A Fresh Look At The Cross

A fresh look at the Cross.

John 12:27

Every religion and every ideology has its own symbol for its identification. . For the Buddhist it is the Lotus Flower. Judaism has the Star of David and Islam the Crescent. In this century the Communists were known for the hammer and the sickle and the Nazis for the Swastika. Christian symbols are used to honor beliefs of the faith such as the crucifixion and resurrection. They have also been used to conceal the identity of believers. Many symbols have been used and the important symbols are the cross, fish, and the Greek letters alpha and omega.

In the ancient world, the cross was a depraved and distasteful affair. Romans used it, but the sparse reference to it in their literature shows their aversion to it. They considered it a barbarian form of punishment Similarly, the Jews detested it. The Jewish law declared that a man impaled on the tree was cursed by God and should not remain there overnight because it would defile the land (Deut. 21:23).

However scripture asserts that the Cross was central to God’s plans. During His ministry, Jesus taught the disciples at least three times in plain, explicit lan¬guage, that “‘the Son of Man must suffer many things and . . . be killed’” (Mark 8:31, ESV). He also alluded to His death at least eight other times. In addition, the Gospel of John registers seven references made by Jesus in the last week of His ministry to the “hour” of His death. The disciples, however, were unwilling to accept this idea. 2 Peter 2:24-25 ESV shows us that through Christ's death on the cross , those who turn to Him are delivered from both the penalty and power of sin. This is clearly the meaning of the words, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.” By using the word “tree” rather than “cross,” Peter no doubt had in mind Deuteronomy 21:22-23, where it prescribes the penalty for a condemned criminal, that his body be hanged on a tree: “For he who is hanged is accursed of God.” The apostle Paul refers to the same text in Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” Both apostles are saying that Christ took on Himself as our substitute the condemnation which we deserved.

The death of the Son of Man was a most astonishing idea. The ti¬tle “Son of Man” identified Jesus with the glorious, heavenly figure of Daniel 7, who would receive dominion and a kingdom that would never be destroyed: “‘I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed’” (vss. 13, 14).

How could this glorious figure, beneficiary of God’s dominion over the kingdoms of the earth, be given into the hands of sinners and be executed by these same powers? Yet Jesus asserted that the suffer¬ing, rejection, and death of the Son of Man were the specific reason for His coming to earth (John 12:27).

The disciples resisted this notion. Peter rebuked Jesus (Mark 8:32, 33; Matt. 16:22, 23), and the rest of the disciples, though distressed (Matt. 17:23; Mark 10:32), failed to understand because the whole matter was simply unthinkable (John 12:34). It was only after the Resurrection, when Jesus explained it from the Scrip¬tures, that they finally understood (Luke 24:26, 44). Therefore, it was because of Jesus’ own teaching and emphasis that the Cross became central to the apostles’ preaching (Acts 1:16; 17:3). Paul called the gospel simply “the word of the cross” (1 Cor. 1:18), and the Gospels devote so much attention to the Passion that they could be considered Passion narratives with extended introductions. Thus, Scripture attests that the Cross was not simply the result of capricious historical forces or the vileness of Jesus’ enemies but the outworking of God’s purpose.

The centrality of the Cross to the gospel can be understood only in the context of the great controversy between good and evil. This is suggested by the fact that, in addition to the normal Greek noun translated as “cross,” The New Testament authors referred to the Cross with the noun translated as “tree” (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 1 Peter 2:24). The use of the word" tree" for the Cross is very significant because it refers back to two important ideas of the Old Testament.