Why the Cross?

“He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:8.

There are many ways to die! By an accident; by the hands of an evil person; on a battlefield or even by our own hands, which some are most foolishly seeking to legalise!

Why was the cross chosen by God as the means by which our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, should die?

It was in the darkness of the night that this matter arose in my mind. In the morning I began a search of my Bible wherever the word ‘cross’ appeared. One needs ever to refresh one’s knowledge of the truths of God. Thus the Psalmist  said of the “blessed man” that “his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night,” Psalm 1.

When I came on my text I saw that my question was wonderfully answered.

I. TO MAKE ATONEMENT FOR THE SINS OF HIS ELECT CHRIST MUST DESCEND TO THE DEPTHS OF HUMILIATION.

1. This was because He had to became as our sin. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Christ on the cross pictures the sinfulness, the gravity of sin, in the sight of God! The humiliation of Christ was of God! It was ‘He’ who heaped humiliation upon the Saviour!

That was because Christ had assumed our sin and became ‘sin’ in the sight of the Father and was therefore treated by Him as such.

2. Sin is the lowest state into which man can sink! Mankind fell by Adam’s transgression and the humiliation of Christ on the cross, when He bore our sin, illustrates how far man fell. Mankind does not feel or know how low they are before God. Self-opinion is always very high! However, the humiliations and sufferings of Christ on the cross indicate and illustrate where sin has brought mankind!

3. When the sinner upon death is committed to everlasting damnation, in truth he has not sunk any further than when he was alive, he is just being committed to that place befitting his dreadful state. When the prisoner is taken from the dock to the prison cell, he does not become more guilty or depraved. He is being confined to that place appropriate to his sinfulness.

II. CHRIST’S DESCENT TO THE CROSS WAS BY STAGES.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:5-8.

1. Christ’s eternal and glorious state. Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God, was and is very God existing with his Father from before the beginning of all things.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” John 1:1-3.

2. He is the ‘express’ image of the Father.

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” John 14:9.

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them,” 2 Corinthians 4:4.

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:1-3.

3. From the heights of Glory Christ descended. I repeat the words of Paul.

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,” Philippians 2:6-7.

This was a voluntary act – “Made himself of no reputation.”

It was an act that was the ultimate in humiliation. He “made himself of no reputation.” The words, “of no reputation” is a translation of the Greek word kenoo. It means that Christ made Himself ‘void’, that is ‘empty, nothingness’!

He did this by taking “upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

That means, in truth, sinful man, contrary to his own notions of himself, is void and empty and nothing! Void of all righteousness or standing in the sight of God.

How far wrong was the Pharisee when he said of himself: “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess,” Luke 18:11-12. Self-righteousness is an empty boast!

4. The final step of humiliation for the Saviour was the cross. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:8.

Many years ago, I read the wonderful description of the Saviour’s suffering by that master preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

‘The whole of the punishment of His people was distilled into one cup—no mortal lips might give it so much as a solitary sip. When He put it to His own lips, it was so bitter, He well nigh spurned it, “Let this cup pass from me.” But His love for His people was so strong that He took the cup in both His hands and

‘At one tremendous draught of love
He drank damnation dry,’

for all His people. He drank it all, He endured all, He suffered all—so that now forever there are no flames of hell for them, no racks of torment. They have no eternal woes—Christ has suffered all they ought to have suffered and they must, they shall go free. The work was completely done by Himself, without a helper.’

That is what the Scripture means when it says Christ was made, “to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

There are ’no flames of hell’ for those for whom Christ suffered and died on the cross!

We enter into this blessed state and experience the joy of salvation when we BELIEVE and REST upon this truth!

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. . . . He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:18, 36.

How is it with you, dear reader?

III. THIS GLORIOUS AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE ACT OF MERCY BY THE SAVIOUR HAS BROUGHT HIM LIKE GLORY AND HONOUR!

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Philippians 2:9-11.

1. That is Christ’s present state. ‘The glory that He had eternally, but veiled for a time, emerging like the sun out of a cloud, upon his finishing the work given Him to do, of the Father.’ (Matthew Poole).

The Greek  phrase ‘hath highly exalted’ means ‘to exalt to the highest rank and power, raise to supreme majesty.’

How differently does God the Father, the angels in heaven and the saints who have passed into glory, speak of Christ from how He is referred to by unconverted men., who daily use His blessed name as a blasphemy and an expletive!

Let Christians ever use His name with reverence and honour!

2. There is a day coming when He will be seen by all, as the ‘Glorious One’. It is a day when Christ will be REVEALED to mankind in His glory. For that day, every Christian should be waiting with earnest longing!

As Paul said of the change grace made in the converted Thessalonians, even so should it be with every Christian.

“For they (the people all around) themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come,” 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10.

What a day that will be!

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS,” Revelation 19:11-16.

It is amazing and incomprehensible that so few preachers seem to dwell on Scriptures such as this and so bring before the minds of God’s people, vexed amidst the wickedness of this world, what glory lies ahead for them!

It is with words such as these that we “comfort one another,” 1 Thessalonians 4:18.

3. It is on this day and forever thereafter, that all will render unto God the honour that He is due. “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Philippians 2:10-11.

The grace and mercy embodied in the cross will then be understood, by the converted with humble gladness and joy; by the unconverted and lost eternally in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8) with everlasting vexation and misery!

‘Then shall his equality with his Father, and his superlative glory as Mediator, be manifested to all, good and bad, angels as well as men, who shall be subjected to his sovereign Majesty, as the Lord God omnipotent; the good willingly, and the bad by constraint.’ (Matthew Poole).

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,” 2 Corinthians 5:10.

The atheist, the agnostic, the mocker and the blasphemer — all will one day own and acknowledge the glory of the One they chose to despise and reject (Isaiah 53:3).

They shall own His power and glory in their inability to resist His condemning them to eternal damnation!

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: . . . And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal,” Matthew 25:41, 46.

Again, dear reader, I appeal to you to consider how you stand before God. Are you yet in your sin? If so, mercy shows you, through the Gospel, what most certainly lies ahead of you — an eternity of fiery judgment.

But the Gospel also points you to the way to heaven. As the prophet of old said: “This is the way, walk ye in it,” Isaiah 30:21. The way, of course, is Christ.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6.

Come by faith and in obedience to the Gospel call, to the Saviour today.

Remember, it is said: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Acts 2:21.

Your welcome reception by Christ is assured by Him.

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,” John 6:37.

There is a ‘casting out’ for those who reject the Gospel, but not for those who heed the Saviour’s call and come to Him.

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
13th December 2025