Some Thoughts on the Cross of Christ

The crucifixion is the central truth of the Christian faith. This can be seen in the writings of Paul. 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 is a good example of this. Here Paul says that it is of “first importance” and that it is that “by which also you are saved.” Hence, it is absolutely central and essential to the Christian faith and is the truth that is most central to the gospel.

The crucifixion was foretold in the Old Testament. Jesus quotes Psalm 22 when He is being crucified. The reason for this is that Psalm 22 is a detailed foretelling of Christ’s death. This includes the lament, “They pierced my hands and my feet (22:16) and And for my clothing they cast lots. Similarly, Isaiah 53 declares that he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (v.5). These prophecies show the importance of the crucifixion in that it had been a central part of God’s divine plan in history.

The crucifixion was God’s chief purpose for the incarnation. This is evident in Mark 10:45 where Jesus says that He came “to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The significance of the crucifixion is that it illustrates both the fullness of God’s love and the fullness of God’s justice and wrath. That it demonstrates God’s love can be seen in Romans 5:8. And we know that the degree to which God’s love is demonstrated in the cross is of the utmost because Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Yet it also demonstrates God’s justice. This can be seen in Rom 3:25 where God is said to have demonstrated His righteousness by making Christ a propitiation.

Many people have misunderstood (and continue to misunderstand) the meaning of the crucifixion. Some have understood it to mean that Christ’s death was a ransom paid to Satan for the souls of men who are held in bondage by Satan. Satan accepted this payment not knowing that Christ would be resurrected. Satan was then left with nothing. Still others have maintained that the atonement was a payment for the sin of mankind who have failed to give God the honor He is due as God. The problem with this is that it doesn’t take into account that man’s sin is not only against God’s majesty, rather it is also against His love. Another false theory of the atonement is the moral influence theory. This theory says that Jesus death serves as an example over and against the example of Adam. Jesus’ life, including his death, is to be an example for us. It is the ultimate example of how a person is to live in such a way as to fulfill what God requires. Another related theory says that Jesus’ death serves as an example as a martyr. In the same way that Christ died for his convictions, mankind ought to have and live by such strong convictions. Another theory of the atonement is the governmental theory. In this theory, God is the supreme authority. As the supreme authority, His laws are to be obeyed. However, men have not obeyed God’s law. Therefore, God inflicts his wrath for transgression on Jesus in order to illustrate to the world the seriousness of the offense so that men might be more inclined to keep these laws. And then there is the accident theory. This theory says that Jesus death was an accident. Jesus was a mere man who went to far. For this he paid the ultimate price.

The central truth of the atonement is explained in the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. Here God is holy and demands that the sins of mankind be punished. But He has determined to save some from this punishment. Christ’s death is understood to be substitutionary in that Christ dies on behalf of the elect. This can be seen in Isaiah 53 and 2 Cor 5:21. Christ took upon Himself the wrath of God on behalf of those who would believe on Him. He was reckoned a sinner that those who believe might be reckoned as righteous.

The Doctrine Which Requires Special Emphasis in Our Day: The Gospel

The doctrine that requires special emphasis in our day is the gospel. Our ministry should be characterized by the centrality of the gospel for believers and unbelievers alike. Much preaching and teaching within the evangelical church is law-centered rather tan gospel-centered. Of couse, God's law is wonderful and we experience great blessing when we obey it. But without the power to keep the law that comes through the life-transforming power of the gospel, the law only brings guilt and condemnation. Too often the gospel is seen only as the way into the kingdom of God and not as the way to live out our faith. Once we're in through the gospel, Christianity becomes all about trying harder to do what God calls me to do. When I fail, I feel guilty and begin to have a sense that I'm not pleasing God. The good news of the gospel is that God forgives me and gives me the gift of Christ's righteousness so that I no longer have to feel guilty. This frees me up to seek Him to save me from the sins with which I continue to struggle. When I have a law-centered mindset, on the other hand, I only feel guilty, like God is displeased with me. Therefore, I think, I cannot come to God until I get my act together.

Book Review: At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, by Steve Gallagher

This book is relatively good in the way it approaches the ethics of sexual addiction. Gallagher identifies the types of attitudes and behaviors that lead to sexual sin, as well as those which keep sexual addicts from experiencing freedom. Gallagher also does a good job of describing the problem of sexual sin. He explains the important internal and external factors that lead to sexual sin. He also describes some of the negative consequences experienced by sexual addicts.

The primary thing I’ve found lacking in the book is a connection to the gospel. Over the course of the book Gallagher indicates that the addict should confess his sin, be mentored by someone who can provide godly instruction, note the consequences that come to sexual addicts, learn to deny selfish desires, stop making excuses, stop blaming others, become desperate for change, cry out to the Lord, develop new habits, separate from the world, realize there is a spiritual battle going on, put on the armor of God, follow Christ’s example, repent, receive God’s discipline, spend time in prayer and God’s Word, avoid atmospheres that provoke lust, cultivate gratitude, repent from complaining, give, serve others, pray for others, fulfill the needs of others, and love their wives. Yet you’ll notice that these are all imperatives—law without gospel.

