‘Take me to the cross and that will lead me home.’
The story was told. A young boy was lost. He sat on a bench in the park lonely and dejected. Passers-by alerted the police. When they arrived, they did all they could to figure out where the boy came from. ‘Do you know the name of the street your parents leave? ‘No’ was the reply. ‘Do you know the name of the school you attend? ‘No’ was the reply. ‘Do you live close to any hotel? He just shook his head. Then one of the police officers said, do you by chance live close to the big church with the big cross in the centre of the town? ‘Yes,’ was the relieving reply. ‘Take me to the cross and that will lead me home.’
Today a cross- section of the society argue that Easter is mentioned once in the bible and for some people for this reason, it is not worth celebrating. It is also like the issue of Christmas, some people argue that since we are not sure of the exact date Jesus Christ was born, there is no point celebrating it. Some argue that both Easter and Christmas were replicates of worship of Sun god or other gods that some nations worshipped centuries ago and because of this, they miss out on the beauty and purpose of the person in the centre of both Christian festivals. Some politicians will even argue that people can be given holidays during these seasons but they should never refer such holidays to the personality of Christ, his doings, or legacies. The joy of it is the more I hear about this argument, the more I am driven to find out more about Christ with respect to these holidays and issues surrounding them. I am driven to find the purpose for which Christ was born and for which he had to go through the cross, crucifixion, death, and resurrection to achieve his purpose. Though nobody paid me to do what I am doing, I read about some people that were paid to come up with a predicted result that Jesus never went to the cross or arose. The same people wrote a book to show that resurrection was real. As for me, finding a purpose for a cause is a lifelong desire. I wrote a book titled: Understanding Principles, Purpose, Power and People of vision. I wrote in that book that when purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable. Whether you are a Christian or not, I urge you to help in continuing with this research, why did Jesus go to the cross? Or why did God choose the mysterious and complex process of redeeming mankind from their sins through the cross? You will either face the reality of the cross here on earth and resolve it in your favour or find out about the cross where it will be too late.
The truth most be said, we don't know it all. This article is to create more of curiosity than provide a solution. It is to push you to read the bible more, brainstorm with your pastors and other christians. Ask the hard questions. This article will give some direction and also help us to know more about Jesus Christ the anointed one. I also want you to pay attention to some vocabularies, their meaning and differences, words like atonement, redemption and propitiation, what is the difference in these terminologies? They are not the same.
Why discuss the Cross?
A story was told about a young man who went to visit Billy Graham. Call it a mentee meeting a mentor. He spoke about how Billy is known for preaching about the cross like a butterfly looking for nectar. He now asked, “if you are to give a piece of advice from a big Billy to a young Billy who is just planning to go to ministry what will that be?” Billy Graham answered “you need to preach on the Cross and the Blood, because that is where the power is". The issue of the cross is the process for humanity breakthrough.
What does Cross reveal about God?
The cross reveals that God is sovereign and just. The cross reveals that God is demonstrably righteous. The cross reveals that God is omnipotently merciful, that is God treats you better than you deserve. The cross reveals the graciousness of God that is why he offered grace to replace law. That is why God accepted the blood of his son as a substitute to the blood of animals.
What is the Cross?
To a literary reader the cross as we know it today is a pendant made with various items in form of a plus sign with an unusual longer vertical part than the width. The cross is an object, or figure formed by two short intersecting lines or pieces. I read of a story of someone who went to a store to buy a cross but was describing to the store owner, “I don't want the one with the figure of a person on it.” So we have crosses that do not show that someone died on it. The cross as we know today is one wooden huge structure placed on the church building or fellowship centres. The cross is that frame in front of a church or inside a church. That is not the cross! What we have and carry about is a symbolism of the original cross, upon which Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, the place of the skull in outside the city of Jerusalem.
What is not the purpose of the Cross?
