From Bethlehem to Egypt to Nazareth to the Jordan to the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum to the Garden of Gethsemane, we have the life of Jesus in the Gospel accounts. Jesus was baptized, tempted, followed, believed, and rejected. He cleansed, healed, restored, and resurrected. He taught the multitudes and the disciples. No one has lived a greater life than Jesus, but each of those places and events succeeded one another to culminate in the pivotal point of redemptive and human history - the crucifixion.

Jesus did not come to simply give men a better way to live. Neither did He come to take care of physical infirmities without addressing the greatest sickness. Jesus did not come on a mission of morality or medicine, but redemption. He came, as 2 Corinthians 5 tells us to reconcile sinners to Himself. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and the only way was through the cross.

In the words of John MacArthur:

• “The entire work of redemption had been brought to completion. The single Greek word here (translated “it is finished”) has been found written on papyri receipts for taxes, meaning “pain in full”.

The cross is the declaration that Jesus paid it all.