WHAT have you done about the man who sacrificed His life for you?
What have you done with Jesus Christ who suffered and died to bring your soul into eternal life?
What have you done about the resurrection of this Saviour who lost everything to take you off the road to Hell?
Are you aware that in God’s eyes, all the evil and misery of the world is not the fault of any of the sinners on earth, but Jesus Christ is to blame for it all? “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,” Scripture says in II Corinthians 5:21.
If you ever needed any proof that there is a Hell and a Heaven beyond death, look at the details of the death of Jesus Christ. How could anyone ever accept to suffer for others like that?
Dr Luke records that His mother, Mary, was told that her Child was destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which would be spoken against. She was told of His forthcoming sufferings: “Yes, a sword shall pierce your own soul also.”
He gave up everything so that you should not die in your sins and open your eyes in the everlasting flames of Hell; but that you may live eternally in Heaven where death and all the pains and sorrows of this earth do not exist.
JUPITER
If you needed an idea of Hell, see the video images from the Galileo Space Probe, which was released near the planet Jupiter and sent into the 15,500 degrees centigrade super-massive gas planet on December 7, 1995.
The images show incredibly vicious storms with ceaseless thunder and lightning flashes in Jupiter’s endless cyclones. Its 360 km/h winds violently drive clouds. The planet’s famous Great Red Spot storm at times covers 12,000 kilometres in width, and 20,000 kilometres in length. That oval storm, producing winds reaching speeds of 680 km/h, is at least 600 years old.
NASA launched the spacecraft atop a Space Shuttle in 1989, and Galileo Orbiter lasted 78 minutes before dissolving in the gas planet’s dense atmosphere. I would suggest that this is one of God’s ways of confirming what Jesus Christ spoke about an eternal Hell—and even sacrificed Himself to save us from.
The key about Hell is that God created it for Satan and his legions of fallen angels, not human beings. Read carefully what Jesus Himself said in Matthew 25:41.
SCOURGING
Medical doctors and archeologists analyzing His sufferings have put together details of what He went through to save people from eternal judgment in Hell.
The Bible records that as Jesus struggled in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweated blood. This is a condition called hematohidrosis, a rare sign of severe stress. Jesus knew what He was going to suffer to pay for the eternal salvation of every individual in history.
In the first place, Luke records that Pontius Pilate acquitted Jesus Christ three times (Luke 23:4-22) of the accusations of blasphemy and high treason—and still allowed Him to be executed. This is injustice beyond injustice.
Historians believe that crucifixion was perfected in the Roman Empire as a form of torture and punishment designed to cause a slow death with maximum pain and suffering. Reserved only for slaves, foreigners, revolutionaries (rebels) and the most vile criminals, crucifixion was not applied to Roman citizens save for instances of army desertion.
Its origins are thought to be Persia, after which Alexander the Great introduced the practice to Egypt and Carthage (Tunisia). Archaeological and historical evidence strongly indicates that the low Tau cross was preferred by the Romans in Palestine at the time of Christ.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ was whipped or scourged before He was crucified by the Roman soldiers outside Jerusalem.
The scourging before the crucifixion served to weaken every man condemned to death by crucifixion on a cross. It was also intended to cause massive blood loss leading to sudden low blood pressure on standing up (orthostatie hypotension) and the failure of the heart to pump sufficient blood (hypovolemic shock).
Jesus was stripped naked, tied to an upright post and flogged with a whip with nine leather strips which had small iron balls and sharp pieces of sheep bone attached.
The sheer force of the Roman soldier’s whip saw the iron balls deeply bruise the exposed body while the leather thongs and bones cut into the skin and deeper inner tissues. The whips would tear into underlying skeletal muscles and bring out ribbons of bleeding flesh. Circulatory shock followed the massive pain and blood loss.
CROWN OF THORNS
Jesus was crowned with a crown made from the thorny branches of a deciduous tree found near Jerusalem but originally from Sudan, the Jujube tree. He was not merely crowned, but the one-inch thorns were hammered into the head.
Some historians hold that one or two thorns actually punctured the skull and pierced one of the eyes.
When the victim of such scourging was thrown to the ground on his back, in readiness for nailing of the hands, his scourging wounds most likely would become torn open again and contaminated with dirt. Furthermore, with each respiration, those painful wounds would be scraped against the rough wood of the cross pillar.
As a result, blood loss from the back probably would continue throughout the crucifixion ordeal. Jesus suffered all this.
THE CROSS
It was customary for the condemned man to carry his own cross from the flogging post to the site of crucifixion outside the city walls. He was usually naked, unless local customs so prohibited.
Since the entire cross weighed more than 136 kg, only the crossbar (patibulum) which weighed between 34 and 57 kg was carried. The crossbar was placed across the nape of the victim’s neck and balanced along both shoulders. The outstretched arms were tied to the crossbar.
Given that the condemned man had already been flogged with tools that mutilated the flesh, this walk of dishonour deepened the suffering. Jesus Christ, in His battered state, failed to carry the crossbar across the whole distance of 650 metres, and needed help. Simon of Cyrene was made to carry the cross for Him.
A full Roman military guard led the processional to the site of crucifixion, with a centurion at its head. One of the soldiers carried a sign (titulus) on which the condemned man’s name and crime were displayed. Later, the titulus would be attached to the top of the cross. The Roman guard would not leave the victim until they were sure of his death.
