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I shared the previous posts on “Snakes at the Cross” with you in order to set you up for this one! It’s important that we, as Christians, understand this vital aspect of what happened on the day Jesus was crucified. If you like, go back and browse through those posts one more time to refresh your memory.

To start with, I’d like to share two passages with you:

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”” (Matt. 8:17)

He bore our sins in his body. He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases in his body. As the remains of his human body hung on the cross, our sins, sicknesses and infirmities were deeply embedded in his flesh…boring their way through to his very core. Once they were fastened on, they could not escape. They were there…on his body…in his body…clinging to him for all they were worth, thinking they were defeating God.

Every single device the enemy could throw at him…every thing in Satan’s entire arsenal…was embedded in the flesh of Jesus, as he hung on the cross. Everything. All of it. NOTHING was left behind! We HAVE to understand this. We HAVE to see that everything that Satan had at his disposal…sickness, sin, death…everything…attached itself to the torn flesh of Jesus as he was nailed to the cross and lifted into the sky to die.

His body was a magnet for every evil thing that ever existed or ever would exist…drawing it in to himself. Every tool of the enemy was sucked in. Every single last one. They were there, partly because they wanted to be. They thought they were beating God for good. But they were also there because they had no choice. They were drawn in by the wrath of God, Himself, to be trampled in the winepress of His mighty wrath!

Jesus was snake bait…with snakes coming from the deepest depths of hell to wiggle their way into his flesh. In other words…and please listen closely…

He bore our sins, infirmities and diseases on the cross! IN HIS BODY! That’s what we have to understand! Now…this is WHY we have to understand it…

When Jesus took his last breath on the cross…when his heart beat for the final time…when the blood stopped pumping through his veins…all of the enemy’s weapons were embedded in his tattered body, thinking they had just beaten God once and for all. They may have even started to celebrate a little. After all, the “great plan” that God had come up with for the redemption of man was now dead…

What they didn’t realize, is that they had just sealed their own fates.

““When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?” (Eph. 4:8,9)

What does this mean? It means that when Jesus died on the cross, he took a journey to “the lower regions of the earth” to free the captives that were already in the clutches of Satan….all the saints who had died from the beginning of time, up until that very day.

Adam was there. And Abel. Abraham, Issac and Jacob. David and Isaiah were there…Ezra, Ezekiel and Elisha. Samson and Rahab were there…many of the former kings of Israel were there, with the judges and prophets. Countless slaves that served under the pharaohs of Egypt were there. There were farmers, shepherds, merchants, fishermen, sailors, wives, sisters, servants. All waiting for this moment. Their moment of freedom…the moment that Jesus would come to set them free…

I’m going to share with you, an exciting passage that is often overlooked. Chances are, you’ve read it many times when you were reading about the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus. At the same time, there’s a chance that with all the commotion surrounding the death of Jesus, you may have overlooked it…

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.” (Matt. 27:51-53)

You see, Jesus wasn’t lying dead in the tomb for three days, folks. He was in the lower regions of the earth setting his captives free. But he was doing more than that. I believe that all those snakes that were gnawing on the corpse of Jesus were stunned beyond our comprehension when they felt his body stir for the first time after his death. I believe they looked at each other in total shock and surprise.

I believe they still thought they could get away if they needed to…even as he sat up to begin his journey to the lower regions of the earth. I imagine they probably felt a little uncomfortable as he took his first steps into the underworld, and maybe even began fighting a little harder to kill him again. After all, it worked the first time, didn’t it?

As he descended farther into the caverns, they started hissing and squirming. The weakest of the snakes began to try to escape. It was then they found that the aggressors had become the captives…and the victim had become the victor. I believe the first stop Jesus made during those three days was to the precipice overlooking the lake of fire.

