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Crucifixion – The Physical Suffering of Jesus

By Jeremy Myers
95 Comments

Crucifixion – The Physical Suffering of Jesus

I apologize in advance for the graphic nature of this post about the crucifixion of Jesus.

We all know Jesus was crucified. But since nobody is crucified today, few of us realize how painful and gruesome crucifixion was. Two thousand years of separation has sanitized it. For example, if you do an image search on Google for crucifixion, most of the images of Jesus are pretty clean. It looks like he stepped out of a shower, climbed up on the cross, and had some nails driven through his hands and feet…which hardly bled at all.

If there is one thing we can thank Mel Gibson for, it is showing us the graphic and torturous nature of the crucifixion in his movie, The Passion of the Christ. Here is an image from the movie which is somewhat closer to how Jesus probably appeared:

Death of Jesus

While I have no desire to be provocative in explaining the details of the crucifixion of Jesus, I do think it is important for us to understand the physical suffering of Jesus as it shows us how much we are loved and what he went through for us.

2015 Edit: My thinking has changed quite a bit since I wrote this article over ten years ago. Today, I am not so sure that Jesus wants us to know how much pain and suffering He experienced on the cross. To learn more about how my thinking has changed, sign up at the bottom of this page to receive my emails about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through that sequence of emails, I show how my thinking has changed about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

History of Crucifixion

The first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians, and it was closer to impaling a person on a sharpened pole than what we think of as crucifixion. In the book of Esther, Haman builds a “gallows” 75 feet tall upon which he wanted to hang Mordecai (Esther 5:14). This was not a hangman’s gallows like we see in Western movies with the looped noose, but was a large pole stuck into the ground, with the top sharpened to a point. A person was impaled on this stake, and hung there until they died. The Persians became quite skilled at knowing how to impale a person so they stayed alive for several days.

The Greeks brought crucifixion back to the Mediterranean world during the reign of Alexander the Great. The Romans learned crucifixion from the Carthaginians, and rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill in carrying it out. This type of torture was normally reserved for traitors, criminals, and murderers.

The Crucifix

There were several different types of crosses that were used over the years. The first type, as I indicated, was simply a sharpened stake in the ground. Later, as rulers sought to prolong the life of the person, they developed the T-type structure we are more familiar with in movies and pictures today.

It was made of two pieces. The upright portion of the cross was called the stipes. The blood of the victim ran down this vertical piece of wood, forming stripes on the surface. Remember that in Isaiah 53, it says that by his stripes we are healed.

Crucifixion crossThe arm of the cross, or the horizontal part was then attached to the upright piece. Most often, we think of the cross as the one we so often see in pictures, with the horizontal piece about one-fourth to one-third of the way down the vertical piece. But historians and archeologists tells us that probably, the shape of the cross that Christ died on was more like a capital T than a lower case t. This piece was known as the patibulum, and it is this form of the cross that was most often used in Christ’s day. There was also an X-shaped cross, but this was rarely used in the days of Jesus.

Sometimes, in the crucifixion of notorious criminals, a small sign was added to the top of the crucifix, stating the victim’s crime. This was called the titulus. The picture on the right shows the criminal on the T-shaped cross, and cross of Jesus with a titulus. According to John 19:19, the titulus of Jesus read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

The upright post (stipes) was permanently fixed in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum from the prison to the place of execution. When John 19:17 says that Jesus carried his cross, it was not the entire cross, but just the patibulum. The entire cross would generally have been too heavy for one man to lift. Even the patibulum proved too much for some men, as it generally weighed about 110 punds, and after the beating which many of them received, could not carry that weight too far.

Crucifixion Methods

There were a couple different ways of “attaching” the victim to the cross, and it all depended on how long the authorities wanted the victim to live. Sometimes, the victim was simply tied to the cross, and they died from starvation. If they were offered water to drink, they could live for weeks before dying.

Crucifixion nailIf the authorities wanted a quicker death, they would generally drive nails into the hands and feet of the victim. The nails were not driven into the palms of the hands as most pictures show. Rather, they were driven through the wrist near the hands. If the spikes were driven through the hands, the weight of the person would cause the nail to rip through the hands and the victim would fall off the cross. But when driven through the wrist, the set of bones which attach the wrist to the hand keep the hands from ripping free.