Now, to be fair, there are a few glimpses of the gospel. In the chapter on repentance, Gallagher indicates that the sexual addict must come to a place of realizing that he is unable to overcome sin apart from God. Yet Gallagher doesn’t tie this explicitly to what God has done in Christ’s redemptive work. Moreover, this is a relatively short section of the book. The cross actually isn’t even mentioned until the last chapter of the book. Gallagher mentions the atonement as payment for the penalty of sin (although his point here is simply that this doesn’t mean that God’s law is no longer relevant). He does then go on to explain that God’s grace saves not only from eternal condemnation, but also from bondage to sin. This gets close, but he doesn’t really explain specifically how God’s grace sets sinners free or how Christ’s life death and resurrection serve as the basis for that freedom from sin.

As we deal with sin, sexual or otherwise, we must keep the gospel central. The message of the gospel strips away my doomed self-righteous attempts to fulfill the law. The knowledge that God no longer counts my sin against me provides me with the freedom to openly acknowledge my sin before Him. The redemptive work of Christ revealed in the message of the gospel empowers me to put the sin in my life to death. But these resources are not made available to the Christian in Gallagher’s book due to the lack of connection to the life-changing gospel. Tragically, this seems to be an all too common trend in current evangelical literature and preaching.*

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*For a thorough explanation of this problem, see Christless Christianity, by Michael Horton.

Making Different Choices in the New Year

As I survey the past year, I can think of a few things I'd like to do differently or better in the coming year. It seems that not everything I've done has been optimal. I've made little decisions here and there that have been time wasters or that have not served ultimate priorities. What can I do differently in the coming year?

It seems that we often choose things that hinder us in our pursuit of happiness. Sometimes our ability to develop habits proves helpful (the discipline of exercise, for example). Yet at other times this propensity for habits inhibits us in our quest for happiness (think overeating or overspending). Obviously, we need to make some different choices if we truly want to be happy.

But perhaps a deeper question needs to be asked—the question of “why?” Why are we so prone to make choices that impede our joy? Why are we so inclined to continue in habitual patterns of living that prevent us from experiencing the contentment we so earnestly seek? The answer, it seems, is that we, as humans, are the kind of beings for whom futile choices come quite naturally. I can’t count the number of times I have personally chosen to pursue something that was absolutely contrary to what wisdom prescribed. Unfortunately, this isn’t something to which I must look to the distant past to observe. And we need only scan the headlines to observe that this is a universal problem. Humanity seems to be held hopelessly captive to reaping the rewards of foolish decisions.

I think we must recognize that making wrong choices is something from which we are unable to set ourselves free. Our problem is not only that we make the kinds of choices that hold us back from finding happiness, but that we are the kind of people for whom such choices seem reasonable and good. At the end of the day, we all make choices based on our greatest affections in a given moment. We all do what we most want to do. But what if the thing we most want in a given instant will lead to our downfall? What if our strongest desire at the moment of decision will lead us to make a choice that will continue to hamper us in our pursuit of joy? This, I believe, is the root of the problem. Our will—the human decision-making mechanism—is in bondage to the often times misguided affections which reside deep within each one of us.

What’s the answer? Should I just try harder? Whether or not I try harder is ultimately dependent upon what I most want to do. And my problem up to this point is that I want the thing that’s holding me back more than I want to overcome it. Otherwise, I would have dispatched with the thing long ago. The real answer, then, is that my affections need to change. I must become the kind of person for whom good and wise choices come naturally. The inner longings which drive my decisions are in desperate need of transformation.

This is connected to the story of redemption about which the Scriptures speak. Part of the redemption God brings through Christ is redemption from the slavery of our will. Too often the Christian message has been truncated to a message about our eternal destiny. We have all sinned and deserve to go to hell, but Jesus came and took the penalty we deserved upon Himself so that we might have eternal life. While this is most certainly true in regards to the Christian, it is only part of the redemption that is offered in Christ. The message of the Christian faith is not only that Jesus came to save us from the penalty of sin, but that Jesus came to save us from sin in its totality. Jesus came to save us from the penalty of sin, the effects of sin, and the reign of sin in our lives. He came to deliver us from the curse that has come upon all creation as the result of the Fall. This deliverance begins in this life. In terms of our poor decision making, the choices that hold us back are choices that are contrary to God’s law. If we live in accordance with God’s law we will be blessed; if we disobey God’s law it will result in pain and turmoil. Yet because of what we are deep down—sinners by nature and choice—we all choose to disobey God’s law and to make decisions that hold us back in our quest for happiness. The good news is that Christ came into the world and took upon Himself the pain and turmoil which should have been upon His people because of their disobedience. Christ thereby rescues us from the pain and turmoil of disobedience, changing us and our desires, and enabling us to make the kinds of choices which will result in blessing.

