Do you understand everything that occurred in the crucifixion of Jesus, and how central it is to your life and theology?
Whether you think so or not, let me introduce you to the cross of Jesus and how truly significant it really is.
For me, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the foundation to how I read and study Scripture. The cross is at the center of my theology. What Jesus did on the cross provides the pinnacle example of how Christians are to live our lives. Without the cross, there is no Gospel. And as Paul says, if Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:17).
I have written a lot on this blog about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and some people have asked that I make these posts more accessible to readers. So to help you see the same thing, I have decided to make several of my central blog posts about the death and resurrection of Jesus available to people by email.
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The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus forms the foundation for everything I write on this blog. Everything.
What Jesus accomplished on the cross and through His resurrection is central to everything else. The death and resurrection of Jesus are not only central to Scripture and the Gospel, but are also central to learning (maybe for the first time) what God is like, and how we are supposed to live our lives as followers of Jesus.
By reading these emails, you are forming a firm foundation for understanding Scripture, theology, church, and life. You are gaining what I like to call “crucivision.” You will learn to see everything through the lens of Jesus Christ on the cross.
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There are about 26 emails in this series, and you will get one every Friday, which means that by getting these emails, you can spend the next six months focusing your mind on “Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.” This will be revolutionary for you. See you soon!
The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!
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Doesn’t the cross come within the context of Creation?
Greg, I am not sure I understand. What context of creation are you referring to?
It seems that while the cross is a center piece, what precedes it is God’s initiative in creating the world. I’d wager creation is the context for the cross – the cross is not the context for itself.
God’s perfect creation was marred by the introduction of sin. Sin corrupts the world and separates us from Him. Jesus came to bring us back to God. Through His sacrifice we can be cleansed of sin and come back to a proper relationship with God and His creation.
And the debate begins instead of focusing on Jesus.
How does seeking a better understanding of God and His word detract from following Jesus ?
Greg, you are probably right. Obviously, without creation there would be no cross. And then as Matthew points out, sin married creation, and so the cross of Jesus restores and redeems creation. So as you say, the cross is not the context for itself.
Steven, I am not sure what you are saying either… How is a discussion about the cross of Jesus Christ not focusing on Jesus? Even then, since Jesus was instrumental in making all things (Col 1), even if I am talking about the beauty of a tree or a sunset, this is worshipful of Jesus. The truth is, it’s ALL about Jesus, even if His name doesn’t come up.
A friend uploaded a comment this very morning which had as its opening the phrase …
“Built in to the logic of God’s original purpose is the fact that salvation was not part of the plan of creation.”
He added that in the six days of creation there is no mention of salvation.
In the 6 days of creation, salvation was not part of it.
I believe it’s crucial to have a creational, not just salvific perspective. My point is not to underplay the cross, but to see it in an unfolding context that includes a broader picture of humanity and the natural world. For example, one follows Jesus as both a creature and a child of God.
Perhaps both of you (Greg and J.D.) would find this instructive and entertaining. https://answersingenesis.org/media/video/creation/already-gone/
Jeremy, You don’t need to hear it from me, your on the right track. A deep and personal knowledge of the gospel message of the cross is essential to a believer in a relationship with Jesus.
I’m happy that you know that. Now are you discovering a slight urgency of communicating that message to others? Are you challenged by finding that there are Christians who don’t seem to really relate to what you are saying? Sort of the mindset you lived in before you started to get it.
God bless your effort, continue, the message is anointed.
Greg you said, “I believe it’s crucial to have a creational, not just salvific perspective.”
I couldn’t agree more with this statement. But doesn’t 1 peter 1:19,20 intimate that God had the crucifixion and resurrection in mind even before He began to create? Although it’s difficult for me to articulate, I suspect that the crucifixion and resurrection are much more than a rescue mission; a sort of plan B. I think they reveal to us something about the nature of God that perhaps we never would have known had there not been a fall.
Great discussion. It is a blessing to read and to hear such a great topic and great comments. I would like to add that scripture has as many layers as you can see to one who studies them for their complete lifetime, but can also be seen to a new convert as a flat surface. That’s why it is so amazing. It is meat to some and milk to others. Either way you look at it though, Jesus(God) is the center and focal point of it all, from creation forward and of course including the great work on the cross. Keep up the good work guys. Here is my take on the sum of Christianity, http://www.lefthook.info/#!13-Word-Religion/cmdw/55d7e0b10cf2c407285e95e2 . Thanks again.
Jesus taught somewhere in the New Testament, “Take up your cross and follow me.” Some interpret this too literally thinking that our own suffering brings us closer to God. This is not always the case. World religions teach suffering as a way of becoming holy. Buddhism, Islam, even Catholicism all stress personal suffering. This is not a cross centered gospel, this is masochism. Jesus was referring to the cross He himself was being crucified on the cross for our sakes. We cannot suffer enough to pay our own sin bill. If our own suffering brings us to God, we’re inducing ourselves to a living hell. Nothing more. In Isaiah 53 it quotes “By His stripes we are healed”. We are healed by His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. Nothing more. This is Jesus plus nothing.