Even then, the crucified victim rarely died from blood loss. Most often, they died from asphyxiation, that is, the inability to breathe. Before the nail was driven through the victim’s feet, the legs were bent at the knee so that the bottom of one foot was flat against the vertical beam. One foot was placed on top of the other, and one long nail was driven through both feet. When the cross was erected, the weight of the body caused the victim to slump, putting all the weight of the body on the nails through the wrists. This also caused compression on the lungs, which kept the victim from inhaling. As long as he was slumped down, he could not take in breath.

Crucifixion feetTo take a breath, the victim would have to stand up on the nail through his feet, causing excruciating pain in the feet, but enabling him to take a breath. As long as he was putting all his weight on his feet, he could breathe. But when that became too painful, he would slump back down, putting all his weight on his wrists, and also returning to the condition of not being able to breathe.

Eventually, the victim would become so weak, they could no longer lift themselves up on their feet to take a breath, and they would die from asphyxiation. Some of the stronger victims could last for up to a few days in this state. To speed up a victim’s death, the authorities might command that his legs be broken so that he could no longer raise himself to take a breath. Once the legs were broken, the victim would die within a few minutes.

Let us turn now to look at the specific details of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.

The Trial of Jesus

Crucifixion HengelNote: Much of the following information comes from Martin Hengel’s work on Crucifixion, and from an article written by Dr. Truman Davis called “A Physician Testifies About the Crucifixion.”

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest. It is here the first physical trauma is inflicted. A soldier strikes Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas. The palace guards then blind Him with a cloth, and taunt Him to identify them as they pass by. They also spit on Him, strike Him in the face, and pull out His beard. Spitting on someone was the lowest form of disgrace to a person in that time. Furthermore, while we do not know exactly how many guards participated, we know from history that the palace guard consisted of 900-1200 soldiers. Even if only ten percent participated, Jesus endured a lot of shame, disgrace, and pain at the hands of the soldiers.

In the early morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night is taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the fortress Antonio, the seat of government of the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Pilate tries to pass the responsibility to Herod, the tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no harm at the hands of Herod and is returned to Pilate. It was then in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate orders Barabbas released, and condemns Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.

The Scourging of Jesus

Preparations for the scourging are carried out. Jesus is stripped of His clothing, and His hands are tied to a post above His head so that the flesh of the shoulders and the back are stretched to the limit. The Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than 40 lashes which is why Paul several times received 39 lashes. But the Romans made no attempt to follow Jewish law in this matter and Jesus probably received many more.

Crucifixion Scourging

When the back of Jesus is bared and stretched tight, a Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (sometimes it is called a flagellum or cat-of-nine-tails) in his hand. It is a short whip consisting of nine heavy leather thongs, each with small lead balls, embedded with bits of glass, stone, or bone attached near the ends. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again on the shoulders, back, and legs of Jesus.

At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissue, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead, bits of glass, and stone produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Eventually, the skin on the back hangs in long ribbons, and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn bleeding tissue.

The blows do not hit just the back either. When the long strands of the flagellum strike, they wrap around the victim’s body and dig into the front and sides of the body. Then the flagellum is quickly pulled back, violently ripping and tearing the flesh off the body. Sometimes, in the process, a victim will have several ribs broken by the lead balls. This probably did not happen with Jesus since it was prophesied that none of His bones would be broken. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.

reflections on Christ - crucifixionThe half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, soaked with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see an opportunity to make a joke out of Him. Here is a provincial Jew claiming to be a king, but was now barely alive. So they throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. To make the travesty complete, a small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns are woven into the shape of a crown and pressed into His scalp. Since head wounds always bleed a lot, the blood runs down His face and into His eyes.

After mocking Him and striking Him across the face some more, the soldiers take the “scepter” from His hand and strike Him on the head, which drives the thorns deeper into His scalp. After they tire of their sadistic sport, the robe is torn from His back. It had already adhered to the clots of blood and ribbons of flesh on His back, and had begun to dry in the hot mid-eastern sun. The tearing of the robe from His back, just like the careless removal of a surgical bandage from a wound, causes excruciating pain as wounds reopen and more flesh is torn from His back.

Crucifixion artMost artists do not even come close in depicting what Jesus looked like after all of this torture. He was probably the most inhuman looking thing you’ve ever seen. The prophet Isaiah wrote of the Messiah: “They shall see the Servant of God beaten and bloodied, an object of horror; so disfigured many were astonished. His face and His whole appearance were marred more than any man’s, one would scarcely know it was a person…” (Isa 52:14).