And so the answer is not just to make different choices. The thing from which we need to be freed is our propensity not to make different choices. We are voluntary slaves in that we habitually choose to live in ways that are contrary to human success and happiness. Our decision-making mechanism is, in effect, broken. Thus, we are unable to make the choices needed to set ourselves free and must look to Christ to set us free.

At the end of the day, we can only experience true happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in life when Christ becomes all-satisfying. Too often Christianity is looked upon as a list of dos and don’ts, but this is just religion. Religion says you have to do x, y, and z in order for God to be pleased with you. But we are unable to do x, y, and z because we are sinners by nature and choice! Jesus came to save us from religion. Jesus came to do x, y, and z on our behalf so that we might have a relationship with the only One in whom we can know true happiness. The tragedy of our sinfulness is that we become enslaved to a life of idol worship. We seek our joy in family, career, money, school, wine, women, song, basketball, stamp collecting, or a whole host of other things that can never truly satisfy us. It’s not that these things are inherently bad. Idolatry is just what happens when good things become ultimate things. Idolatry is what happens when we seek to fill our inner need for the awe-evoking, all-supreme God of glory with anything else. But God comes to us in His unsearchable grace and transforms our lives through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, opening our eyes to the truth of His revelation and instilling within us a love for Him.

Praise be to you, Lord Christ!

In the coming year it is my hope to rely more wholeheartedly upon Christ knowing that He is the only One who is able to rescue me from my propensity to make choices that threaten to snuff out the joy I'm seeking in Christ.

The Most Important and Influencial Person in All of History

As Christians, we acknowledge Jesus as the most important and influential person in all of human history. But how can we go on to describe the utterly immense influence He has had on us? Can any of us give a full account of the significance of Christ in our lives in just a few paragraphs? The Apostle John wrote that the world itself could not contain all of the books that could be written about all that Jesus had done (John 21:25). I suppose the same could be said for what Jesus has done in my life and in the life of every Christian. And so as I undertake to say a few things about Christ’s influence on my life, know that I am burdened by my limited ability to do it in a manner that accurately portrays the magnitude of that influence.

Apart from Christ, we are all inclined to seek fulfillment in idols. Whether we seek fulfillment in the idols of money, career, material possessions, relationships, religion, drugs, alcohol, or whatever else, idols allure us with promises of happiness and fulfillment. They claim to have the power to deliver us from life’s difficulties. Yet they never deliver on their promises. In the end we end up reaping the negative consequences that come when we pursue fulfillment apart from Christ. This is the story of my life before God saved me. I searched for fulfillment in all the wrong places and was held captive to whatever I thought would help me escape the difficulties I experienced in life. But Christ has set me free. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins and rose from the dead to give me new spiritual life. He has granted me forgiveness through His death on the cross. He has given me a gift of righteousness through His sinless life. He has cleansed me of my guilt and gives me grace to live in ways that bring glory to Him.

There is no figure in all of history who is more compelling than Jesus Christ. The person and work of Christ are breathtaking. He alone is all-satisfying. He alone is the One in whom true joy can be found. Through His life, death, and resurrection He has brought about the redemption of His people to the praise of His ineffable glory. This is all something to which Christ opened my eyes and inclined my heart with the result that I now rejoice in the life-transforming power of His gospel.

Save Ourselves?

As those who desire to follow Christ, we must constantly wrestle against our tendency to try to save ourselves. Our natural inclination is to try to overcome sin in our own strength. But note that the things we might try to do to save ourselves are the very things from which we need to be saved! Seeking to overcome our sin through good works, trying harder, or in any way through our own strength is what Christ came to save us from.

Praise be to God that we are, through the gospel, being delivered from slavery to our sinful and ineffectual attempts to save ourselves!

Grace, Grace, Grace

Consider this account from Charles Spurgeon:

One week-night when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, “how did you come to be a Christian?” I sought the Lord. “But how did you come to seek the Lord?” The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, “How came I to pray?” I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. “I did read them; but what led me to do so?” Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith; and as the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make it my constant confession. "I ascribe my change wholly to God."

I know, my new Christian brother, it seems like you did something in order to come to Christ. It seems like you are the one who took the initiative by choosing to trust in Christ. However, my friend, please understand that this was not something which you previously had the ability to do. It was a work of God. Before coming to Christ, you were spiritually dead and enslaved to sin. The Scriptures teach that there is none who seeks God (Rom 3:11). However, you were born-again. When you were spiritually dead, God gave you new spiritual life which then created in you the desire to turn to Christ. While you were spiritually dead and desired only sin, God gave you the disposition and frame of mind to see the beauty of Christ and the truth of the gospel so that as you heard God calling you through the proclamation of the gospel, you came to faith in Christ. Ultimately, then, your salvation is not the result of your choice, rather your choice is the result of the fact that God elected you to be saved. This is why Paul can say, “it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).