Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “The Cross and the Church”. A good lesson on how “the Cross reconciles people with each other … removes enmity and brings peace between Jews and Gentiles, making of them ‘one new humanity’ (Eph. 2:15 NIV)” (Quarterly for Sabbath July 22). We must look into this closer and more deeply. Exactly “how” does the “cross” do this?
Let’s begin with what the “cross” means. We Christians are notorious for using religious language that can be hard to understand by non-Christians. Words like justification, sanctification, glorification. Words like these are freighted with Christian meaning far beyond their English definition. Likewise, the “cross”. Let us agree that the term “the cross” is not just referring to the death of Jesus. The “cross” is referring to the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. “The cross” is the focal point of all that Christ is and means to us… all that God is and means to us.
The more usual explanation of “the cross” is that the death of Jesus paid to the Father the penalty for our sin… for all of us. That this is the way “the cross” “removes enmity and brings peace between Jews and Gentiles, making of them ‘one new humanity’” (ibid). This is a neat and comprehensive explanation that holds together… IF… our God is like all the pagan gods whose justice is retributive (who must have payback for our sinning). This explanation holds together as long as the problem with sin is that it has angered the Master… and we need to be forgiven.
BUT, it is not such an explanation … IF… our God is our Father whose justice is distributive (dispenses justice). And that sin itself is destroying us… and we need to be healed. For me, this understanding of our God is more accurate and truer. Because the first understanding puts our Father in a false light… like the pagan gods. But He is not like the pagan gods! He is just like His Son.
Now we have a better platform to understand “the cross”. It is not for “payment of penalty” that cancels all of mankind’s “debt”. If not that, then how does “the cross” “removes enmity and brings peace between Jews and Gentiles, making of them ‘one new humanity’” (ibid)?? Our better understanding of our Father intuitively gives us a better understanding of "the cross". “The cross” shows us our God and our unity with Him. Who so carries us and bears us and our sinful infirmities that He even dies our death with us. “The cross” shows us our God who so forgives us, even before we ask (as Jesus did on the cross). “The cross” shows us the true nature of mankind, a large and glorious family with the entire universe, and with our God identifying Himself with us as our loving, caring Father. “The cross” shows us… in a word… the truth. And the truth (Christ = “the way the truth and the life” John 14:6) is what unites us. The truth is what “makes (us) free” (John 8:32).
With brotherly love,
Jim