The Journey to Golgotha

The soldiers then take the heavy patibulum, and tie it roughly to Jesus’ shoulders. The procession leads down the Via Dolerosa. With Jesus are the two thieves who will be crucified with Him, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers. They walk slowly through the crowded streets. Some people jeer and mock. Others shrink back in horror.

In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by blood loss, is too much for Jesus. He frequently stumbles and falls. When He does so, the rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of His shoulders and sends splinters deep into His skin. At one point, He tries to rise, but human muscles had been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selected a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the crossbeam. Jesus follows behind, still bleeding, and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock.

After the 650-yard journey from the fortress Antonio to Golgotha is complete, the crucifixion begins.
Crucifixion

The Crucifixion

Prior to nailing Jesus to the cross, He is offered wine mixed with myrrh (Mark 15:23). This was a mild anesthesia, and was intended to help numb the pain. Jesus refuses this drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground, and Jesus is roughly thrown backward upon it with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist, places a spike in the depression, and quickly drives a heavy, square, wrought iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. He moves to the other side and repeats the action, making sure he does not pull the arms too tightly. The patibulum is then hoisted to the top of the stipes, and the titulus is nailed into place.

The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. Death by crucifixion now begins.

As Jesus slowly sags down with the weight of His body on the nails through His wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the most sensitive nerve endings in the body – called the median nerves – and travels along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain.

At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps come the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed, and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. He can draw air into the lungs, but it cannot be exhaled.

Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself to exhale and bring in more life-giving oxygen. Doing so, however, comes at a price. To get a breath and relieve the pain in His arms and chest, He pushes Himself upward, placing His full weight on the nail through His feet. The searing agony transfers from His wrists to His feet, tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. Nevertheless, He gets a breath, and sags back down. It is undoubtedly during these periods of breathing that He uttered His seven short sentences which are recorded in the Gospels.

When air is so precious, and each breath so painfully won, He still uses that breath to communicate with people who are near. The first sentence, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, is “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In my mind, this is one of the most remarkable statements in all of Scripture.

The second statement, to the penitent thief, is “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken John (the beloved apostle), He says, “Behold, your mother,” and looking at Mary, “Woman, behold your son.” He was telling them to take care of each other.

The fourth cry is from the beginning of Psalm 22, and shows that not only was Jesus experiencing great physical torment, but was also undergoing intense spiritual pain. He says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting cramps, and intermittent partial asphyxiation, eventually lead to another type of pain. He begins to experience a deep, crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum, and begins to compress the heart. This did not happen to all victims of crucifixion, but was known to occur. In the case of Jesus, it sped up His death. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level, the compressed heart is struggling to pump thick, heavy blood into the tissues, and the tortured lungs make a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.

Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.” In response, a sponge soaked in Poska, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. Since this was different from the drugged wine He had been offered earlier (Mark 15:23), He did drink some of this (John 19:29-30). The body is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth saying, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.”

Crucifixion handHis mission of atonement is nearly complete. Finally, He can allow His body to die. With one last surge of strength, He presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, looks into heaven, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

While it generally took about two or three days for a crucified victim to die on the cross, due to the loss of blood and the compression upon His heart due to lungs filled with fluid, Jesus died in about six hours. Since the crucifixion took place on the eve of a Sabbath (probably not a Saturday Sabbath, but a Passover holiday Sabbath), and because it was against Jewish law for a crucified person to hang on the cross during a Sabbath, the Roman soldiers come around to break the legs of those being crucified.

When this was done, the victim was then unable to lift themselves up in order to breathe. They would be able to draw in air, but not be able to exhale it. When the legs were broken, it was only a matter of a few minutes before the victim would die of suffocation.

So the legs of the two thieves were broken, but when they came to Jesus, He is already dead. The legionnaire drives a spear into Jesus’ heart to see if He was dead. Scripture reports that “immediately there came out blood and water.” Jesus’ legs did not have to be broken, which fulfilled the Scripture that said that none of the Messiah’s bones would be broken.

Jesus is taken down from the cross, wrapped in burial clothes, and laid in a stone tomb.

Why is it important to know this?

Why am I sharing this? Because we need to know what Christ went through for us. He went through all of this because He loves us. My purpose is not to make you feel guilty, but for you to see how great the love of Jesus is. But let not your heart be troubled… for the resurrection is coming!

To understand the REAL significance of the crucifixion, get my new book, The Atonement of God.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: cross, crucifixion, cruciform, crucivision, death of Jesus, Easter, resurrection, Theology of Jesus

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Is Easter Named after a Sex Goddess?