And it was there that he disposed of the vipers once and for all, tossing them over the edge into the burning sulfur below. Once he had gotten rid of all our sins, sicknesses, and even death, itself, Jesus turned his attention to the captives that had been held hostage in the grave…and he led them out of the grave and into the Father’s glory…

I’m sharing this with you in the hope that you will understand something vital to your life as a Christian. It can’t be overstated. Jesus bore our sins, sicknesses and infirmities on the cross. He took them back where they came from, and tossed them into the lake of fire to be tormented forever. In other words, they can’t harm you anymore…

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”” (Mark 16:17-19)

“Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.” (Acts 28:3-5)

I’m not telling you to go out and play with snakes. I’m telling you they no longer have power over you, except the power that you give them. The snakes are dead, folks. The snakes are dead! That’s why Jesus said, “It is finished!”

Because the snakes are dead…

We experience many things in this world. For instance, things that we call “sickness”. I don’t believe in sickness. I believe it died on the cross in the body of Jesus…and that he carried every disease known to man back into the lower regions of the earth and tossed them back into the pit from which they came.

I believe that what we call “sickness” is actually nothing more than a powerful delusion the enemy that we fall prey to…for even though he has been defeated, and even though we have been given power and authority over him, he is still an eternal creature and his work is not yet finished…but that’s for another post!

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We’ve looked a little at how there are events going on in the spiritual realm as things unfold here in the earthly realm. And we’ve taken a brief look at what took place in the earthly realm as Jesus was nailed to the cross to die. It should be noted that this is just one aspect of what was going on at the time. There were many things transpiring at the same time and in the same place on that particular day…

We all know that:

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness…” (1 Peter 2:24)

But we often forget that:

“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matt. 8:17)

What does all this mean?

I’d like to share an image with you. This image is one that has not often been talked or written about. I have never seen a picture of it, other than within my own mind. It’s an image of Jesus on the cross. An image of Jesus, not from the earthly perspective…but, perhaps, a glimpse of what may have been going on in the spiritual realm as the remains of his flesh was hanging in the sky of Israel with the sun beating down on a form that no longer resembled a human being…

I’m not sure we can picture such a thing, but try to picture in your mind, a man that no longer looks human…marred beyond human likeness. That’s Jesus. Imagine him, if you will, nailed to the cross and lifted toward the heavens. As you stand at the foot of the cross, gazing up at what is left of his body, your mind screams, your heart stops, and you are involuntarily knocked off your feet by what you see…

The tattered remains of his flesh nailed to the cross was horrifying enough…now this?

As the morning sky begins to darken, on the piece of meat that used to be his neck, you see a snake with its fangs sunk keep into the flesh. Not just any snake…but a snake demonic in appearance, grotesque beyond description…writhing in hatred as its jaws work trying to drive its fangs deeper. Hissing as it wriggles. On its head is written a name… “Lust”.

Just beside that snake, is another serpent. Like the first one, its fangs are gnawing at the flesh of the Savior…likewise, its appearance cannot be described, as even the word “hideous” does no justice. On its head is written a name… “Greed”. Beside it, is another snake…and another…and another.

As you watch, you realize that the body of Jesus Christ…the Messiah…the Son of God, is covered with these demonic serpents. Each with its fangs buried in his tormented flesh. Each with a name written on its head. Each contorting in a victorious dance, of sorts, as they sense the strength leaving the body of the one who would save mankind. Looking up, you no longer see the body of Jesus…but the mass of wriggling reptilian flesh that has buried him alive…

Suddenly, you realize there is another movement. One that is inconsistent with the wriggling pile of snake flesh. You see that Jesus has ripped one of his hands free from the spike that had him pinned to the wooden beam of the cross. Then the other hand is also free…along with his feet. He is now standing before you, hunched over from the unbearable weight…wearing the robe of serpents.

He slowly turns and steps behind the cross to an opening in the ground. It’s a stairway, leading into the bowels of the earth. With dozens, perhaps even a few hundred serpents embedded in his flesh, he stumbles toward the staircase and takes the first step downward. Then the next, and the next.

In obvious agony, he takes one step after another. Descending into the darkness, the burden of the weight of the snakes keeping him bent toward the ground. Until at last, he enters a huge dark cavern, stinking of sulfur, glowing from the flames burning below in the lake of fire….the lair of the king of serpents!

He struggles to take one step, then another toward the edge of the cavern, until he is standing on the tiny lip that juts over a distant pit. Far below is the lake of burning sulfur…it’s thick smoke billowing up towards the cavern, filling it with its stench and smoke. From the pit, screams and curses can be heard…blasphemous and beyond human comprehension.

