Brother T.C. Lo (盧天賜弟兄) on April 17, 2011 at
The House of Christ's Love
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The Significance of the Cross of Christ 十字架的真諦
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The cross was an instrument of torture in the ancient times. It is a simple sign but is rich in spiritual meanings.
The cross is a universal symbol of the Christian faith. In the field of systematic theology, we see many sub-topics such as 正统神學 (theology proper)----the study of God Himself; 聖靈論 (pneumatology)----the study of the Holy Spirit, His personhood and His ministry; 教會論 (ecclesiology)----the study of Church; 救恩論 (soteriology)----the study of Salvation; and 基督論 (Christology)----the study of Christ.
It was interested to note that people for centuries had singled out the cross which represented Christology to represent the faith of Christianity. In Christology, the crux of Christ’s personhood and ministry is the cross. There are two common English words “Crucial” and “crux” find their origin from the Latin word crux for “the cross”. The modern meanings of these two English words (crucial means pivotal and crux means very important) are in conformity with the biblical core faith derived from the idea of the cross. In a certain realistic sense, the cross crystallizes the essence of Christianity. Today, the cross has even been widely displayed as a symbol of charity and as ornaments.
In the first letter Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he surprisingly declared:
1Co 2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
1Co 2:2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The phrase “know nothing…except” is an emphatic expression. Did Paul really know nothing? Of course not! What he tried to say was that his teaching, preaching, and ministering all focused on the cross. He even went to great length and said in Romans (1:16), “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”
For the same cross, different people have different understanding and perceptions and viewpoints:
These twisted views and wrong perceptions were the reasons why some Jews and Greeks missed the opportunity of the blessed salvation. But the believers of Jesus Christ see that the cross is God’s glory, God’s power, God’s Kingdom, God’s wisdom, and God’s means of reconciliation. Let us meditate upon the true meaning of the cross.
What seems so right is, in fact, heresy---the one Charles Swindoll considered the most dangerous heresy on earth. What is it? The emphasis on what we do for God, instead of what God does for us. So now, let us consider WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US. But first, we must understand:
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The story is told about a judge whose daughter was brought into the courtroom for breaking the law. Because the judge was both just and loved his daughter, he faced a dilemma: If he simply forgave his daughter, the judge would compromise his justice. But if he passed judgment on his daughter, he would compromise his love for her. What did he do? First, he declared that his daughter was guilty and ordered that a fine be paid. Then he took off his robed, stepped down from the bench, and paid the fine himself. In the Gospel we see the glory of God as judge on the disrobed face of Christ. |
The three ingredients of the cross point to the doctrine of Incarnation: Jesus was God-Man.
Jesus Christ came to this world in the form of a human. He was 100% God and 100% man. He had to stand in the gap as a Mediator to build bridge between men and God. During His walk on this earth,
Had Jesus had no body, how could He die? God could not die, so in order to substitute our deserved death, Christ ought to wear a body of a human being. If Jesus was merely a man, how could He resurrect from the death? He ought to be God in order to triumph over Satan’s ultimate weapon---death---by His resurrection. It is the Easter that set Jesus apart from all other religious leaders. All world religions are Man-Seek-God religions. Christianity is a God-Seek-Man faith. Jesus Christ is our only Savior. Let us consider the:
The four aspects of the cross are: its power, its throne, its wisdom and victory, and its power of reconciliation.
Jesus in two occasions experienced of being seriously tempted to jump.
In the first incident, Jesus was challenged by Satan to jump down from the pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:9-11). Satan used God’s own word to incite Jesus to jump down.
- From the omnipotent nature of the Son of God, Jesus indeed was able to jump down without hurting Himself.
- From utilitarian point of view, Jesus could have jumped and gained His fame instantly allowing Him to easily do much important matter.
But Jesus clearly knew that voice was from Satan. And He refused to jump down from the highest point of the temple in exchange for social acceptance.
The second incident was when Jesus was nailed on the cross. The crown of thorn was over His head; His body was bruised and His hands and feet were pierced with nails, and His side was wounded by the spear, bleeding with blood and sweat, enduring excruciating pain. The chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves, saying, "He saved others but he can't save himself!” (Mt. 27:42; Mk.15:31) One of the criminals who hung along side Jesus hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Lk.23:39). Jesus could have jumped but He didn’t do it. In order to accomplish the atoning act of salvation for mankind, He remained there. The Son of God suffered all disgrace and insults in order to be the substituting lamb for the sinners. The Son of God died that we might live. The first “jump” means committing suicide. The second “jump” means self deliverance. Jesus’ choices manifested His strength, not weakness. The cross on which Jesus died was a symbol of strength and courage.
Jesus was destined by God to be the King:
- Jesus is forever the King of kings. He is the promised one to be the world’s Savior and Messiah---the anointed one. When Jesus was born, the Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him" (Mt.2:2).
