During this Lenten season, each Sunday in the sermons, our attention has been given to the centrality of the cross of Christ. As we enter Holy Week and observe Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, it is especially important that we seek to remember not only the events that occurred, but their significance as well. Of course, our observance of this season culminates in our celebration of the resurrection of Christ Jesus on Easter Sunday. But we cannot fully appreciate the joy of Easter until we have learned the message of Good Friday.  

For me personally it has been both refreshing and stimulating to restudy and think deeper about the meaning of the cross. Over the past several weeks I have been able to read again some classic works on the subject as well as newer studies on specific texts of Scripture concerning the cross of Christ. The most rewarding has been John R. W. Stott’s book, The Cross of Christ. This work is one of the most important on the subject in that it combines both rigorous scholarship and a warm, pastoral sensitivity in applying this doctrine to all of life.  A recent volume entitled The Glory of the Atonement, honoring Dr. Roger Nicole’s teaching ministry, has also been most helpful and instructive.  

What has emerged in my own thinking is a deeper understanding of the nature of the death of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ is foundational to all of the scriptural witness concerning God’s work of redemption.  Getting this teaching right is critical for our comprehension of the gospel.  Some are concerned that our teaching on the cross is divorced from the larger context of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God. This is an important point and we are not to approach the cross in some abstract fashion that is not linked to the overall ministry of Christ. We find, however, in all of the gospels that the cross was the pivotal event toward which everything in Jesus ministry, teaching and life pointed. . It is the goal of his journey to Jerusalem.  It is the means by which the kingdom of God is established.  The cross is the culmination of God’s purpose for his life.  

In the remainder of the New Testament this continues to be the focus of the apostles’ preaching and teaching. From Paul’s letters to Peter’s and John’s final writings, we find that the cross is central to the themes they develop in addressing the churches that need strengthening. From Galatians, where Paul states “may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…,” to Revelation, where John speaks of the Lamb who has been slain, the cross is the heart of the message of the New Testament. 

The message of the cross is multifaceted. Different themes are emphasized as the message is applied to varying situations in the life of the church. The cross is spoken of as a sacrifice, ransom, victory, and the means of reconciliation. Foundational to all of these aspects of the redemptive death of Jesus Christ is the truth that he died as a substitute for us, in our place, in order to bear the punishment of our sin, thereby satisfying the justice required by God that sin be punished. In doing so he “propitiates” the wrath of God, meaning he turns away the wrath of God by suffering it in our place. It is this teaching that underscores the teaching of the Scriptures on the atoning death of Jesus Christ.  

Someone may say that this is well known and almost commonplace in our thinking. My response would be that maybe it is not as understood as we would hope it was, and that I pray it will never become commonplace or trite in our teaching. But it is this very concept of the cross that has come under fire in recent years. From various quarters in the church, including evangelical writings, the cross as the place where Jesus suffered the wrath of God for our sin has been either diminished or denied.  Critics have, for all of church history, railed against the atoning death of Jesus Christ. But the new criticism takes on another dimension, especially in a postmodern world. Roberta Bondi, in her book Memories of God, writes of the change that occurred in her thinking:              

               One day I discovered that I had lost the meaning of the crucifixion. I don’t  mean that I didn’t know what Christians said about the cross…I knew that. I don’t mean that I lost my faith. It was much stranger than that, something more like what I would imagine a stroke victim experiences when she looks at a familiar object like a book or a dinner plate in an ordinary setting, and can’t understand what she is seeing. On that day I looked at the cross and it made no sense. 

My concern is how do we communicate the biblical message of the cross to a generation that has lost its sense of sin and yet lives with the reality of evil everyday? How do we convey the message of the atoning love of God to a world that sees the cross as an icon of violence? How do we live out the message of the cross in culture that has been nurtured on a therapeutic model of life and perceives ourselves as victims with no real responsibility for our decisions and actions?  How do we proclaim the cross to a society that has denied the reality of objective guilt and yet lives with shame and alienation? 

These questions and others continually confront us in our ministry and teaching. In the face of these issues it is important that we faithfully teach the narrative story of Scripture, beginning with Creation and moving through the Fall and the beginnings of Redemption in the history of Israel. From this we begin to understand who God is, what he is like and what it is that he requires. And we find here the beginnings of mercy and grace, of covenant love. This culminates in the coming of the Messiah who, in his journey to Jerusalem, leads not only Israel but all of humanity, in a new exodus that returns us from exile by means of His death on the cross. The death of Jesus Christ is the Passover in which we are delivered from bondage to sin and are brought into the glorious liberty of the people of God. This is accomplished by his becoming a curse for us, by his bearing the punishment of sin in our place so that we might receive the ancient blessing given to Abraham and receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Such an understanding transforms our lives. It is the basis for understanding the Biblical teaching of justification by faith and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. It is also framework in which we can build an ethic for Christian living. We are called to take up our cross and follow Christ. The cross becomes contemporary in our experience as we embrace it in our discipleship. Far from being an instrument of abuse and torment, it is our hope, our rock and our fortress.  

The cross makes sense because of the revelation of the Triune God in Scripture. This God has come to us in Christ and has taken our sin upon himself, and provides within himself the atonement, the payment for the debt of our sin. Because of the nature of his death as an atonement, we have come to know the grace of God and have experienced the reconciling peace that is ours in trusting him as Lord and Savior. And it is in this that we rejoice and find our glory during this season.