By Jeremy Myers
28 Comments

Is Easter Named after a Sex Goddess?

On Easter, someone probably said to you, “Happy Sex Goddess Day!”

No? That didn’t happen?

Well, it probably did, and you just didn’t know it.

Easter = Pagan Sex Goddess

Have you ever wondered why we call the day that Jesus rose from the dead “Easter”? That word is not found anywhere in the Bible, so why do we call it “Easter”?

There are many theories about the origin of the word “Easter” but among the main contenders is the idea that it comes from the name of a sex goddess (or fertility goddess). Here are three such fertility goddesses:

  • Ishtar, the Assyrian/Babylonian fertility sex goddess
  • Eostre/Ostara, the Germanic fertility sex goddess
  • Astarte, the Greek/Mesopotamian fertility sex goddess (referred to in the Bible as Asherah or Ashtoreth)
Easter Sex Goddess
Eostre/Ostara
Astarte
Ishtar

Our English word “Easter” seems to be drawn from the name of a pagan sex goddess.

Also, based on my research, our modern celebration of Easter appears to be a conglomeration of various parts and pieces of all three sex goddesses listed above.

In some of the traditions related to one or the other of these fertility sex goddesses, celebrants would rise early in the morning to observe the sun rising in the east.

In others, people would feast on ham.

In still others, children would go outside and hunt for decorated eggs. The eggs were supposed to have come from divine bunnies, which were revered for their ability to rapidly reproduce (… you know the saying: breeding like rabbits).

In others Easter traditions, it was thought that rabbits brought forth the light of spring from the sex goddess.

By worshipping the fertility sex goddess in these ways, the people were welcoming the longer days of spring, and were praying for fertile flocks and fertile fields.

The Truth of Easter

So is this why we call Easter “Easter”? Well, people argue over it, but wherever “Easter” (the name) really came from, there definitely seems to be numerous connections between the spring equinox, sunrise, new life, spring, bunnies, eggs, fertility rites, and a sex goddess.

So when then did the church adopt the practice of referring to the day Jesus rose from the dead as “Easter”? Some Christians, of course, refuse to call it “Easter” and refer to it instead as “Resurrection Sunday.” They do this because they know about the pagan roots of “Easter” and think that it detracts from what the significance of the resurrection of Jesus.

But does it? Is it wrong to refer to “Resurrection Sunday” as Easter?

I don’t think so. To the contrary, I think that “Easter” is a perfect name for the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. I also think that when the church chose “Easter” to celebrate the day Jesus rose from the dead, they did this intentionally because of what the resurrection of Jesus signifies.

So what is the explanation? Why did the church choose to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, which is named after a pagan sex goddess?

The reason the church adapted some of the symbolism and practices from their surrounding pagan culture is an interesting study, but the simplest explanation which makes the most sense to people today is found in our own culture.

easter bunny easter eggsHave you ever seen t-shirts that say “God’s Gym” or “Abreadcrumb & Fish”? I’ve seen t-shirts with the Guitar Hero design, but on closer inspection, it says “God is my Hero.” Similarly, there are “Amazing Grace” t-shirts that look like the “American Idol” logo, and I have seen shirts with the superman logo, but with “JC” instead of “S.” I’ve seen a Staple’s “Easy” button with the word “Jesus” on it instead.

Is all this silly, commercialized, “Jesus Junk”? Yes. I roll my eyes at most of it. I cannot believe people make this stuff, but more than that, I can’t believe people buy it and wear it.

Of course, the reason companies make this “Jesus junk” is because it sells. People buy $4.6 billion of this stuff every year. And one reason Christians buy it is because such things help them bring Christ into culture. I would argue that there may be better ways of doing this, but that’s a different subject …

The point is that, 2000 years ago, some Christians decided to combine some of the sex goddess traditions of their culture with the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Why? Well, for one reason, the resurrection of Jesus and the sex goddess holiday occurred right around the same time of year.

But another reason is that they realized the same thing we do today: Why do some Christians have “iPray” hats and “Got Jesus?” bumper stickers? It’s an attempt to be contextual. Early Christians borrowed some of the symbolism of the various “Easter” celebrations they observed around them, and incorporated them into the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

But there is something even more important than that.

Should we just Fry the Eggs and Kill the Bunnies?

Some Christians are aware of where the “Easter” traditions came from, and, thinking of passages like Jeremiah 10:2 (Do not adopt the ways of the Gentiles…), refuse to say “Happy Easter!” Instead, they say “He is Risen!” Or “Happy Resurrection Day!”

Those are good things to say today, because, of course, this is the day we celebrate the historical event of Jesus rising from the dead.

But you want to know what? I’m also fine with saying “Happy Easter.” Is that because I worship Ishtar? Far from it. Have I adopted the ways of Ostara? No. Am I going to fall down in front of an Asherah pole? Of course not.

Instead, calling Resurrection Sunday “Easter” reminds me of my redemption. How?

Easter Redemption

easter redemptionThe simple fact that most people don’t know the origins of the word “Easter” shows that a shift has happened over the past 2000 years. The day has been redeemed. Though Easter is a commercialized holiday, most people still associate it with Jesus and His resurrection from the grave.

Of all the days in the year that people “go to church,” Easter is in the top two (the other being Christmas Eve). People associate “Easter” with Jesus; not with Ishtar.

The very fact that people think of Jesus rather than Ishtar when they say “Happy Easter!” is proof that this sex goddess holiday has been redeemed.

Because of this, Easter reminds me of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Though his readers used to be adulterers, fornicators, slanderers, thieves, drunkards, idolaters, and swindlers, they were not this way any longer. They were washed. They were cleansed. They were purified, sanctified, justified. They were no longer who they used to be. In a word, they were redeemed.

Similarly, we can talk about the way Ishtar Day used to be. We could talk about the rites, the rituals, and the pagan practices. But it is not that way any longer. Easter has been redeemed … just like you and me.

On Easter, rather than getting drunk and visiting a temple prostitute, most people celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Yet we still call it Easter. This is redemption!

Sure, we might eat ham, look for Easter eggs, and give Easter candy. But when we do these things, nobody thinks about Ishtar. Most are just enjoying a fun day with the family (a wonderful Christian practice), and many others of us are remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (the most important event in human history).

Jesus is in the business of redemption. He not only redeems people, but He also redeems history, culture, places, events, customs, and holidays, “until all things are placed under His feet” (Eph 1:22-23; 1 Cor 15:27). Jesus has redeemed Easter.

So, this Easter, when you wish someone “Happy Easter!” remember that just as Jesus has redeemed a pagan sex goddess holiday, He has redeemed you as well.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: cruciform, crucivision, Easter, ishtar, Jesus, redemption, resurrection, sex goddess, Theology of Jesus

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Free Grace Alliance Conference Panel Discussions

By Jeremy Myers
17 Comments

Free Grace Alliance Conference Panel Discussions

Free Grace Alliance Conference

I was a panel member at the Free Grace Alliance National Conference today on the subject of the death and resurrection of Jesus in relation to the gospel.

But before I write about that, let me write about a different panel which I attended. This other panel was on the issues of assurance, eternal security, and justification.

Assurance, Eternal Security, and Justification

The panel which I only attended was related to the issues of assurance, eternal security, and justification. The basic question was “Does a person have to know that what they get from Jesus can never be lost in order to receive it?”

Of the three panelists, I heard one, Tim Nichols, give a clear answer “Yes” and the other two were a little more evasive. This was not really their fault since many of the questions from the audience were not really on topic. Some questions were related to the death and resurrection of Jesus, or the deity of Jesus, and other things.

The last question, however, was very revealing. It was “If you are witnessing to an unsaved person, and you want to tell them how to be saved, what would you say?”

1. Dave Anderson answered first with two words: “Free Grace.” I’m not sure what he meant by that. I doubt the person he was evangelizing would understand it either.

2. George Meisinger said that he tells as much of the gospel as he can to the person in the time he has. If it’s on an airplane, he is able to tell them lots more than if he is sharing with someone on their deathbed.

3. Tim Nichols answered similarly to George Meisinger, but emphasized that the message we share with unbelievers must come from the Gospel of John.

All in all, it was a great conference session.

Death and Resurrection of Jesus and the Gospel

The second panel discussion I attended was the one in which I was a participant. It concerned whether a person had to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus in order to be born again. The following are terribly poor summaries of the views presented:

(Note that due to comments for clarification, edits have been made to what was originally written. These are the crossed out sections below.)

What is the Gospel

1. Ken Wilson said, “Yes. We don’t believe in Jesus for everlasting life, but we have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who takes away our sins.” I’m not sure who in Christendom (including Catholics) doesn’t believe this, but maybe I misunderstood him.

2. Tim Nichols argued that since nobody would ever dream of not presenting the death and resurrection, the question doesn’t really matter. This is true. Sometimes, Satan’s greatest ploy is to get us talking about theology rather than living out the theology we do know.

3. Larry Moyer said, “Yes, because the death and resurrection is central to the Gospel, and we must always share the Gospel when telling people about Jesus.”

4. Tom Stegall argued similarly to Larry Moyer, but more emphatically.

5. I certainly do believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus are central to the Gospel, and that without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no Gospel. All the truths of the Gospel (of which there are dozens-if not hundreds) are for the purpose of getting a person to believe in Jesus and so receive everlasting life. So I always present the death and resurrection of Jesus when I witness to people. So I argued similarly to Tim Nichols–that it’s a moot point.

What is the Gospel

Some did Believe in Jesus, but not in His Death and Resurrection

However, I did point out that we do have examples of people in Scripture who believed in Jesus and received everlasting life, but did not know about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and even when presented with these truths, did not believe them (cf. Matt 16:31-32; Mark 9:31-32; Luke 9:44-45; 18:31-34; 24:19-26; John 20:9, 24-30). There may be some examples from Acts and the Epistles as well, but it’s almost 2 am, and I’m tired. But just one example: One reason Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15 is to persuade and convince the Corinthian believers about the resurrection of Jesus. It sounds like some of them had believed in the resurrection, but had turned away from it, but there apparently were others who had heard about the resurrection, but denied it as fiction. Paul is correcting these believers in Corinth about this.

So apparently, there are people who believe in Jesus, and lots of correct things about Him, but don’t have all their theological ducks in a row, but who are still considered by Biblical authors to be regenerate. It is possible to believe many wrong things about Jesus, but still receiver eternal life by believing in Him for it. I think it is possible there are people in the same category today. I may have talked with one a few weeks ago, which I mentioned in a previous post.

Due to the number of panelists, and the limited time, only one question from the audience was asked, and that one had nothing to do with the questions that I had come up with which I hoped to receive answers to. So I still don’t know how Tom Stegall would answer those questions. I refuse to speculate how he might answer them, because if there is anything more dangerous that theological speculation, it is theological speculation about someone else’s theology.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: assurance, crossless gospel, eternal security, evangelism, everlasting life, free grace, gospel, justification, resurrection, Theology of Jesus, Theology of Salvation

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Do you HAVE to believe in the resurrection? This woman did … sort of …

By Jeremy Myers
17 Comments

Do you HAVE to believe in the resurrection? This woman did … sort of …

Resurrection of JesusI ran into someone this past week who would pose quite a dilemma for some, especially if we are trying to determine if people have eternal life based on what they believe. (NONE of us do that, do we?)

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, so I am throwing it out here for you to weigh in on…

It was a woman who called about some questions related to whether or not she had eternal life.

Asking the Kennedy Questions

As we talked, I asked her some diagnostic questions to help me determine where she was coming from.

I asked her that if she were to die tonight, if she were sure she would go to heaven. When she answered, “Yes” I asked her why. She said something along the lines that since Jesus died for all of her sins, and she has believed in Him, she gets to go to heaven when she dies. Though she could have been a bit clearer, this answer was initially satisfactory.

But I asked some follow-up questions as well, to see if she was in any way relying on her past, present, or future good works in order to earn, prove, or keep her eternal life. For example, I asked her if there was anything she could do in the future that might prevent her from going to heaven when she died. From her answers, she seemed certain that since she did nothing to earn her eternal life, there was noting she could do to lose it either. Though I am not the judge of her spiritual condition, I was once again satisfied with her answer. To the best of my knowledge, she understood that simply by her faith in Jesus, she had everlasting life which could not be lost.

Confused Christology

Then we started to talk about some of her questions, and in the process, she mentioned about how she knows Jesus is going to come again when He rises from the dead.

It was an odd way of phrasing it, and so I asked her what she meant. She stated that she knew Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago for her sins, and that He was right now in heaven, and He was coming again in the future. I said, “That’s good, but what was it you said about Him rising from the dead?”

She said, “You know…when He comes again. He died, went to heaven, and when He comes again, He will rise from the dead.”

Wait… what?

Apparently, she didn’t know that Jesus had risen from the dead.

I talked a bit more with her about this, and as it turns out, somehow, here in America, she had never been told (or had just never understood) that Jesus had already risen from the dead!!! I didn’t even know this was possible, but I discovered she doesn’t read her Bible, and doesn’t go to a church that teaches the Bible much.

I asked her if she saw The Passion of the Christ, which she had. I asked, “Didn’t you wonder what was going on at the end of the movie when Jesus rose from the dead?” She said she didn’t think anything about it, because all it shows is Jesus with a glow around Him, and so she thought that was supposed to be Him in heaven, which matched her theology perfectly. (Go look at the end of the movie! She’s right. The ending is very vague.)

After taking her to some passages in the Gospels, and then to 1 Corinthians 15 (which Paul partly wrote to prove the resurrection has taken place), she said she now understood and believed that Jesus had already risen from the dead.

Did She Have Eternal Life?

So here is the question: Did she have eternal life prior to understanding and believing that Jesus rose from the dead? I say “Yes.” She was justified the moment she first believed in Jesus for everlasting life. I was able to disciple her some more this week and teach her some things about the Jesus she had believed in that she did not previously know.

However, even though I would say, “Yes, she had eternal life before she believed in the resurrection of Jesus,” there are lots of Christians who would probably say, “No.” They might argue that until she believed in the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus she does not have eternal life. Although she believed in her own sinfulness, the deity of Jesus, His death on the cross, and that she had eternal life in Him alone, she did not have eternal life until she believed the whole package. Even though she believed in a future resurrection of Jesus, this is not sufficient.

To me, this is incredulous. Antonio da Rosa has posed a similar situation as I have encountered here. He stated somewhere (I can’t find it now) that to consign someone like this woman to hell for not knowing all the Biblical facts about Jesus that are on a man-made list is the height of legalism. This woman believed in Jesus for eternal life, and by Jesus’ own promise, whosoever believes in Him, has everlasting life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Note as well that on this account, the woman is just like all the disciples of Jesus. The disciples believed in Jesus for everlasting life, but not a single one believed that Jesus would die and rise from the dead until after He died and rose from the dead! Does this mean that none of them really had eternal life until after the resurrection of Jesus?

No, again, this is an example of one of those central doctrines of the Gospel which help a person believe in Jesus for eternal life, but are not required for a person to believe in order to receive eternal life. Don’t get me wrong, without the death and resurrection of Jesus, there is no Gospel. But one does not have to believe the entire Gospel in order to receive eternal life. Most of the Gospel message provides supporting facts and evidence for why and how Jesus can offer eternal life to anyone who believes in Him for it, and how to live in response.

But the single “message of life” in the Gospel is this: Whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life (cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

Does this help you in your evangelism and discipleship endeavors? Does it help clarify the Gospel message? What do you think about this lady who didn’t know Jesus had risen from the dead? Have you ever encountered someone like this?

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: crossless gospel, death of Jesus, Discipleship, evangelism, gospel, resurrection, Theology of Jesus, Theology of Salvation

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How I Evangelize

By Jeremy Myers
49 Comments

How I Evangelize

cat.jpgOK, the cat is out of the bag (I guess it was never in the bag)…The article I referred to in the previous post about the Crossless Gospel is indeed the one by Tom Stegall. But I am also now including Rokser’s “Two Clarifications” from the most recent issue of the “Grace Family Journal.”

It appears from Comments to my previous post that although Stegall is accusing various Free Grace writers and speakers of having a “Crossless Gospel,” what he really means is that we have “Crossless evangelism.” I see these two things as distinctly different since nobody ever shares the entire New Testament gospel when they evangelize. So the issue isn’t whether the cross is part of the gospel or not. Of course the cross is part of the gospel.

Instead, the issue seems to be, “Does a person need to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to receive eternal life?”

So to help clarify the debate, I thought it might help to share what I try to do when I evangelize…after all, this is what it is all about, right? Please note that I don’t exactly know what the evangelistic method is of Zane Hodges, Antonio DaRosa, or any of the other Free Grace people accused of teaching a “crossless gospel.” I do, however, know that the evangelistic practice I describe below closely resembles what Bob Wilkin does. I know this, becuase I work with him, and we have talked a lot about it. Even still, I am not speaking for him, but for myself alone.

Stegall’s Gospel Checklist

Tom StegallBut before I get to my practice, it is probably best to begin with what Stegall says a person must believe to receive eternal life. If I remember correctly, Stegall has five things he says must be believed if a person is to be born again. These five things were not listed in his article, but I think I heard him list them in a talk he gave at the Annual Fall Conference at Duluth Bible Church. (So my memory may be wrong on these five…).

