I've heard a million sermons about the nails and the thorns and granted the physical

agony of crucifixion is a ghastly thing. But there's been thousands of people who have

died on the cross, but only one has received the full measure of the curse of the curse of God

while on that cross.

I doubt if Jesus was even aware of the nails in the spirit. He was so overwhelmed by the

outer darkness.

Jesus' death upon the cross at the hands of the Romans was torture. It was brutal, but what was inflicted by man cannot compare to his being forsaken by God the Father, him becoming a curse for us, and that's what we'll reflect on today on this Good Friday edition of renewing your mind.

All week, Arcee Sprawl has helped us to reflect on the cross of Christ, from our need for an

atonement to how we receive the salvation he secured for us.

You can revisit those messages and study this topic in greater detail when you request this week's special

offer at renewing your mind.org. But what was Jesus experiencing on the cross? Why did he become a curse for us?

Looking back to important Old Testament imagery

and then returning to the New Testament,

here's Dr. Sproleroll with a message blessing or curse.

When we consider the cross of Christ we see an event in history that stands out with so much importance and so much

significance that it's easy to overlook the fact that the cross was not an isolated event in history that sort of

sprung up spontaneously in a particular moment in time sort of being born full-grown like Athena from the head of Zeus.

But the atonement of Christ is the culmination, the climax of centuries of

redemptive history, where God had set certain things in motion,

ages and ages before, that then reached its acme with the death of Christ.

Now to get a glimpse of one element of the atonement, I want to direct your attention for a moment

way back in the Old Testament to the book of Deuteronomy where part of the terms of the covenant that God makes with

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