The Cross is Fundamental

In his book Kingdoms in Conflict, Chuck Colson relates a time in the 1980’s when Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from all public buildings.

The government had banned the display of the cross in hospitals, factories, and other public institutions. Following the Jaruzelski’s lead one zealous Communist school administrator removed all the crosses from a school’s lecture halls where they had hung since its founding in the 1920’s.

Days later a group of parents entered the school and replaced the crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well.

The next day two-thirds of the school’s six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, carrying crosses, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools.

Pictures of the students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered a message that day to a weeping crowd “There is no Poland without a cross.”

More so than that Polish affirmation, there is no Christianity without a cross. The cross is fundamental to our faith.

In 1Corinthians 1:18 Paul admitted that to the unbelieving Jews and to the erudite Greeks, preaching the cross was foolishness, “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The message of the cross has long been a Christian paradox. To the Romans the cross was an instrument of death, but it became the means of life for those who trust in its promises. Jesus’s blood shed on the cross seemingly ended his life, because the life of the flesh is in the blood. But God used His sinless blood as a cleansing agent for sin.

In the eyes of His enemies Jesus’ death on the cross signaled defeat and failure. But God used the cross as a springboard to demonstrate His wisdom and power in the greatest of all miracles when Jesus arose victoriously from the grave.

Ironically Jesus’ humiliation on the cross ultimately gave birth to the boldness of Peter and the apostles preaching who refused to be intimidated or silenced by those would seek to silence their message. (Ax. 4:12; 5:29). The powerful message of the cross prompted Paul to proclaim, “ But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).

The cross is fundamental to our faith because…

…the cross represents the greatest sacrifice that the world has ever witnessed (Jn. 10:18). It is a willing sacrifice of an innocent life for guilty mankind.

…the cross furnishes the means through which we can receive salvation from sin (1 Cor. 1:18-25).

… the cross serves as the Divine method for reconciling estranged man back to fellowship with God (Eph. 2:16-18).

…the cross demonstrates the depth of God’s love, the greatness of His grace, and the extent of His mercy (Eph. 2:1-10).

…the cross breaks down the barriers that divide people. It includes all people from every nation, race, ethnic group, as well as every social, cultural, and economic class (Gal. 3:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11).

…the cross provides peace of mind, peace with God, and peace with our fellow man (Col. 1:20).

…the cross offers eternal hope to a dark world wallowing in sin, burdened with guilt, and hampered by haplessness beyond this life (Col. 1:27; 1 Pet. 1:3).

The Scottish preacher Alexander MacLaren was right when he wrote, “The cross is the center of the world’s history; the incarnation of Christ and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which all the events of the ages revolve.”

The cross is fundamental. To Christianity. And to our faith.

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman