Three Crosses

Message preached by Rev. Aubrey P. White at The Moody Church on Sunday, June 7, 1953.

“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”—Luke 23:33

We may well ask the question, Why are there three crosses on Calvary? Crucifixion was a common thing in that early day. Darius crucified 300 at one time, and in Tyre there is the record of 2,000 being put to death by crucifixion at one time. Here we have 3 crosses—not 5 or 6, or 1 or 2, but just 3. And there seems to be no reason why these should be crucified together unless it is the Divine design and to emphasize the difference in the characters.

Three is the Divine signature—the signature of Divine approval. It is interesting to note how three is interwoven through all the life of Christ: Three gifts at His birth—gold and frankincense and myrrh, three decades before His baptism, the beginning of His public ministry, three temptations in the wilderness, three disciples in the inner circle, three hills (the Mt. of Transfiguration, Calvary, and the Mt. of Olives), three years of public ministry, three crosses on Calvary, three hours of darkness, three days and nights in the tomb, showing Divine approval of all that Christ did in the flesh from His birth to His death and resurrection.

Again, the three crosses represent three types of death. One man died as a sinner, another died as a saint, and between the two, One died as the Saviour. Their lives were so different there is only one reason they should be brought together in this setting. They are representatives of death. One man died in his sin, another died to sin, and between the two is the Son of God who died for sin.

Death In Sin

One died in his sins, unrepentant and unredeemed, blaspheming he enters into the presence of God. Instead of a prayer for pardon he rails on Him and his lips are filled with blasphemy. “If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us, at least us.” There is no sense of guilt, he is confirmed in his iniquity. His lips are filled with slaughtering, slandering, scoffing expression against the only means of redemption. There is no peace in his soul, his heart is a cesspool of wickedness.

Satan has done his work well. He has lived in his sins, he is dying in his sins, he is stamped with the seal of hell; thief, murderer, blasphemer—thou hast sinned against light, thou hast turned thy back on the only means of redemption, thou hast died in thy sins. Two thousand years have passed since that time and eternity has not yet begun. We are still in time.

This man represents thousands who come right up to the very threshhold of salvation but fail to enter in through the door. It is an awful thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of an angry God. A certain speedster cracked up on Miami Beach. Standing by his bedside a Christian nurse noticed him gain consciousness for a moment, and grab to the bedclothes. She said, “Sir, is there anything I can do?” He answered, “There isn’t anything anybody can do. I’m going down a steep grade and I can’t find the brake.” It’s a terrible thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of an angry God.

Death To Sin

On the other side of the summit there is one who died to sin. He is just the same kind of sinner as the other. They were professionals in their iniquity. You find a sample of their work in the story of the Good Samaritan. But this man, just as iniquitous as the other, sensed that he was in the presence of the Son of God, and he cried, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,” and Christ answered, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

I have often wondered what caused this man to believe. Had he seen Jesus work some of His matchless miracles? Did he know some of the people that Christ had healed, or Lazarus whom Christ had raised from the dead? Or was it that just at this time he had heard Christ pray for those who had crucified Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”? Whatever the cause of his turning to Christ, his faith is solid, his doctrinal views are straight, and salvation is assured. Here is proof that a man can be saved at the eleventh hour; here is proof that a man can be saved without baptism. But there is also the sad proof that while God may save the soul, God cannot give back a life that is wasted in sin.

Death For Sin

Between the two you have the Son of God who died for sin. The church has been rightly guided in making this central cross the center of all its worship and program, but there is something wonderful about the death of Christ. Somebody has said it was a natural death, for He died as every other man dies—He died physically. It was an unnatural death because He died as no other man dies—bearing the sin of every man. It was a supernatural death, for He was God in the flesh. It was a pre-natural death, for He was slain in the mind of God before the foundation of the world.

Did you ever stop to consider the sins that crucified Christ as illustrated in His last week on Earth? There was the moral cowardice of Peter who denied Him. There was the religious prejudice of Annas and Caiaphas the priests. There was the sin of the love of money as illustrated by Judas Iscariot. There was the sin of pride and position as illustrated in Herod and in Pilate. There was the sin of mob hysteria as illustrated by the people crying “Away with Him, let Him be crucified.” There was the sin of indifference as illustrated by the Sanhedrin who by just a word could have stopped the slaughter. Yet for all these sins Christ died.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor would the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Now, my friend, do you see why there are just three crosses on Calvary? To me it is the most stirring, striking, startling fact of sacred Scripture. It is as though God would set an object lesson that would stand for the eternal ages to come, that there is no way from the state of dying in your sin to the state of dying to sin except through Christ who died for sin.

On which cross are you dying? Are you dying in your sin, or can you look from your sinful self to Christ and say with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Christ identified Himself with us in our sin that we might be identified with Him in His righteousness.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.