Luke 23:34 ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’.
DURING the time when the Mosaic Law was in effect under the Old Covenant, even those who sinned against the commandments of the Lord in ignorance, did not escape punishment.
They would bring a trespass offering to the priest who would make atonement for them ‘regarding his ignorance in which he erred and did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him’. Leviticus 5: 17, 18.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he made several utterances. These were not mere ramblings of a dying man but powerful declarations that would reverse the curse the law brought in and would forever liberate His people from centuries of bondage and slavery to the law – setting the course for the New Covenant to come into effect –the Covenant of the Grace of Christ.
Here mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed and has set us free. Psalm 85:10
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For the longest time I believed that when Jesus said on the cross, ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do’, Luke 23:34, that it was only for those who were responsible for putting Him to death, but not so.
Most of us have hurt someone at some point and walked away being totally clueless of the pain we might have caused. But all of us have sinned and continue to sin against God daily and we don’t even know it.
It is here that Jesus has become our trespass offering and by His righteousness has forgiven and removed every sin that we have committed and will ever commit against Him in ignorance. It is a forever covenant. This is amazing love.
The message of the cross is central to the New Covenant which is the gospel of the grace of Christ. Without the cross, there is no New Covenant. In biblical typology, with regard to the story of Noah’s ark, the ark came to rest on a mount called Ararat.
Noah’s name means ‘rest’ and the name Ararat means ‘the curse reversed’.
This is so beautiful because it is God showing us that He has prepared rest for us in the Ark Who is Christ because in His Son’s finished work on the cross, every curse has been reversed.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Galatians 3:13.
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