BY ARNOLD V. WALLENKAMPF

HEN WE THINK OF CALVARY, WE SHOULD SHOUT FOR JOY! The very idea of exulting for joy at the thought of Calvary may at first repel you as a Christian. It probably strikes you as blasphemy. Shouting for joy in thinking of the greatest disgrace in the entire universe? Shout for joy at the visceral hatred and ignominy heaped upon the Son of God by His own creatures? Shout for joy at the humiliation of their Leader that horrified the angels of heaven?

Yes, shout for joy at the thought of Calvary. Here's why:

In heaven Jesus was the leader of the angels. They loved and adored Him; they delighted to fulfill His slightest wish. But when He left them and came to this one sin--poisoned pesthouse in His entire creation--the only place in the whole universe where opposition and rebellion against God's rule had taken hold and where God was hated-the angels mourned. They sorrowed to see their Leader go to such a place; but it shocked them to see how His own creation treated Him.

Jesus "came to His own, and His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11).* He came to men and women who were daily sustained by His power and preserved from destruction by His grace. He came to His own chosen nation, to the people who claimed to belong to Him in a special way, and they rejected Him.

When they nailed Jesus to the cross that first Easter, Calvary looked like a defeat for God's kingdom on this earth. The disciples despaired as they saw their Master breathe His last. The powers of evil have won a decisive victory, they thought. For them, Calvary was a place of agony, of shame, of defeat. Satan had killed the Son of God, whose preeminence in the universe he detested.

But it was a Pyrrhic victory. For, indeed, Calvary sealed his demise. It contained the lethal germ that spelled his ultimate doom. It spelled the eventual downfall of his dark kingdom and the final triumph of God's original plan for this sin-infested earth.

Legal Challenge Over
Satan had challenged Jesus' resurrection of Moses on Mount Nebo (see Jude 9); and legally Satan had a point. Moses had been a sinner, and as such he belonged to Satan. Jesus had no legal right to take him to heaven. And Enoch and Elijah, who are also in heaven, had no legal right to be there either, for they too had been sinners. All three were there on credit, as it were, for the redemption price had not yet been paid.

But after Calvary, Satan could no longer challenge God's right to resurrect those who had committed their lives to Him. For at Calvary Christ redeemed us "from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). He became "sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). On Calvary He demolished the argument of the accuser and put a new song in our hearts.

So that's why Calvary is something to shout about. For at Calvary, Jesus "Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). He hung where you and I should be. On Calvary He suffered the pains of hell--eternal separation from God (as it seemed at the time)--for you and me. Cut off from His Father by the sin He had assumed, He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). No longer can Satan raise legal objections to the release of his prisoners from sin and death, for by his death Jesus removed every barrier.

Calvary, which looked to human eyes like disastrous defeat for God, was actually a glorious victory. Sounding the death knell of Satan's kingdom, it guarantees the salvation of every repentant soul. No longer need men and women be permanently tethered to sin or death. At Calvary they were all redeemed.

We were redeemed, but not automatically saved. As a wooed woman may spurn a suitor's love, so many a sinner spurns God's saving love. Nevertheless, at Calvary every person was redeemed and is now free to come to God and become a part of God's family.

The pathway of suffering and the cross was also the pathway to our Savior's throne of glory. Jesus "humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!" says the apostle. "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name" (Phil. 2:8, 9, NIV). "God was in Christ personally reconciling the world to himself--not counting their sins against them" (2 Cor. 5:19, Phillips).

Because of the exhilarating assurance of ultimate victory guaranteed by Calvary, we should shout for joy every time we think of it. Calvary teaches the heart to sing a new song. Calvary transformed apparent defeat into eternal victory. Together with Christ's resurrection from the dead, it is the foundation stone on which rests the surety that God's original plan will be fulfilled, both for this sin-soaked earth and for the entire universe--for eternity.

God's plan has been temporarily interrupted by sin, but Calvary guarantees its ultimate fulfillment. There will again be everlasting happiness for the redeemed and unending harmony throughout the universe.

Blessed forever be Calvary--the prelude to the resurrection. It--and only it--could place happiness and heaven within the reach of everyone on earth. That's why we shout for joy every time we think of Calvary.

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*Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.

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The late Arnold V. Wallenkampf, a longtime professor of religion in the Adventist educational system, was retired in Luray, Virginia, when he wrote this article.