This is the last in the series of three posts about the Christian concept of salvation through the cross.
The first post was "Is Salvation Through The Cross Possible?"
The second post was "Did Jesus Christ Go Willingly On The Cross?"
The first post was "Is Salvation Through The Cross Possible?"
The second post was "Did Jesus Christ Go Willingly On The Cross?"
For a person to be crucified he must die on the cross. So if I could anyhow prove from the Bible that Jesus Christ did NOT die on the cross then there is NO crucifixion and also NO salvation through the cross.
It was Sunday morning, when Mary Magdalene alone (Mark 16:9 and John 20:1) visited the tomb of Jesus.
The question arises: "Why did she go there?" "TO ANOINT HIM", Mark 16:1 tells us. The Hebrew word for anoint is "masaha", which means to rub, to massage, to anoint. The second question is: "Do Jews, Christians or Muslims massage dead bodies after 3 days?"
The answer is "No!"
It would, however, make sense if she was looking for a LIVE person.
Jesus disguises as a gardener. WHY? Because of fearing the Jews. Do dead bodies fear Jews?
No, of course NOT because dead bodies do not die twice as the Book of Hebrews 9:27 says
". . . it is ordained unto all men ONCE to die, and after that the judgement."
So Jesus disguised as a gardener to save his life because he was alive.
Mad with happiness, Mary Magdalene lunges forward to grab her Master, to pay reverence.
Jesus says,
"Touch me not!For I am not yet ASCENDED unto my Father."(John 20:17)
Jesus is saying: "I HAVE NOT DEAD YET!" "I AM ALIVE!"
"And they (the disciples), when they heard that he was ALIVE, and had been seen by her (Mary Magdalene), they BELIEVED NOT."(Mark 16:11)
When Jesus(pbuh) goes to his disciples and says,
"Sholam Alekum" meaning "May peace be on you"(Luke 24:36)
"But they(disciples) were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit."
(Luke 24:37)
They were afraid for they thought they were seeing the born again ghost of Jesus(pbuh) they had heard everything from heresy, since ". . . THEY ALL FORSOOK HIM AND FLED."(Mark 14:50)
Seeing his disciples fear and guessing their mind Jesus(pbuh) says
"Behold (have a look at) my hands and my feet, that it is I myself (I am the same fellow, man!): handle me and see; for A SPIRIT has no flesh and bones, as you see me have.. . . And he showed them his hands and his feet."(Luke 24:39-40)
In other words, Jesus was telling his disciples, when he said: "Behold my HANDS and my FEET", that the body he wanted them to see, feel and touch was not a SPIRITUAL body, nor a METAMORPHOSED body, nor a RESURRECTED body. Because a resurrected "body"becomes spiritualised!
One may ask "Who says that resurrected persons will be spiritualised?"I say, "Jesus!" He asks: "Where?" I say: "In the Gospel of Luke; go back four chapters from where Jesus said: 'A spirit has no flesh and bones', that is, to Luke 20:27-36, and you will see. . .". The Jews were coming to Jesus again and again with posers and riddles. They come to him concerning a Jewess who had seven husbands, according to a Jewish practice - if one man dies leaving no offspring behind, then the 2nd brother of the deceased husband takes her to wife, to give her his seed. But when he fails and dies, the 3rd takes her on; and so on and so on. In the case before Jesus, seven brothers had this one woman, one after another. All the seven brothers died, and in time, the woman also died. There was no problem while each was trying to fulfil his duty - it was ONE by ONE! But the question of the Jews was that, at the RESURRECTION, which one was going to have this woman, because they had all "HAD" her here! The picture the Jews are trying to conjure up in Jesus' mind is that if the seven brothers are resurrected simultaneously at the RESURRECTION, and the woman also, then there will be a war in heaven among the seven brothers, all claiming the woman as his own wife, because they had "all had her". In short, which fellow will have this woman as his wife in heaven? In answer to that, Jesus says: "Neither shall they die anymore" - meaning that the resurrected persons will be immortalised: Needing no food, no shelter, no clothing, no sex, no rest. "For they are equal unto the angels," meaning that they will be ANGELISED, they will be SPIRITUALISED, they will become SPIRITUAL CREATURES, they will be
SPIRITS! As regards himself, four chapters further on he says: "A spirit has no flesh and bones, as you see me have" - I am NOT a spirit, I am NOT a ghost, I am NOT a spook, I am NOT RESURRECTED! I am the same living Jesus - ALIVE!
To assure them further, to calm their shaky nerves, he asks: "Have you here any meat",
i.e. anything to eat? "And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and he took it, and DID EAT before them." To prove what? To prove that he was ALIVE.
Matthew records that the learned men among the Jews -the Scribes and Pharisees - came to Jesus and asked,
"MASTER, WE WOULD SEE A SIGN FROM THEE".(Matthew 12:38).
With righteous indignation Jesus replies:
"AN EVIL AND ADULTEROUS GENERATION SEEKETH AFTER A SIGN; AND THERE SHALL NO SIGN (no miracle) BE GIVEN TO IT, BUT THE SIGN (miracle) OF THE PROPHET JONAS: FOR AS JONAS WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE WHALE'S BELLY; SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH." (Matthew 12:39-40).
