and mercy more than empty ritual sacrifice. Therefore, the idea that blood is required for atonement is a doctrine that developed within Christianity, while Jewish tradition does not understand forgiveness as necessarily requiring blood.
For many Christians, Jesus’ death makes forgiveness possible because He gives Himself sacrificially on behalf of sinners. The cross is the saving act through which God deals with sin and opens the way for forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life.
Additionally, from the cross, Jesus asks God to forgive those who are killing Him. This is one of the most powerful examples of mercy in the Gospels.
The cross reveals how far human beings can fall into violence, injustice, and cruelty. At the same time, it reveals Jesus’ refusal to abandon faithfulness, forgiveness, and obedience to God.
Different Christian Views of the Cross
Christians agree that Jesus’ death is central to salvation, but they often explain the cross in different ways.
Some Christians emphasize substitution. In this view, Jesus gives Himself on behalf of sinners. He suffers for others, carries the consequences of sin, and does for humanity what humanity could not do for itself. This general idea appears across many Christian traditions, including Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theology, though each tradition explains it differently.
Penal substitution is a more specific form of the substitution view. In this view, Jesus bears the penalty of sin in the place of sinners. The cross is often explained in legal terms: humanity is guilty before God, sin deserves judgment, and Jesus takes that judgment on behalf of sinners. This view is especially common in many Protestant traditions, particularly Reformed, evangelical, Baptist, and some non-denominational churches.
Some Christians emphasize sacrifice and atonement. In this view, Jesus’ death is understood through the language of temple sacrifice, covenant, purification, and reconciliation with God. Jesus is often compared to the Passover lamb, the sacrificial offerings, or the priestly work of atonement. This view is important in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and many Protestant traditions, though they may explain the details differently.
Some Christians emphasize Christus Victor, meaning “Christ the Victor.” In this view, Jesus confronts and defeats the powers of sin, death, evil, and darkness. The cross is not mainly a legal punishment, but a victory over the forces that enslave humanity. This view was common in the early church and remains especially important in Eastern Orthodox theology. It is also found in some Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Anabaptist, and modern Protestant teaching.
Some Christians emphasize healing and restoration. In this view, Jesus enters human suffering and death in order to heal and restore humanity from within. The problem is not only guilt, but also corruption, sickness, bondage, mortality, and separation from God. This view is especially important in Eastern Orthodox theology, where salvation is often described as healing, transformation, and union with God. It is also present in Catholic and some Protestant traditions.
Many Christians combine several of these views. The cross is often understood as sacrifice, victory, example, reconciliation, healing, and restoration at the same time. Different denominations and traditions may emphasize one explanation more than another, but most Christian traditions see more than one meaning in the cross and the death of Jesus.
The Cross as Faithful Obedience
The cross is also understood as the ultimate example of faithful obedience to God.
Jesus remains faithful through betrayal, false accusation, unjust trial, humiliation, torture, and execution. He does not return evil for evil. He does not abandon God’s will when obedience becomes costly. He does not use violence, deception, or manipulation to save Himself. He doesn’t try to build God’s kingdom by force.
The cross demonstrates that faithful obedience to God is possible even under extreme suffering, injustice, and pressure.
Jesus’ death reveals what it looks like to trust God when people are unjust, dishonest, violent, corrupt, and cruel. It shows faithfulness in the middle of betrayal, abandonment, pain, and humiliation.
Jesus shows Christians the path they are called to follow: repentance, mercy, forgiveness, courage, honesty, integrity, and obedience to God.
Jesus calls His followers to “take up” their cross and follow Him. He is not telling them to seek suffering for its own sake or to passively accept evil. He is calling them to remain faithful to God no matter the cost. To take up the cross means being willing to obey God in all circumstances, even when faithfulness leads to rejection, loss, humiliation, suffering, or even death.
The Cross and the Resurrection
Christians do not separate the cross from the resurrection.
Without the resurrection, the cross looks like defeat. Jesus is betrayed, condemned, tortured, and killed.
In Christian belief, the resurrection is God’s vindication of Jesus and His faithfulness. It shows that suffering, injustice, and death do not have the final word.
The cross shows Jesus’ obedience even unto death. The resurrection shows God’s response to that obedience.
In section 4.7, we will look at the resurrection and the ascension of Christ.