The gift of the Cross of Christ
Archaeologists go through the ruins of antiquity looking for certain ways to identify a place of Christian worship. By looking for a cross which they may find painted on a wall, carved into stone, or even worked into a floor plan, and other regional artifacts. When they find such artifacts, they then know they’ve found a place of worship or a church.
Christians identified themselves by wearing the cross on which Jesus died. Whether
it’s carved in wood, etched on our hearts, or made of plastic, the cross is the chief
symbol defining reality of the Christian Faith.
Some say that it is a Wooden Stake. I have to agree, and here is why I agree. It had to be made from something, in this case, two peaces of Wood nailed together.
This would be considered a Wooden Stake at this point. When Jesus was nailed to the stake, it became His grave to death. Once Christ passed, it became the Cross in which we now have our savoir' unconditional salvation.
There are multiple reasons the Cross of Christ is so essential with the main reason being, it's "Necessary to Fulfill God’s Plan!"
The cross was necessary to "fulfill
God’s eternal plan" to the people in which came to earth for.
Mark 8:34
And
when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said
unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross, and follow me.
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
After Jesus returned to heaven, Peter preached to the people of Jerusalem saying;
Acts 2:22 & 23
Ye
men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of
God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in
the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Him,
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye
have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
The Cross of Christ is now the center of our salvation, the crucial point,
the place of convergence where everything about the gospel of Christ comes
together.
Galatians 6:14
But
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Interrogate Christian faith by asking “how
does God save sinners?”
The healthy response of faith will be
instantly and confidently to point out the Cross in which Jesus Christ died for us.
The Cross represents multiple Salvation for Us the sinners of this world. The Cross
1. Is a Trinitarian event.
The unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one God and the doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be one of the central Christian affirmations about God.
2. Is the center of the story of the Scripture.
We get to meet and know Christ through the Bible. Christ is the center of it all and as our love for Him grows, our love of Scriptures. The Bible unifies the message, and the unifying center of that message about Jesus Christ.
It is this principle of interpretation that comes to us from Jesus Himself, for He
taught His disciples to read the Hebrew Bible in this way:
John 5:46
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
3. The cross redefines power in the kingdom.
The power of the cross of Christ reconciles humanity with our heavenly Father.
In Jesus we find forgiveness of our sin. He is raised from death to give
us a new life in Him and in the risen Lord Jesus, we are a new creation in His Kingdom.
1 Corinthians 4:20
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
Matthew 6:10
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
4. The cross inaugurates the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31: 31-34
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which
my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the
LORD:
But this shall be
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those
days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write
it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the
least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
5. The cross conquers sin and death.
At the cross, Jesus squashed the “principalities and powers,” the satanic spirits at war with God.
We stand guilty under God's holy law, and our disobedience enslaved us
to Satan. The power of God in Christ “wiped out” that guilt, because Christ bore His own
righteous penalty.
Mark 15:24,
And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.
Luke 23:33,
And when they were come
to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the
malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
John 19:18,
Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
Matthew 27:35
And
they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my
garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
We all share a succinct summary of the crucifixion, in that they all say,
"They crucified Him".
Mark and John give an account of the time of
Jesus' death "The third hour" in Mark 15:25, and the "sixth hour" in
John 19:14–15
6. The cross vanquishes the devil.
The death of Christ was the greatest victory for us the lowly sinner. "The Cross" crushed Satan's head for good and his boasting became foolishness and his glory
Colossians 2:15
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Genesis 3:15
And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
7. The cross is substitutionary.
Substitutionary atonement, is that Jesus died "for us" and the sense that "Jesus,
through his death," did for us which we can never do for
ourselves or others.
The recalling the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the redeeming benefits of his Passion and death for our sins.
8. The cross is foolishness to the world.
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. That no
one may boast before him and because of Him, that you are in Christ
Jesus, who has brought for us wisdom from God, that is, our Righteousness, Holiness and Redemption.
1 Corinthians 1: 18 & 19
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
9. The cross brings
1. Peace;
Colossians 1:20
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him
2. Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:19
To
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation.
On the cross, the
one “who knew no sin became sin” for us and exhibiting in an unspeakable
manner God's entering into the life of “the other.”
In this supreme act
of reconciliation, Jesus collapses the walls of hostility among us, rising from the dead, and creates new place for us to enter
without fear.
3. Unity.
1 Corinthians 1:10
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
10. The cross is the marching order for Christians.
Exodus 14:10
And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians
marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of
Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Joshua 6:9
And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
Joshua 6:13
And seven priests bearing seven
trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually,
and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the
rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
Of course a healthy faith will ask,
Please, may I
have more words than one?” The Cross is the meaningfully central only when
recognized as the center of something more vaster.
Salvation in terms might include, along with the Cross,
1. Incarnation,
2. Resurrection, and
3. Ascension,
in the term mentioning
1. the Father,
2. the Son, and
3. the Holy Spirit.
Salvation in words could be explicit about even more ideas that are presupposed in a shorter answer.
"O for a thousand words to sing my great Redeemer’s praise,
to paraphrase Charles Wesley!"
Christian faith is fluent and eloquent
when it comes to "Salvation."
Speaking as a theologian,
I love to
tell you about "Salvation" in as many words as you will permit me. However, just as strong as the impulse to elaborate on the greatness of God and
the work of Salvation, the impulse to condense the whole message to a key point.
Yet, condensed statement is always meant to remind you of the larger reality. Whenever we say anything about the Cross, we
are almost always using a figure of speech called metonymy. Metonymy functions as a metonym we use to refer to something else, usually something larger to which it is closely related.
Paul says he boasts only “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me,”
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