Salvador Dali’s painting Christ of St. John of the Cross is a staggering depiction of the crucifixion of our Lord. The picture depicts Jesus holding back the darkness surrounding Him. In the foreground, the light streaming from the cross brightens the earth, sky, and sea. The whole world is viewed from the cross. Dali wanted the viewer to grasp the crucifixion from this perspective. The gospel truth is that life ought to be considered from the vantage point of the cross because the cross is at the very heart of the Gospel. It is the cross of Christ that offers us staggering hope.
During the time of Christ, the cross was far from being a religious symbol. There is no doubt that the cross was an intensely painful way to die, but it was the social shame associated with crucifixion that people dreaded most in Roman times. Crucifixion was deliberately designed to be revolting, vulgar, and obscene. David Seamonds notes: “Crux was a four letter word, not to be used in polite company. Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest philosophers, said that no respectable person should ever have to hear it spoken.” This perception of crucifixion is why Paul writes: “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Cor 1:23). In fact, the Christian use of the cross as a symbol did not begin until three centuries after Christ.
The surprising truth is that the cross, with all its scandal and horror, is at the heart of the Gospel. Paul reminded the Corinthians: “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:1-2). Even though it seemed peculiar and off-the-wall, they were convinced that is was Christ’s finished work on the cross that supremely demonstrated the power, wisdom, and love of God.
Most believers can connect the cross with the problem of sin. We understand that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. Paul proclaims: “Jesus was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God” (Rom 4:25). But, how does Christ’s finished work on the cross undo the problem with sin? How or why does it provide the solution? The Christian scholar Jerome, who lived in the dawning of the fifth century, said that if you are going to understand the antidote, you must first understand the poison.
The Bible describes sin as the breaking, or transgression, of God’s law (1 John 3:4). It is also defined as disobedience or rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7), as well as independence from God. The original translation means to miss the mark of God’s holy standard of righteousness. Humanity sinfully lives in defiance of God, the Creature. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb 12:3). Here our deep-seated, hostility toward God is exposed. Our hatred is so intense we would kill God if we could. Seamonds notes, “In our determination to be autonomous and independent, to be our own gods, we would go so far as to get rid of God so we could take His place.” At the cross we do not see “sinners in the hands of an angry God” as Jonathan Edwards put it in his famous eighteenth-century sermon, but “God in the hands of angry sinners.” When we look at the cross, we discover how determined we are and how horrifying sin is. Sin is not solely falling short of an established standard, but our desire to get rid of the One who established the standard in the first place.
The cross of Christ reveals that sin is too heinous and God takes sin too serious to simply ignore it or casually forgive and speak it away. Therefore, Paul writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). Peter proclaims, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The simple truth is that sin’s poison is so devastating that the only remedy was the death of God’s Son (John 3:16).
The cross does not only graphically reveal the horrific nature of sin, but it also reveals the incredible cost of what God has done for us. The prophet Isaiah foretold of how God would deal with our sin problem: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6). God, due to His great love for every one of us, has chosen to provide a way for our deserved punishment for our sin to not fall on us, but on God Himself (Rom 6:23). For the believer, the cross tells us that God understands our suffering, for He took upon Himself at the cross all of our sins and all of our failures and all of our sufferings. Jesus has brought us the victory not by sheer might but by the power of suffering love. The cross of Christ is the supreme revelation of love. I’ve heard it said that forgiveness is free, but it certainly is not cheap. The staggering hope we have in Christ is found at the cross where He was willing to display His love by being the real antidote to the poison that is sin. Now that is staggering hope!
It is an honor to partner with Christ with each of you. Given the staggering hope we have in Christ, how can we not share this good news with others? Together God is going to use us to share His love and message throughout our region and to the ends of the earth.