SO JESUS(PBUH) PUTS ALL HIS SIGNS AT STAKE FOR A SINGLE SIGN, THE SIGN OF JONAH. What was the "sign" (miracle) of Jonah?
God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the Ninevites to repent from their "evil ways,
and from the violence that is in their hands." (Jonah 3:8) But Jonah was loath to go as a warner unto the Ninevites, so he goes to Joppa instead of Nineveh, and takes a boat to run away from the Lord's command. While at sea, there was a terrible tempest. According to the superstition of the mariners, a person fleeing from his Master's command creates such a turmoil at sea. They began to enquire among themselves and said,
"COME, AND LET US CAST LOTS, (like the tossing of a coin, "head" or "tail") THAT WE MAY KNOW FOR WHOSE CAUSE THIS EVIL IS UPON US. SO THEY CAST LOTS, AND THE LOT FELL UPON JONAH." (Jonah 1:7)
Though there was a temporary lapse on the part of Jonah in fulfilling his mission, he manfully and most courageously volunteers:
"AND HE SAID UNTO THEM TAKE ME UP, AND CAST ME FORTH INTO THE SEA; SO SHALL THE SEA BE CALM UNTO YOU: FOR I KNOW THAT FOR MY SAKE THIS GREAT TEMPEST IS UPON YOU." (Jonah 1:12)
When the shipmaster and the crew threw him overboard, was Jonah dead or alive?
ALIVE!
A fish swallows Jonah. Was he dead or alive when swallowed?
ALIVE!
Was he dead or alive when "JONAH PRAYED UNTO THE LORD HIS GOD OUT OF THE FISH'S BELLY?" (Jonah 2:1)
ALIVE! Surely dead men don't cry and don't pray!
For three days and three nights the fish takes him around the ocean: dead or alive?
ALIVE!
On the third day it vomits him on the seashore: dead or alive? A-L-I-V-E!
What had Jesus prophesied about himself? He said: "AS JONAH WAS ..... SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE" "soos Jonah" - "njenga Jonah" - LIKE JONAH. And how was Jonah? Was he dead or alive for three days and three nights? Alive! ALIVE! ALIVE!
Some Christian missionaries argue that the prophecy is about the time factor?
Lets consider it.
Jesus was put in the tomb on Friday evening and he was NOT in the tomb by Sunday morning. So
he must have escaped from the tomb before the Sunday morning. Hence he was in the tomb for
the Friday night, Saturday day and Saturday night, that would be 2 nights and 1 day, while the prophecy says 3 days and 3 nights. SO IT DOES NOT FULFILL THE TIME FACTOR. NOW THE ONLY THING TO FULFILL THE PROPHECY WOULD BE FOR JESUS(PBUH) TO BE ALIVE?
Lets check the Bible to see if Jesus(pbuh) fulfills the prophecy or not.
According to the Gospel writers, the Jews and the Romans managed to have Jesus on the cross by the 6th hour, that is by 12 noon; and by the 9th hour(Matthew 27:46), that is, by 3 o'clock he had given up the ghost - he had died (?). Strange people, these Jews! As much as they were in a hurry to mount Jesus on the cross, no sooner had they succeeded, they were once more agitated to bring him down. Can you imagine why? Their religious scruples - the Sabbath! They were warned in the "fifth Book of Moses":
"His body (any crucified person) shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day, (for he that is hanged is accursed of God), that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance."(Deuteronomy 21:23)
Was the prayer of Jesus (pbuh) being answered? He had cried to the loving father in heaven for help, with strong crying and tears:
"And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground."(Luke 22:44)
Paul confirms that his supplications did not fall on deaf ears:
"Who, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was HEARD in that he feared."(Hebrews 5:7)
What does it mean "God heard" his prayers! It means that God accepted his prayers. Now Jesus cried for help, and God heard (accepted) his prayers:
"And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him."(Luke 22:43)
Strengthening him in the faith, in the hope that God will save him. This is actually what he was beseeching God to do for him. When and how rests alone in the Hands of God. His ways are not our ways. Count the blessings so far:
(a) An assurance from Heaven.
(b) Pilate finds him, not guilty!(John 18:38)
(c) His wife shown a dream in which she is told that no harm should come to Jesus.
(Matthew 27:19).
(d) Legs not broken!(Psalm 34:20)*
(e) In a hurry to bring him down from the cross.
*The fourth above: "and they break not his legs", we are told was in fulfillment of a prophecy:
"He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken."(Psalm 34:20)
If the bones of a victim were to be protected from harm, then they could only be of benefit if the person was ALIVE!
SO JESUS(PBUH) WAS ALIVE LIKE JONAH AND FULFILLED THE PROPHECY.
Christians may ask now, then what is the real way of attaining salvation in Christianity?I would let Jesus(pbuh) himself answer this question for you.
"And behold, one came and said unto him, ‘Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, ‘Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."[The Bible, Mathew 19:16-17]
One of the scribes once asked Jesus (pbuh) as to which was the first commandment of all, to which Jesus (pbuh) merely repeated what Moses (pbuh) had said earlier:
"Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adonai Ikhad."
This is a Hebrew quotation, which means:
"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord."[The Bible, Mark 12:29]
