12 Jan 2024

In our modern world today, many do not understand so clearly what the heart of the Christian Faith is – they do not perceive the CROSS as the central and heart of the faith of Christianity.
Today, it is not uncommon to be told that the essence of Christianity is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount, in Jesus’ ethical teaching generally, in the ideal of liberation, in the thought that God came near to his creation in the incarnation, in ‘peace on earth’, in brotherly love, in newness of life, or the likes. Christianity is a profound religion and its teaching has many aspects; but if we are to be true to the New Testament we must see the cross as at the very heart of it all. The other suggestions above may have truth in them, but that truth arises from the fact that the cross brings about many changes; New Testament Christianity centers on the cross.

The cross is central in the structure of the four gospels; in each one, the death and resurrection of Jesus take up such a disproportionate account of space that it is quite clear that everything is arranged to lead up to the climax – the cross. The sermons in Acts major on the death and resurrection of Jesus; Paul can sum up the Christian message in the words “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23).The writer in Hebrews sees Jesus coming to earth “in order that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb.2:9). In Revelation it is by “the blood of the Lamb” that the mighty multitude are saved (Rev. 7:14). There is no doubt that in the New Testament, the emphasis is that the cross is at the heart of the faith.

But why it is so important for us to see and realise that the cross is at the heart of the Christian faith?
THE FACT OF SIN
This is the basic human problem because it is sin that separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). Many today may view the human predicament as due to lack of education or wealth or resources or the like. The Bible says it is due to sin. The Bible sometimes says that we are all sinners (Rom.3:23), and even when such a statement is not made explicitly it is always assumed that sin is universal. Today it may be not uncommon to find people who hold that deep down all people are good. How do they hold it in the face of the wars, crimes, cruelty, selfishness, child abuse, violence, and the policies that allow mass starvation in many lands, the drug culture, the immorality – it is not easy to understand? The situation today in the world is almost a classical demonstration of the truth of the the fact of sin as prevalent and universal.
Sin has more serious consequences than earthly disorder. The Bible speaks often of “the wrath of God” (Rom. 1:18) and we should not forget that Jesus spoke often of hell (oMark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5). Judgment is both a present reality (John 3:19) and a future certainty (Rom.2:12). We are responsible people and in due course must give account of ourselves to God (Rom.14:12). We cannot dismiss the evil we do as simply the result of the way we are made, as our fate rather than our fault. That is not what the Bible says, and in our more honest moments it is not what we say either.

THE LOVE OF GOD

But the Bible reveals the astounding fact that in the face of our sin God keeps loving us. He keeps loving because he is love (1 John 4:8, 16); it is his nature to love. In love he brings about the salvation of sinner (John3:16; Rom.5:8). Modern sentimental people often think of God as a kindly person who does not sin seriously; this is to overlook the strong moral demand that runs right through Scripture. The God who demands righteousness from his people is himself righteous, and he does not forgive sin in a way that might be understood to mean that sin does not matter much. God forgives sin by the way of the cross. The New Testament writers constantly hold out the cross as the way of forgiveness, they know no other way.

This, of course, involves the incarnation. Salvation depend on what God has done in Christ. The writer of Hebrews insists that Jesus was mad lower than the angels in order that he might taste death for every one of us (Heb.2:9), and he goes on to emphasise that the importance of Christ’s being one with those for whom he died (Heb.2:11-15). He took on human nature, not that of an angel. The Godhead of Christ was involved too; we see the way Paul intertwines the thoughts of the Godhead and the manhood (Phil.2:5;Col.1:19-20) – i.e. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man (the God-man). This means that the Son of God genuinely became man. Only by holding both truths can we understand the biblical view of salvation.
God’s forgiveness is based on what Christ’s death has accomplished, not on any merits of repentance or on some necessity of God’s nature. To say that no atoning act is needed is to give us a non-Christian view of salvation. God pays the price that gives us liberty. Our salvation was at a great cost and than now we are free, free with the glorious liberty of the children of God.
What happened at the cross: here we need to look into REDEMPTION, PROPITIATION, RECONCILIATION, JUSTIFICATION, SUBSTITUTION, COVENANT – we have shared previously in more detail on all these topics in relation to the gospel and salvation.

But enough is said here to see how the cross is at the heart of the Christian Faith – Christ has brought about salvation in accordance with what is right. Christ stood inn our place and endured what we should have endured. We must never overlook the fact that sinners have broken the law of God and that is very serious. If sinners are to be saved, the fact of that broken law must be taken into consideration. It is the witness of the New Testament that Christ saves us in a way that does take that law into consideration. And there is never the slightest indication that anything else than Christ’s atoning work can deal with the problem of the evil that is so much part of the human situation.