SEVEN SAYINGS FROM THE CROSS

1) Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34)

2) Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)

3) Woman, behold thy son! [And to the disciple] behold thy mother! (John 19:26-27)

4) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

5) I thirst. (John 19:28)

6) It is finished. (John 19:30)

7) Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46)

1) Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34)

Everytime something to do with SEVEN arises in the Bible, we immediately think of the first seven – the seven days mentioned in Genesis Chapter 1.

• this is because there is a principle of Bible study which helps us understand things called the principle of first mention.
• when a thing, like the series of events numbering seven, is first mentioned, we find that every following mention of it in the Bible has parallels with that first mention and the circumstances surrounding it.
• this helps us interpret the truths that are mentioned throughout the Bible.
• we find that the sayings from the Cross number as 7
• and looking at the Genesis chapter 1, we see that there is a sequence of thought in those seven sayings.
• when Jesus was on the cross, paying the price for our sins, certainly the words He chose to speak would be those which carry a wonderful truth, for dying on the cross was the most vital event Jesus ever accomplished for us.

So let us take Genesis’ seven days and compare them with the seven sayings from the cross.

I. DAY ONE OF GENESIS AND THE FIRST SAYING

DAY ONE

Gene 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

FIRST SAYING

FATHER FORGIVE THEM for they know not what they do.

• When we compare the thought of creation in Genesis and the sayings of Jesus, noticing the first parallel especially, we see that A new creation began when Jesus was dying on the cross.
• God began creation by commanding light to exist.
• This is exactly what occurs in a sinner’s heart who comes to make a step towards God.
• Jesus was dying so that we could be redeemed from sin and made new creatures in Him
• the first step in becoming a new creature and getting involved in this new creation is to repent
• we seek forgiveness
• we did not know what we were doing for we were born in sin
• we were thrown in here not by our own will
• Adam cast us all into sin

• At repentance light and darkness are separated from one another in our lives.
• The earth was covered in a depth and darkness was all over it
• the earth is man
• God takes our lives when we repent and He shines light and separates us from the darkness of our old lives and we are removed from darkness into the world of light
• our sins are removed from us

Colo 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son:

• Jesus has a kingdom
• He is the second Adam
• As Adam was given the created world to dominate and rule over, Jesus is the Head of a new creation

1Pet 2:9-11 But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

• in this verse above, we read that salvation takes us from the world of DARKNESS, as the world was immersed in darkness before God commanded light to appear, and brings us into HIS KINGDOM of LIGHT.
• in Egypt when God separated Israel from the Egyptians…

Exod 14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness [to them], but it gave light by night [to these]: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

II. DAY TWO OF GENESIS AND THE SECOND SAYING

Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43)

After we receive forgiveness, Jesus assures us that we will be in PARADISE – EDEN.

• there is so much connections to the Garden of Eden and Genesis, as we are noting in the seven days, but here we see a reference to The Garden of Eden
• we lost that Garden when we fell, but Jesus forgives us and brings us back in.

Gene 1:6-7 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so

• Egypt was vacated and the final barrier between Israel and Egypt, the Red Sea, forever separated Israel from the Egyptians.
• God divided the waters and there was a destruction of the Egyptians which were the darkness that was separated from the light in day 1.
• the soldiers which were separated and darkness were then destroyed.
• SURELY ISRAEL WOULD ENTER CANAAN NOW
• “TO DAY THOU SHALT BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.”
• But there is a wilderness to cross now
• there are yet 5 More days in Genesis 1.

• after repentance, when our sins are separated, water baptism washes those sins away as much as the Red Sea washed away the Egyptians which were first separated.
• and water baptism is so important
• Jesus said this day shall thou be with me in paradise.
• we are in the Kingdom and must proceed.

III. DAY THREE OF GENESIS AND THE THIRD SAYING

Woman, behold thy son! [And to the disciple] behold thy mother! (John 19:26-27)

• the third step is receiving the Holy Ghost
• we are BORN AGAIN when we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost

Roma 8:14-15 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:

• We receive POWER to become the sons of God
• the Holy Ghost is power

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:

• “Church, look at your son”
• Mary represents the Church
• the church is our mother.
• A new child is born and the church must recognize the new child.
• the church is told by Jesus to recognize the new-born child of God
• and the newborn child must recognize the Church as the mother
  • so many get the Holy Ghost and leave the mother and die
  • we need the church
  • we must get it in our hearts that the church is our mother and will care for us so that we may grow.
  • once you get the Holy Ghost you need teaching from a Holy Ghost filled minister. Day three was…

Gene 1:9-11 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

• LIFE BEGINS WITH THE HOLY GHOST BAPTISM
• before that it is only religion
• rituals, but LIFE is the Spirit.
• we begin feasting on the things of God.

• land was under the water and it rises in resurrection here.
• the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of resurrection.

Roma 1:4 And declared [to be] the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

IV. DAY FOUR OF GENESIS AND THE FOURTH SAYING

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

• trials enter our lives at this point

Gene 1:14-17 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good.

• the only way we can compare the fourth saying to the fourth day is to notice the following…
• we must truly believe that Jesus suffered for us
• all the things that would drive God away from us were thrown on Jesus, and God was driven away from Him.
• we only become the light of the world, as the sun, moon and stars were lights for the world, when we properly understand that Christ was forsaken so we would not be
• so many believers suffer from guilt of past sin
• those sins are gone
• you will never be a light to the world if you think you are blackness
• God forsook Christ because Christ took all our guilt

V. THE FIFTH DAY OF GENESIS AND THE FIFTH SAYING

I thirst. (John 19:28)

Gene 1:20-22 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

• Waters swarmed with LIFE
• Jesus thirsted for water
• we must hunger and thirst for the things of God after we have become believers
• the WATER is the WORD
• and the WORD is filled with all varieties of the needs we have for food and strength.

• Jesus in us thirsts
• the world can only give vinegar and gall, but -we must not look to this fallen world for life-filled water and drink

Matt 5:6 Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled

Jere 23:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall:

• Gall is a form of poison.
• we must seek after LIFE and GROWTH

V. THE SIXTH DAY OF GENESIS AND THE SIXTH SAYING

It is finished. (John 19:30)

Gene 1:24-28 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

• MAN IS FINALLY IN GOD’S IMAGE
• we have grown and matured
• we are complete in Christ
• there is more to being a Christian than simply being a Christian
• we must MATURE and GROW

Ephe 4:11-13 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Colo 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; Colo 3:10 And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

• we have the new man renewed after the image of Christ
• we are become more and more like Jesus the more we grow as believers
• and when that work is done…

VII. THE SEVENTH DAY OF GENESIS AND THE SEVENTH SAYING

Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46)

• we enter a REST

Gene 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Hebr 4:4-6 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh [day] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

Hebr 4:9-10 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.

• we enter by faith into a place of total confidence with God.
• we give all our lives to God
• and we are so deep in the love of God that all is ever well.