At the Cross

When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (1 Cor 2:1-2)

We just came off of Resurrection Sunday. (More and more I'm preferring not to call it "Easter." The Greek behind the King James version's "Easter" (Acts 12:4) is actually "pascha" ... the Passover. "Easter" in its original language is "Ēostre", meaning "dawn." (One source says it's a goddess, but there's no proof.) I'll go with "Resurrection Sunday.") It seems strange, doesn't it, that Paul wanted to know Christ crucified and not resurrected. We much prefer the resurrected Christ. Why "Christ crucified"?

Paul lists the cross as "foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Cor 1:18) and a "stumbling block" (Gal 5:11). He says, "may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal 6:14). And this is how he wanted to focus on Christ. Why? Why not the triumph and joy of the Resurrection? Well, first, he did rejoice in the Resurrection (e.g., 1 Cor 15:12-18; Rom 6:4-7), so it wasn't excluded. It's just that he understood that the cross was an offense, "foolishness," a "stumbling block" ... and the absolute core of the gospel. So he described the crucifixion as "of first importance" (1 Cor 15:3-8). Jesus said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). (Why do people dismiss Jesus's own words of being "the ransom for many" and claim to be followers of Christ?) The Resurrection is the "proof of payment," but the cross was the payment (e.g., Isa 53:5; Matt 26:28; Rom 3:25; Rom 5:9; Gal 3:13; Eph 1:7; Col 1:20; Heb 9:12; 1 Peter 2:24). It demonstrates the extent of God's wrath and the extent of our sin and the richness of God's love and holiness and the amazing magnitude of God's grace and mercy. The cross gives the believer a pattern for Christian living (Gal 2:20-21; Mark 8:34; 1 Peter 4:12-13; 1 Cor 15:31). The cross served as God's means to be both just and justifier (Rom 3:21-26).

A lot of people prove Paul's concern that the cross is an offense. We moderns are pretty sure it was barbaric and we're appalled that Christ had to endure it, so much so that some deny it--either, it didn't happen or it wasn't particularly relevant. It was barbaric, but it was essential, and Christ endured it for us willingly and thereby secured our "saved by grace through faith" as a gift. Because of the horror of the cross and Christ's willingness to endure it, we can know "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32). For Paul, the cross is where sin is judged, where wrath is satisfied, where reconciliation happens, where love is displayed, where the old self dies, and where new life begins. Oh, dear Lord, teach me to love the cross and take it up as my own.