Everything revolves around the cross.
Hey Jeremy,
I love what you’re doing to help move people toward discipleship. One of the toughest parts about writing, preaching, creating is that the entire picture never fits.
And that bothers people. We all have parts of the picture that we think are incredibly important, maybe pet elements that we believe all work should contain.
Including all the implications of any theological point is impossible on a blog post. I’m glad that you’re helping people have crucivision – please don’t let those who badger you about not including something they believe to be dire derail you.
Be encouraged, we’re making small steps each post.
Moving the needle gently.
Leading others – not pulling them.
I look forward to reading more of your content. Keep up the Good work.
Thanks, John. This is a good reminder. I sometimes get frustrated that things don’t move more quickly. But this is not the way people work or the way God works. Small changes over long periods of time is the only way to go.
The Cross is the Absolute Center of Scripture, Theology, and Life
Absolutely!
And the Blood of Jesus!!
Sometimes we can’t find ‘it’ anymore, miss the power, are more wandering than standing on the rock with firmity. That happens in the life of any believer sometimes.
What we have to do then: we have to go back to the ‘simpleness’!
To the cross and the Blood.
And leave all other stuff behind.
So to people who feel stuck:
That is the way, really…..!Start new! With the Basic (with capital B)
It is the way to ‘fly’ again.
We mostly feel stuck because of wrong priorities and the wrong luggage. When living in the world, we get unwanted Luggage, but when living as a christian too!! Need to get rid of that.
Listen to the oldtimer-believers. They understood.
Jeremy,
Are you familiar with Jürgen Moltmann’s book, The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology? That book may help you to deepen your reflections on cross, theology, and salvation.
Mark,
Jesus Christ suffered for us but that does not mean that when we suffer, we suffer as a payback for our salvation. All humans suffer somehow at some point in their lives. To follow Christ means to experience suffering gracefully and faithfully as Christ did. It means to see the suffering we go through (whether we want it or not) from the perspective of Christ, Paul, Peter, and countless people who suffered for the sake of their faith and offered their suffering to God as a sacrifice on behalf of others. There is such a thing called redemptive suffering.
Obviously, there is a fine line between suffering as a path to God and suffering as a mundane and masochistic experience. But if you read the Bible completely you will see that the suffering is part of coming to know God (not all the time. Suffering is described ambiguously in the Scripture).
As a minister I have seen many people who gain deeper understanding of life from their sufferings. I have seen refugees who are able to forgive because they understand how suffering unites them and perpetrators of violence who do violence in their ignorance. I have seen people to stuck in depression because they don’t want to let Christ heal their suffering. Suffering is powerful experience; as it can be a path to God it can also be a path to hell but it surely is not only and only path to masochism.
This does not mean suffering is always good. It simply means suffering as unavoidable part of life has its special place in process of redemption and Christ calls us to be patient when suffering hits.
yes! That is an excellent book! I did read it AFTER I wrote this post, and I did find it very helpful. Glad you have read it as well.
The mystery of the cross !
It seems like the resurrection of our Lord is mentioned only as an after thought in Western Christianity? Except at Easter time. I am glad you have mentioned it.
Without the resurrection, the Crucifixion is meaningless.
Without Christ’s death on the cross, the New Covenant would not have been ushered in with all its promises to the entire world. Gentiles had no part in the Old Covenant (Eph 2:11-22). Now by grace all are included – not just Israelites – yes, even we “dirty” gentiles. Christ also came to give dead men life (Jn 10:10; Col 2:13; Eph 2:1). As in Adam ALL DIED, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). Without the centrality of the cross, everything else fades by comparison. This is why, I think, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
I am also convinced of the centrality of the cross. there are some hardnuts yet to crack, and i want to ask your help. Eph 2:14-15, how did Jesus abolish the law in his flesh. Col 2:14-15 what is the written code he nailed on the cross? how does this relate to disarming the powers and authorities?
In context, Paul is talking about Jewish and Gentile believers:
14 For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that He might make in Himself one new man out of the two, so making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
Guzik on this:
i. “The enmity of which the apostle speaks was reciprocal among the Jews and Gentiles. The former detested the Gentiles, and could hardly allow them the denomination of men; the latter had the Jews in the most sovereign contempt, because of the peculiarity of their religious rites and ceremonies, which were different from those of all the other nations of the earth.” (Clarke)
ii. “And the separation was intensified and emphasized by those institutions which were, in part, designed to isolate Israel from the world, until the fit time for the wider blessing. And He ‘annulled’ them by fulfilling them, in His sacrificial work; thus at once reconciling man to God and man to man.” (Moule)
iii. The law as a source of righteousness is no longer an issue. That source of enmity between Jew and Gentile is dead.
Again in context:
“13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”
Coffman is interesting on this. He is certain it refers to the Decalogue. At first I balked at this, but his reasoning is such:
“The special application of this verse, as inclusive of the moral part of the Law of Moses, was discussed thus by Macknight:
The moral precepts of the Law of Moses are called the Chirograph, or handwriting of ordinances, because the most essential of these precepts were written by the hand of God on two tables of stone; and the rest Moses was directed to write in a book….
