The Cross, the Christian message

 

The Cross, the Christian message

The cross was naturally looked upon with the profound horror.  The Romans utilize the cross as a terrible and shameful instrument of death. Death on the cross was the greatest symbol of disgrace and was normally used only to execute slaves and the lower levels of society. Some might think that Jesus and the two thieves were the only people who ever died on a cross. In any case, some time ago the Romans killed men, and torturous killing was the cruelest among numerous awful method for execution. As practiced by the Roman, crucifixion involved either tying or nailing the convicted person to a crossbeam, which was attached to the pole.  The other uses of the term include the cross as a symbolic representation of redemption, the wooden instrument of torture, and crucifixion.  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross provided the perfect atoning sacrifice for the sin of all humanity, and therefore making the cross one of the defining symbols and the most concern to the Christian.

The cross of Jesus Christ is essential to the Christian faith. It is the place where all the wounds of sin are healed. The cross reveals to us the character of God; His love for lost sinners and His perfect justice meet at the cross. The cross conquers sin and death. It cancels the record of debt that stood against humanity (Col.2:14). On the cross Jesus bore our sins in his body, so that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). The curse of sin and death was placed on Jesus so that we might obtain the blessings (Gal.3:13). In the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus proclaims the message of God’s redeeming love in the very face of human rebellion and sin. The cross brings peace, reconciliation, and unity. At the cross the whole world has the opportunity to be reconciled to the father. As Paul says, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (Eph.2:14). Reconciliation, peace and unity come only by the blood of the cross (Col.1:20).

Since the cross is central to the Christian gospel, Paul often uses ‘the cross’ as a term for the gospel itself (1 Cor.1:18; Gal.5:11; 6:12; Phil.3:18). Paul acknowledges that this message of Christ crucified will be stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Cor.1:23). It is not an inherently attractive message, until spiritual eyes are granted. Paul’s task is to preach Christ crucified.  But to the unsaved Jews this message of a crucified Christ was a stumbling block, an offense as they expected a political deliverer. To the non-Jewish world the cross could not provide any moral philosophical standard to help them toward salvation. On the other side, the Greeks and Romans looked on one crucified as the lowest of criminals, so could not be considered as a leader.  In contrast, Paul has preached to such people about God’s effective power to save them and his wise plan through Christ to bring this about.  Paul preached the gospel simply and plainly and relied on the divine power inherent in the message of the cross (1 Cor.1:17; Rom.1:16). Those who perish will think the cross is foolishness, but those who are being saved will recognize it as the message that bears God’s own authority (1 Cor.1;18).  The cross in all its weakness and foolishness when measured by human standards is presented by God as His power and wisdom, both infinitely greater in saving capacity than all man’s mightiest efforts can produce. Paul resolved to preached in Corinth with all simplicity and weakness of trembling speech so that the dynamic of the cross of Christ might be experienced, that their faith should rest not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

The preaching of the Cross of Christ may appear to be contemptible and foolish, or unworthy of belief to those who are about to perish, or to those who have a character fitting them for destruction. But the preaching of the cross must not fail to mean that Christ died as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of men, and that it was this which gave its peculiarity to his sufferings on the cross. Men can be reconciled to God, pardoned, and saved only by the merits and influence of this atoning sacrifice. Let the wicked or those who are blind to the true beauty of the atoning work of Jesus Christ see the beauty of the cross of Christ and flee to it for salvation. It is the power of God in which God exerts his power in the salvation of sinners. And thus, the preaching of the cross is the power of God, and every minister may present it with the assurance that it is fitted to save men.  Even today the world may still calls the central theme of Christianity foolishness due to man’s inability to grasp the largeness of God’s truth and power. But the message that is most important today is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul boasted only in the cross of Christ, and make it the centrality of his very existence (Gal.6:14; 2:20). As we stand at the cross,  preach Christ crucified.