Jesus was King but not the King of this world:
- Having fed the multitude of five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, the people wanted to raise Him to be the King. But Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray alone (Mt.14:22-23). Fame and power were what the world seeks, but not Jesus.
Jesus did not deny that He was the King.
- So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus’ answer was astonishing. He affirmed, "Yes, it is as you say; in fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Later on Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." (Lk.23:3 and Jn.18:36-37)
Jesus’ Kingdom V.S. Earthly Kingdom:
- The earthly kings built their kingdoms with swords. The earthly rulers built their empires upon people’s blood. The earthly emperors gained their power at the expense of the common people.
- On the contrary, Jesus built His kingdom with His own blood. Many times, Jesus explained His Messianic mission to His disciples: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk.10:45).
People and Throne of the Kingdom of God:
- Kingdom’s policy---Christ established His Kingdom only through the cross. Christ rules with love and mercy.
- Kingdom’s people---those who accept Jesus by faith as their Savior.
- Kingdom’s territory---the Church.
- Kingdom’s throne---My heart is Christ’s throne.
Jesus is the Sovereign King:
- One day, at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil.2:10-11). One day, Jesus will rule them with an iron scepter; He will dash them to pieces like pottery. (Ps.2:9)
Notwithstanding how people despise the cross and consider it foolishness and failure, after all, the cross is the wisdom of God, the victory of God.
The cross was a fulfillment of a wonderful promise recorded in the Book of Genesis. God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Ge.3:15). This prophecy was fulfilled at the cross and in the future judgment.
- Jesus was indeed died. But He was resurrected on the third day. By means of His resurrection, Jesus destroyed him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil (He.2:14).
- Since we, the children have flesh and blood, Jesus Christ too shared in our humanity so that by Christ’s death we might be free together with those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (He.2:15).
The cross was an instrument of torture, it was cruel and ruthless. Who would expect it was transformed into a means of grace and love? This ministry of reconciliation was done by Jesus through the different roles He played (Isaiah 53):
- On the cross, Jesus was a rejected servant---He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not
- On the cross Jesus was a substitutionary Sufferer---Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
- On the cross Jesus was an atoning lamb of sacrifice---He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
The existence of conflicts between God and men:
God’s will and man’s thought formed a proverbial cross of conflict. The vertical bar demonstrates God’s willingness to build fellowship with men. And the horizontal bar represents men’s nature of rebellions.
- God demands obedience; men desires disobedience;
- God demands holiness; men desires evil;
- God demands honesty; man is treacherous
- God wants us to love, but men fill their hearts with hatred;
- God desires fellowship with us, but men want to be distant from God.
Therefore, a chasm between men and God is formed: The dichotomy between God’s demands and men’s noncompliance creates an unbridgeable gulf. Alienation or even enmity exists. Excommunication or separation becomes our condition before God.
- Because man’s disobedience, God condemn our sins of rebellion;
- Because our state of ungodliness---impureness and craftiness, we are unable to stand in the presence of the Holy God;
- Since man’s heart filled with hatred, we must eat the fruits of animosity and bitterness;
- Since man has fallen into the darkness devoid of the light of grace and God’s great love, man has fallen into the curse of Hopelessness.
1. Peace between God and man
No matter how deep the confronting position may be between God and humanity, the cross of Christ has the power to destroy the wall of separation. Jesus stands in the gap and uses the cross to build a bridge between men and God. This is the vertical aspect of reconciliation.
This is indeed a wonderful reconciliation.
2. Peace among fellow Human Beings
In addition to the vertical reconciliation, the cross also achieves the horizontal aspect of the reconciliation. The Bible uses the dividing wall between the Jews and the Gentiles as an illustration. Christ’s purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body, Christ reconciled both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility (Eph.2:15-16). In response to what Christ had done on the cross, we must:
- love one another in Christ,
- overcome evil with good (Rm.12:21),
- love your neighbor with sacrificial love---the love demonstrated by the cross,
- pray for your enemy,
- bless those who persecute you.
3. The cross gives us inner peace within our souls
This is more wonderful. The cross reconciles our soul to ourselves.
- Before we come to Christ, we have inner conflicts within ourselves. The flesh and the spirit disagree. Our mind and our emotion are in conflict. The discernment between what is right and what is wrong is blurred. Love and hatred are intermixed. We are groping for direction hopelessly. We wallow in guilt and struggle in self contradiction. Finally we cry out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Ro.7:24).
- Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Ro.7:25). The question of life is wonderfully answered in the cross of Christ. He is my peace. My soul is rest assured in Him. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus---who died and was raised to life---is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (Ro.8:34-35). No, no one can separate us from God!
The significance of the Cross:
Therefore, those who are saved by the redemptive act of Jesus performed on the cross must likewise lead a life to glorify the son of God, Jesus Christ. Presbyterian churches have made use of the Westminster Catechism in the instruction of children. The first question of the catechism reads: “What is the chief end of man?” The question asks about the primary responsibility carried by every human being. The answer to the question reads: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”