He says that for a person to be born again, they have to believe in:

  1. The death, resurrection, and substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.
  2. The full humanity of Christ.
  3. The full deity of Christ.
  4. The sinfulness of man.
  5. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Technically, this is more than five, but I’m not going to quibble over that.

My question for Stegall is: “Why these five?”

What if a person believes all these five, but doesn’t believe in the virgin birth and believes that Jesus sinned? What if a person doesn’t believe in the Trinity, and instead is a modalist? What if they believe these five things, but believe that Jesus is “a god” just like the rest of us? What if they believe these five things, but don’t believe in life after death, and “salvation” is only a good life here and now?

Personally, I believe that the virgin birth, the sinlessness of Jesus, and the Trinity are all essential to the gospel, as well as numerous other truths. But do I expect a person to know and believe all of this in order to become a Christian? No. So I don’t have a “crossless gospel.” I have a gospel that includes all five elements Stegall includes, plus a bunch of other Scriptural truths that Stegall does not.

So the real issue is, “What do I share when I evangelize?” Right? Though not directly stated, it seems this is what people want to know. Here is how I evangelize.

How to Evangelize
No, this is NOT how I evangelize…

How I Evangelize

I share any truth of the gospel I think is necessary to get a person to believe in Jesus for everlasting life. All of the truths of the gospel either prepare a person to believe in Jesus for everlasting life, or prove that He can make good on His promise.

So, when I evangelize, I always begin with the gospel invitation and tell them that if they believe in Jesus, He guarantees them eternal life.

Then, I allow the convicting and drawing work of the Holy Spirit upon that person and their natural, logical questions to lead me into what other information about the gospel I might share. Most people, I find, already know and believe that Jesus was God, that He died on the cross for their sins, and that He rose again from the dead. Even most unbelievers believe this.

So generally, the conversation centers around how Jesus can guarantee eternal life to those who believe or how it can be only faith without works, or why a good person cannot get into heaven. This is when we get to Stegall’s five truths plus any of the other gospel truths that will convince the person to believe in Jesus for everlasting life.

One time, I actually talked to a person in the United States who didn’t know who Jesus was. I was pretty amazed that they had never heard of Jesus, but went on to explain to them that He was God, who came to earth 2000 years ago, and lived a sinless life, yet died a painful death on a cross for the sins of the whole world. His resurrection three days later proved that His death was acceptable to God as the payment for our sin. We were able to have a long and lively discussion about the gospel and the offer of eternal life. The conversation naturally led to all of Stegall’s five points, plus several others. But even if the conversation is short, I have still expressed the bottom line gospel invitation.

Natural Conversational Evangelism

This, it seems, is the most natural and biblical way to evangelize. It’s what Jesus did. It’s what Paul and Peter did. I’m not trying to run through a checklist of ideas, which have no basis anywhere in Scripture, or in actual practice. I can’t find any place in Scripture where a person shares all five of Stegall’s points when evangelizing or defining the basics of the gospel. Even 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 10 don’t include all five of these truths. And when compared, those two passages don’t even include the same gospel truths. The truth is, I can’t find one Scriptural passage that includes all five of Stegall’s truths. He has to pick and choose from various passages to get his essential gospel truths, and these five seem pretty arbitrary.

He may accuse me of having a crossless gospel (which I don’t), but I can accuse him of having a cherry-picked gospel.

So what do I share?

When I evangelize, I share anything and everything I can in the time I have that I think will get the person to the point where they become persuaded that simply by faith alone in Jesus they have everlasting life.

Once, when I was a pastor in Montana, I was outside by my woodpile (we use wood to heat our houses in Montana) talking with a man about all of this, and he wasn’t persuaded. He said, “I just don’t know if all of this is true. If it is true, I wish God would just hit me over the head with a 2×4. Then I would believe it.”

I almost reached out and grabbed a 2×4 and whacked him on the head with it! If he said “Why did you do that?” I could have responded, “God told me to, and He wants to know if you’ll believe in Jesus for everlasting life now.” If I had done that, I would have called it the “2×4 gospel,” because not only did I share with him about his sin, the deity, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I also got a 2×4 in there…all in an effort to get him to believe in Jesus for everlasting life.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Christian, crossless gospel, eternal life, evangelism, forgiveness, gospel, grace, heretic, Jesus, resurrection, scripture, sins, Theology - General, Theology of Salvation

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