There were heavy upright wooden pillars (stipes) permanently located outside the city walls, on which the crossbar (patibulum) would be secured.
To prolong the crucifixion process, a horizontal wooden block or plank, serving as a crude seat (sedile or sedulum), often was attached midway down the pillar. Only very rarely, and probably later than the time of Christ, was an additional block (suppedaneum) employed for transfixion of the feet.
At the site of execution, by law, the victim was given a bitter drink of wine mixed with myrrh (gall) as a mild pain-killer. The criminal was then thrown to the ground on his back, with his arms outstretched along the crossbar.
NAILED
The hands could be nailed or tied to the crossbar, but the Romans apparently preferred to nail the criminal.
The archaeological remains of a crucified body, found in an ossuary near Jerusalem and dating from the time of Christ, indicate that the nails were tapered iron spikes approximately 13 to 18 cm long with a square shaft one centimetre across.
Furthermore, ossuary findings and the Shroud of Turin (an ancient burial cloth believed to be the one in which Jesus was buried) have documented that the nails were commonly driven through the wrists rather than the palms.
The nails cut the median nerve that linked the hands to the spine. The same nails pierced the feet, severing the plantar nerve. The suffocating individual would try to raise the chest and straighten the legs to breathe, only to suffer unspeakable pain.
Death by crucifixion brought dizziness, muscle cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, prolonged torment, open wounds, the horror of approaching death… and shame. That left the person just nearly unconscious.
After both arms were fixed to the crossbar, and the victim was lifted onto the pillar. On the low cross, four soldiers could accomplish this relatively easily. However, on the tall cross, the soldiers used either wooden forks or ladders.
Evidence suggests that nailing the feet to the cross was the preferred Roman practice. Although the feet could be fixed to the sides of the main pillar or to a wooden footrest, they usually were nailed directly to the front of the wooden pillar. To accomplish this, legs may have been rotated sideways.
When the nailing was completed, the titulus was attached to the cross, by nails or cords, just above the victim’s head.
Medical authorities that have studied the crucifixion of Jesus Christ say that the ligaments and bones of the wrist can support the weight of a body hanging from them, but the palms cannot.
Most commonly, the feet were fixed to the front of the pillar by means of an iron spike driven between the bones of the feet, namely through the first or second inter metatarsal space, near to the ankle joint. Most likely, several vital nerves in the feet were injured by the nails, crippling movement and sensation in the legs.
No wonder Andrae Crouch sang, I don’t know why Jesus loved me; I don’t know why He cared; I don’t know why He sacrificed His life; Oh, but I’m glad; so glad He did.
RESPIRATION
Beyond the excruciating pain, it was impossible to breathe out.
The weight of the body, pulling down on the outstretched arms and shoulders, fixed the chest muscles in a state of breathing in or inhalation, thereby hindering passive exhalation.
Breathing became shallow. It is likely that this form of respiration would not suffice and the blood would have too much carbon dioxide, leading to muscle cramps or tetanic contractions, by fatigue. This would further hinder respiration.
To breathe out adequately, the person would be forced to lift the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and raising the shoulders. However, this action would place the entire weight of the body on the bones in the ankle (tarsals) and produce searing pain.
Furthermore, any movement of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves. Lifting of the body would also painfully scrape the scourged back against the rough wooden pillar. Muscle cramps and the sense of pins and needles in the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort.
As a result, each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring, leading eventually to suffocation (asphyxia). It took horrendous effort for Jesus to speak from that cross.
Death by crucifixion had many causes all operating at the very same time: Dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, public shame, long continued torment, horror of anticipation, and mortification of untended wounds.
However, the drastic loss of blood, exhaustion and suffocation were the main causes. Other possible contributing factors included dehydration, irregular heartbeat caused by stress (stress-induced arrhythmias), and congestive heart failure with the rapid accumulation of pericardial and perhaps pleural effusions.
On account of the severe scourging before the nailing onto the cross, the criminal could survive from three to four hours to three or four days. The Roman soldiers could hasten death by breaking the legs below the knees (erurifragium or skelokopia).
In the case of Jesus Christ, so extreme were His scourging and so deep His heartbreak that He was dead before His legs could be broken. All this happened with the soldiers and the crowd jeering and mocking Him. The soldiers customarily divided up his clothes among themselves.
Notably, insects would enter into the open wounds or the eyes, ears, and nose of the dying and helpless victim, and birds of prey would tear away at such sites. Mel Gibson’s 2004 epic drama Passion of the Christ at a certain point shows a crow picking out the eyes of one of the two criminals who died with Jesus.
Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to be devoured by predatory animals. Roman law allowed the family of the condemned to take the body for burial with permission from the Roman judge. The body was not released to the family until the soldiers were fully certain that the victim was dead.
The means of verifying was for a Roman guard to pierce the body with a sword or lance, for which soldiers were specially trained. Jesus Christ, according to the Gospels, suffered a spear wound to the heart.
GOOD NEWS
No other name is given under Heaven by which we may be saved (Acts 4:12).
The good news is that this long-suffering Saviour rose from the dead on the third day: If you talk to Him in faith and repent of your sins, and ask for His forgiveness, and welcome the Holy Spirit in your heart, you shall be saved. This is what He is waiting for; this is what He died for.
Consider this question in Hebrews 2:3, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
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