The snakes fastened to his body writhe in both agony and anticipation. They have felt his strength fading as their venom surges through his torn body…as they rip at what remains.

Summoning the last of his energy, Jesus stands up tall, grabs one of the vipers by the neck and pulls it away from his shredded flesh. It’s the snake with the name “Lust” written on its scaly head. For just a moment, Jesus looks it in the eye through his swollen eyelids…then tosses the hissing, squirming creature into the pit.

He yanks another from his body, his flesh still in the clenched jaws of the enraged viper. On its head is written the name “Gossip”. He tosses the wriggling body into the pit. He grabs another. This one is “Hate”. Into the pit. One by one, Jesus pulls these serpents from his battered body and tosses them into the lake of fire below.

There’s another breed of snake attached to him, as well. On one is written the name “Cancer”. It falls, screeching, into the burning sulfur. The one named “Diabetes” is close behind. There’s one that bears the name of “Aids”, another called “High Blood Pressure”…into the pit they go.

Until at last, there’s only one serpent remaining. The one whose fangs were sunk deep into the heel of his foot. The king snake of them all…

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15)

This serpent, Jesus does not pull off. For this particular serpent, he raises, high over his head, the wooden cross…the same cross that, earlier, held him up to die. He stares at the creature that glares back with hatred in its eyes. With a deep breath, Jesus brings down the base of the cross on the serpent’s head…crushing it with a single blow…and nudges the carcass over the side of the cliff…

The bloody, battered Jesus, then slowly kneels…lifts his hands toward Heaven…and declares in a soft, but strong voice…

“It is finished…”

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Now…let’s go back to the very front of the Bible and take a look at the prophecy given in Gen. 3:15. Adam has just eaten the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden and God is speaking to the serpent who deceived Eve:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

For the most part, I would think we all know this is a prophecy of Jesus defeating Satan by means of the cross. But I’m going to attempt to share a picture with you of something far more…a picture, not only of what happened from our one dimensional perspective…but what also happened in the heavenly realm at the same time…

Those who were alive at the time, saw a man hanging on a cross. A man struggling for each breath. A man who was beaten so badly, that he no longer looked like a human being…

“Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness…” (Is. 52:14)

Think about that for a moment. His form was marred beyond human likeness. How badly was he beaten for you and your sins? I have yet to see an image of a human being who was marred beyond human likeness. In all the atrocities that man can carry out on other men…of all the images of bodies that have been ripped apart by war…I have never yet seen an image of a person that was so mangled that he no longer looked like a person.

But Jesus was. His form was marred beyond human likeness. Think about that the next time you see a picture of a man on a cross…with a drop of blood on each hand and maybe a little blood oozing from his side. Does that picture show a man that has been marred beyond human likeness? Can our minds even conceive such a picture?

On top of that, while not being recognizable as a human being, is perhaps the most horrendous thing of all…he was still alive! Hanging on the cross. Beaten beyond human recognition…the remains of this piece of human flesh was nailed to the cross for even more torment. All while he was still breathing…blood still pumping through what was left of his body. Still aware of the agony.

Most likely, his skin was hanging in strips from the whipping. His face was surely black, blue and swollen. His eyes couldn’t have been anything more that tiny little slits in the middle of huge puffy eyelids…unable to open to get a full view of the crowd at his feet. What kind of lips did the sponge of vinegar touch? What did they look like? Cracked, bleeding and swollen…could they even have looked like lips? After all, he was marred beyond human likeness…

Ever wondered how much God loves you? Remember now, that at any time he could have called legions of angels down to destroy the whole works. He could have twitched an eyebrow and there would have been no more earth. No more you and me. But he preferred to be beaten beyond human likeness. Then he chose to have that torn, ripped and shredded chunk of flesh nailed to a cross, to suffer even more…

While I realize that it is done with good intentions, it makes me terribly angry to see a picture of Jesus on the cross. It seems to take away, somehow, what he really went through for us. The figure on the cross always looks human…sometimes even peaceful. I have never yet seen a likeness that did not resemble a human being…

In any case, that’s what one would have witnessed in our earthly realm. The remains of a man nailed to a cross…still breathing…still alive…but having nothing in common with other human bodies. Marred beyond human likeness. But still alive. Still suffering.

