The Centrality of the Cross
Galatians 6:14
In the Cross Christianity lays claim to having the most universally recognized symbol in all of world history. The Cross is more recognizable than a Coca-Cola can, CNN, or any nation’s flag. And the centrality of the Cross has even become part of our language. Every time we say,"this is crucial", or "that is the Crux of the matter"we borrow language from the centrality of the Cross. Yet many both inside the church and outside do not understand the message of the Cross, or its centrality. Perhaps is it even more accurate to say that the Cross is both the center and the circumference of Christianity.
It’s common to hear people object to the Christian gospel by saying, "Isn’t the real point of Christianity the ethics and love that Jesus taught us?" Can’t we get away from these divisive things like His death and resurrection? Martin Luther wrote that "no word in the Bible can be understood apart from the Cross". When the Apostle Paul minstered in Corinth, he said, "I resolved when I was with you to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified." If you read Paul’s writings you will find that he takes up many topics, but he relates them all to the Cross of Christ.
Other religions at their best give us and founder and fine ethical teachings. The Buddha said that it matters not if his followers even remembered him. Once I asked a Muslim friend about Mohammed’s moral life because a college professor had asserted that Mohammed was a "womanizer". My friend dismissed my question by saying, "we don’t follow Mohammed’s life, but only his inspired writings. We believe he is a prophet, and only his writings matter.’ But in Christianity, the person of Jesus Christ is the whole of the matter, and the Cross is the crux or crucial point.
The real need in the world is not more moral teaching, but a gospel that can bring change to the hearts of all people. The editorial decisions of the the gospel writers reveal that in the eyes of the people who knew Jesus firsthand, and lived beside him intimately for three years, the Cross of Jesus is the most important event of all. In fact,a gospel scholar insightfully stated that the New Testament gospels are not so much biographies as they are "passion narratives with extended introductions." The Apostle John ends his 28 page (in a typical NIV Bible) by saying if he were to write down the many things Jesus did "the whole world would not have room for the books." What biographer would ever write about a fascinating person by spending the bulk of his time writing about that person’s death even omitting whole eras of that person’s life? No publisher would allow such an account to go to print. It would be considered grossly unbalanced. Yet all through John’s gospel we read of the Cross. The N.T. writers would lead us to the opposite conclusion. That anyone who seeks to understand Jesus apart from the importance of the Cross is unbalanced in their understanding.
The Apostle Pauls’ understanding of the Cross caused him to write, "May it never be that I should boast except in the Cross". Is that your understanding of the Cross? There is an easy test for everyone. If you understand the Cross, you will either prize it or your will hate it. If you are neutral about the Cross, saying "I can take it or leave it" then you don’t understand it enough to even reject Jesus credibly. The NT makes it clear that we will either find the Cross and Jesus supremely important or we will find it and Jesus to be of no importance. The one thing the Bible would argue is impossible and illogical, is to find the Cross and Jesus Himself to be of "moderate" importance.
The Cross is the greatest monument to our sinful rebellion. The Cross tells me that my heart is twisted and wicked beyond my understanding. That is one reason that those who preach the Cross are often persecuted. It tells us that our SIN is so serious that it demands a judgement. People often say, "Sure, I’m a sinner, but we’ve all got our problems". The Cross says our sin is a serious, eternal matter before a Holy God.
When John the Baptist was in prison he asked Jesus through his followers if Jesus was truly the Messiah. Jesus answered by saying something enigmatic in Luke 7:23 "Blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me"(NASB). Jesus is recognizing that there is an offense to Him because of the Cross and His suffering. And every believer must pass through the bitterness of the Cross before we understand its sweetness. It must offend our self-sufficiency, our self-pity, our rationalizations and attempts to placate God by our actions. And because the Cross does repudiate all of these attempts to satisfy God through our effort it is offensive. Ask yourself this question: Have I sufficiently examined the message of the Cross that I have passed through its bitterness so that I might know its sweetness?
The Cross of Christ is a shorthand for the Gospel of salvation. The Gospel or the Cross will never bring blessing for those who haven’t bothered to consider Jesus enough to be bothered by Him. A great many people have only seen the offense of the Cross and have rejected it.
Some have rejected it with hostility. Bertrand Russell wrote, "this is a primitive doctrine>" No one who is profoundly human can really believe that God would punish sin like that." And many churches also prefer a "cross-less Christ who saves a people without sin, from a God without wrath, into an eternity without justice."
The world may seem liberal and open-minded when it says the Cross is too exclusive, and that Golden Rule morality is enough to satisfy God. But that kind of liberality has its own elitism and exclusivity. It excludes those of us who are moral failures. ANd in light of God’s holiness, all of us are exposed as moral failures.
Part of the glory of the Cross (And its glory is infinitely multi-faceted) is that it includes every moral category.
Another part of the glory of the Cross is that is magnifies the Character of God. It magnifies God’s justice. If salvation consisted in God "relaxing his holy standards" that would be nothing to celebrate. Christ goes before the Holy Judge and says, "I have taken the punishment for that sinner, and it would be a travesty of justice to punish sin twice."
The Cross also magnifies God’s love. He is a God of compassion to the infinite degree. He so loved the world that He gave. Like nothing else, the Cross magnifies God’s holy justice and His love at the same time. As Psalm 85:10 says "Righteousnes and peace have met and kissed one another." The Cross tells us that God is infinitely more holy and loving at the same time. Rather than a battle where a Holy God must decide whether His Love or His Justice will be supreme, the Cross presents us with a God who is completely Holy and Loving. Both Holiness and Justice meet at the Cross in a way in which neither is compromised by the either, but each is magnified. And this great redemptive act did not come by Jesus initiative apart from the Father’s willing. ZThe Father Himself planned it all, from before the beginning of time.
The Cross produces what religion and morality of all stripes cannot produce. Libertines who want to "live and let live" don’t like the Cross because of its exclusivity. Legalists are offended at the Cross because this message puts them in the same moral category as failures who they derive a sense of well-being by looking down upon. The Gospel has been said to be a third way. Not religion or irreligion, or morality or permissiveness, but a redemptive message that magnifies righteousness and love.
The Cross produces people with both moral convictions and graciousness toward sinners. Because, that is who God is. He has infinitely pure love and infinitely holy righteousness.
So let me ask you the question: Have you understood the Cross to teh point where you have been enabled to rest in its sweetness and completeness? Is the accomplishment of the Cross making you a person who is both more gracious and more righteous? The Cross exposes our sin, and it exposes the way sin is removed forever. Turn to Jesus now and turn away from sin. Ask Him to receive you and forgive your sins and remake your life, and He will do it. Join a Church where the Cross is central in all of its multifaceted glory. And the rest of your life and eternity itself will not be too long a time to bask in the glory and greatness of the Cross.
