Crucifixion

The crucifixion is the most extreme, cruel, and degrading punishment ever conceived from the depths of the sinful depravity of man.

Before being impaled, the victim was stripped naked and scourged with a flagellum — this is a whip with splinters of rock and bone chips attached to leather thongs. The whip is then whirled against the flesh of the victim tearing the skin and muscle down to the bone. Christ received forty lashes, enough to kill most people, which proves that in His humanity, Christ was no push-over. Even if the victim died during this horrible torturous beating, the body would be nailed to the cross for public exhibition and shame. If the victim was unfortunate enough to live through scourging he then had to carry the cross-member to the place of crucifixion, where the cross member was attached to the upright member and the victim was then nailed to the cross.

The body was supported by a peg projecting outward from the upright beam, just high enough so that the victim could push his body upward. When he became too exhausted to push up he would suffocate from the weight of the body.

Sometimes death was hastened by breaking the legs. But not in the case of Christ (not a bone of him was broken — John 19:36). This is what Christ went through for you and me. The payment to keep mankind from God’s wrath was poured out on Christ on the Cross.

The Lake of Fire is a literal place for unsaved mankind — it is as real as the suffering Christ.

 

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