Next time, we’ll see if we can’t flush out a few snakes.

If you would like to read more about this subject, the material for this, and the next few posts, is based on the contents of a couple of books: “Snakebit!” And “Hail, Ye Knights of the King”.

If you would like to help us financially without spending any extra money, please consider making your Amazon purchases from this site! Thanks and many blessings!

Someone out there today needs this series of messages. While it’s almost impossible to share with you, the entire experience of the cross in a few posts on a blog, perhaps it is possible to shed a little light on exactly what took place there so long ago. Needless to say, that’s where we were given our salvation through Jesus Christ…and while salvation is the greatest gift we could possibly receive, we were given so much more along with it.

In order to share this experience with you, though, it’s important that you understand that we are, in a sense, one dimensional creatures living in a two (or more) dimensional world. To give you an example or two of what I mean….

In the book of Daniel, there was a period of time that found Daniel mourning over a vision he had been given. In fact, the vision was so disturbing that he mourned for three weeks, eating no choice food…no meat or wine touching his lips (Dan. 10:1-3). Then, an angel of the Lord appeared to him…

“Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”

(Dan. 10:12,13)

The angel goes on to say that soon he will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when he (the angel) leaves, the prince of Greece will come (Dan. 10:20). In chapter 12, we can read that “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise.” (Vs 1)

You and I see things in our dimension…in the earthly realm. We see what goes on around us in our physical surroundings, but generally, we remain totally ignorant of what goes on around us in a dimension that we can’t see…the spiritual world.

We see the activities of other humans, but we rarely see the activities that are taking place at the same time…and sometimes in the same place…in the other dimension. The dimension of warring angels. Have you ever stopped to realize that right this very moment…somewhere…there are angels fighting over you? Over YOU? Some to destroy you, and some to protect you. YOU. Let the significance of THAT one sink in a little!

You…as lowly as you may think of yourself sometimes…are the object of an epic battle between angels! You, who wake up every morning, go through your routine every day, who does nothing important with your life…you who trudges off to work or spends the day at home caring for the kids, or cleaning the house. Do you work in a factory? Do you pump gas for a living? Maybe run a cash register at a grocery store or fast food restaurant? Are you unemployed at the moment?

Angels are fighting over you. Over YOU. Think about that for a minute. Stop whatever you’re doing…including reading…and THINK about that! YOU are the prize! YOU mean something! YOU are being fought over by angels! From time to time, you may even be dragged into the battle yourself, totally unaware. And you wonder, sometimes, why you feel the way you do…

No wonder Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God…

To give you another example:

The king of Aram was out to get Elisha, who happened to be holed up in the town of Dothan. The king of Aram found out where Elisha was and “sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.” (2 Kings 6:14)

This is what happened next…

“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:15-17)

The servant saw things in our earthly realm. Soldiers surrounding the city in an effort to capture Elisha. But there was activity in the other dimension, as well. Hills full of horses and chariots of fire! Angels!

Think about this…there have likely been times that your Heavenly Father has called out entire armies to come to your defense…and you never even knew it! Don’t believe it? How many people were in that house? It wasn’t an entire church. It wasn’t even a handful of believers. There was just Elisha and his servant. God called out an entire army of horses and chariots of fire for just TWO people. But they were HIS people. Don’t think He hasn’t done the same for you somewhere along the way…

But I’m getting a little off track here. The point is, while we live in our one dimensional world, there is another world with its own activities, going on at the same time and in the same place. And that’s where we want to focus our attention for a little while. That other dimension. For that’s where we will find the snakes at the cross…

Be sure to look for the next post!

If you would like to read more about this subject, the material for this, and the next few posts, is based on the contents of a couple of books: “Snakebit!” And “Hail, Ye Knights of the King”.

If you would like to help us financially without spending any extra money, please consider making your Amazon purchases from this site! Thanks and many blessings!