The Meaning of the Cross, day 11

Welcome to week three and the eleventh day of our “40 Days of the Cross” series. Each day we are taking just a few minutes to look at a word which will help us better understand the meaning of the cross. 

Today’s word is unfair. We are all born with an innate sense of justice. From the earliest age we know when something is unfair. And we express it without hesitation, “Mom/Dad that’s not fair!” And we’d often get the response, “Life isn’t fair.” It was a hard lesson, but one we needed to learn. Life ISN’T fair. 

All of humankind is born with a selfish, broken, sinful nature that leads to unfairness. Yet there is that scale of justice in our hearts that makes us notice when things are unfair. You see, the justice of God is imprinted on the hearts of men so that we realize when things are unjust, and we see our need for a God of justice. That sense of justice in our hearts is one of the ways God tells us He is there. 

As we look at the cross, we can’t help but see it as unfair. Even a thief who hung beside him on another cross saw the unfairness of Jesus’ punishment. Luke 23 tells us that one of thieves who hung on one side of Jesus mocked Jesus on the cross. The other thief rebuked the first thief, saying, “Don’t you fear God? Aren’t you getting the same punishment as this man? We got what was coming to us, but he didn’t do anything wrong.” That thief, the followers of Jesus, and even Pilate the governor saw that Jesus’ death on the cross was unfair. Jesus had done nothing wrong. 

To compound the unfairness of the cross, Jesus was taking the punishment for our sins, a punishment we deserved. Romans 3:25 says, “God sent Christ to be OUR sacrifice. Christ offered HIS life’s blood, so that by faith in him WE could come to God.” Well, that’s not fair: Jesus paid the price so we could come to God? 

Not only does that seem to be unfair, we have to come to terms with the fact that God ORDAINED this act of unfairness. From the foundation of this world, God had planned to use the unfairness of the human heart to redeem the human heart. Does that make God unfair? It would - if Jesus was an unwilling victim. But Jesus chose the unfairness of the cross. It was an act of grace. We’ll talk more about grace tomorrow. 

After we close in prayer, please take a little time to meditate about how the cross was unfair, and how that unfairness redeemed those who believe in Christ and repent of their sins. 

Heavenly Father, the unfairness of the cross is evident, and we see how we reap the benefit of the sacrifice of Your Son. Help our sense of justice reveal your compassion and your greatness to our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Thanks for reading today. 

Continued tomorrow