on the cross

I don’t know about you, but this is often the only thing that comes to mind when someone asks about the cross:

Why did Jesus die for me? Because he loves me.

True, but equally true and arguably more important is this:

Why did Jesus die for me? Because I was bad and I deserved to die on that cross, not him.

We – all who trust in Jesus’ promise that the cross has set us free from death – are all alike. We are the sinful firstborn of Abraham who was spared sacrificial death because God promised that the death of a lamb instead would suffice. We are the firstborn of faithless Israel in Egypt, spared fatal judgement because a firstborn passover lamb took our place. We are the convict Yeshua bar-Abbas, the sinful son of the father, spared from execution at the last minute because the firstborn son of the father who shares our name, Yeshua bar-Joseph, went to the cross in our place.