Sabbatarians make two profound mistakes: (1) in their understanding of the sabbath day commandment as in any sense a part of the moral law, and (2) in their insistence that the moral portion of the Law of Moses is still in effect; whereas nothing could be more emphatic than the New Testament declarations that the Law, not part of it, but all of it, has been changed, abrogated, taken away, nailed to the cross, etc.”
Then Bridgeway Bible Commentary on your last question:
“Christ paid the full penalty on behalf of repentant sinners. He destroyed the power of the law – as if he took that book with its record of sins and debts and nailed it to the cross with himself. Therefore, believers need no longer fear the power of the law (14). Nor need they fear the power of the spiritual forces of evil, for Christ has conquered them, taken away their power and displayed his victory over them (15).”
I can’t seem to read through any section of Scripture without attempting to truly understand it. The “By Verse” tool of Studylight.com, as well as the myriad of commentaries he has loaded on that site, and Favid Guzik’s commentary who’s is more modern and easier to understand, have been invaluable to me.
God bless you all, I happened upon here and enjoyed reading the blog and the comments!
Eph 2:14-15, how did Jesus abolish the law in his flesh.
Paul at this point in Ephesians is seeing the Mosaic law as a cause of division between Jews and non-Jews. That is because the Mosaic law has to be seen as part of the complete package which was the first covenant. This included the law and the land. And it is understandable that non-Jews would find offensive the idea that they were excluded from God’s favour because he hadn’t given the law to them. (They were not to know that God’s plan was to ultimately include them later.)
So understand that while much of Christendom wants to maintain that Jesus was the perfect law keeper, in fact he was not at all. While remaining perfect and without sin, he very clearly broke the Hebrew law. See these examples:
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Leviticus 5:3,5,6
… If he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt … and confesses the sin he has committed, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering.
Matthew 8:2,3
And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.”
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Leviticus 20:10
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Deuteronomy 22:22
If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman.
John 8:11
Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
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Exodus 20:8
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 31:17
It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
Deuteronomy 5:13,14
Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath…
John 5:16,17
The Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I AM WORKING.
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Much more significantly than the above examples, a huge amount of the Hebrew law relies on the principle of “lex talionis” – the law of retaliation, whereby a punishment resembles in kind and in degree, the offence that has been committed. Literally scores of laws are based on this principle.
Jesus totally refutes the principle of retaliation by replacing eye-for-eye with turn-the-other-cheek. In this way, he pull the rug out from under much of the Old Testament law. Moreover he lives that way.
I know the ‘get out’ people use is to say that the law applies to the nation, and Jesus’ teaching applies only to the individual. But that is just made up. There is no sense of that in the text. If that was what Jesus was teaching, he would surely have said so, given the gravity of any misunderstanding.
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And of course you have Paul in his letter to Galatians stating that he is not under the law, and citing as an example, not a ceremonial / health / food / ritual law, but a globally applicable utterly relevant moral law which was written on the tablets of stone – the ten commandments. Don’t Covet. That law does not apply to me or you, says Galatians. And Paul gets so annoyed with the Christians in Galatia who are wanting to apply bits of moral law to themselves to live by, that he starts chapter 3 with “You stupid Galatians!!”
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So what does this all mean?
Ephesians 4:14 says “he abolished the law” Greek “katargēsas” translated as abolished or annuled.
Matthew 5:17 says “do not think I have come to abolish the law” Greek “katalysai” translated as abolished
The Ephesians word refers to making something redundant or inoperable. The Matthew word refers to destruction (as in ‘destroy this temple’)
And this is trying to express what Jesus did with the law was subtle. He fulfilled it. This is because from that point on, moral behaviour would not be guided or constrained externally by written laws, but guided and constrained internally by the indwelling Spirit.
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Col 2:14-15 what is the written code he nailed on the cross?
It is the law mentioned above. Foundational to the law was lex talionis – eye-for-eye. Measured retaliation. The punishment fits the crime. Jesus swept that away. When attacked Jesus never retaliated. When ultimately attacked he loved and forgave. The power of the law to constrain bad moral behaviour was subverted by our sinful love of retaliation. Jesus “forgive them father” response to the sins of the world laid on him, meant that there was no longer any excuse for believing retaliation was morally okay.
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How does this relate to disarming the powers and authorities?
The powers and authorities loved lex talionis. They could do violence to people while believing it was moral. Also Satan the accuser who loved to discourage people by making them believe God was vindictive was no longer able to say that, since Jesus had proved otherwise.
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Sadly this is a lesson the church by and large has not yet learned.
Your blog post beautifully emphasizes the profound significance of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, highlighting their centrality to both theology and everyday life. Your commitment to making these pivotal teachings accessible to readers is commendable, and offering them through a series of emails allows for a deeper, ongoing exploration of these foundational truths. I appreciate how you stress the transformative power of understanding “crucivision” and viewing all aspects of life through the lens of Christ on the cross. Looking forward to delving into this series and deepening my understanding of these crucial aspects of faith. Thank you for sharing your insights and guiding us on this journey of discovery.