The purpose of the cross is not for it to be worn around your neck or wrist, or tattooed on your body, or worn on your dress or T-shirt to show that you are a Christian. How many armed robbers wear the cross on their neck and yet go and steal. Some even wear it in that manner so that it will protect them from being caught in their nefarious activities. Just as some people put on wedding rings and still sleep with concubines, mistresses and sugar daddies. Some put the cross under their pillows to protect them from witches and wizards, just as some put bibles under their pillows to wade off demons. These are not the reasons for which the Son of God was crucified on the cross. They are cheap misuse of the cross.
What is the purpose of the Cross?
1. The cross of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith. The cross reveals to us the character of God: His love for lost sinners and His perfect justice meet at the cross. If we want to grow in our love for God, which is the first and greatest commandment, then we must be growing to understand and appreciate the cross, which shows us His great love. If we want to grow in godliness, we must grow in understanding the significance of the cross, which confronts the most prevalent and insidious of all sins, namely, pride.
2. The place where God demonstrated his love. The cross is a place where the love of God for humanity is perfected. How? A place where God sacrificed his only begotten son for humanity, to redeem us from our sins. How many of us reading this article are willing to give away one of our children to die for human beings? It is easy to read and recite "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” As I commonly say we all know John 3:16, but do not know 1 John 3:16."This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." How many of us want to lay down our material, property and money for the gospel not to even talk about blood for other people. The love of God for humanity is perfected in allowing his only begotten Son to go to the cross to die for you and I.
3. The cross is the heart of redemption. Every organ in the body is important, but the most important is the heart. The day the heart stops pumping blood around the body that is when that unusual announcement comes, “He is dead.” The issue, quarrel, separation with man and God started in Genesis Chapter Three, where the greatest separation took place, where man died. The cross is where Jesus died for man to experience redemption for their numerous sins, past, present and future. Through the cross, Christ has paid the ransom for us and redeemed us from the devil and sin.. “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption."Heb 9:12 "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matt 20:28
4. The cross was a place of forgiveness. Yes, Jesus proclaimed to those Romans and Jews crucifying him that “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”. Yes, Jesus said to the thief on the right hand, “Today you will meet me in paradise.” But beyond that momentary forgiveness, is the great forgiveness that God brought on humanity. Recall when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he provoked God’s wrath, (and if you care to know the greatest human problem is the wrath of God) to rain curses, on humanity. That curse was not reversed until Jesus was crucified on the cross. Paul made us to know: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”[h] 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." Gal 3:13-14. Forgiveness is a perfect word to replace redemption in that passage, because forgiveness is the basis for redemption and redemption is the outcome of forgiveness.
5. The cross is a place of reconciliation. Though implied in some of the points mentioned above, but it stands out, that it was the cross that midwifed humanities reconciliation to the Trinity. Through the cross, Christ has reconciled us to God and restored our relationship with Him. “For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."Rom 5:10-11"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation "Col 1:21-22. While reading this article, you can lay your hand on your sick child and healing will take place. You can make a request through prayer and God will answer. The cross brought that new relationship.
6. The cross was a place of substitution? Through the cross, Christ died as our substitute taking the punishment of our sins. “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Isaiah 53:5-6 “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.1 Peter 3:18.
7. The cross is a place of responsibility. It was at the cross that Jesus showed not just emotion for the vessel God used to make the 'Word to become the Flesh' or for 'God to become human' but to show that he cares. And through that singular act he gave the body the charge to care by taking care of others. He gave John the disciple a responsibility: “When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[b] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:26-27.
8.The cross is a place where justification took place.Through the cross, Christ has justified us and has not only forgiven our sins but has also made us righteous in the sight of God. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.Romans 5:1-2.But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.Titus3:4-7
9. The cross is a place where we were adopted into the family of God. Through the cross, Christ has adopted us as children in the family of God and made us joint-heirs with Him.“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” Gal 4:4-5.He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs ,heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.Rom 8:15-17Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
10.The cross is a place of propitiation: Through the cross, Christ has appeased the wrath of God against sin by taking it upon Himself as a propitiation. Propitiation, also called expiation, is the act of appeasing or making well-disposed a deity, thus incurring divine favor or avoiding divine retribution. “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God wrath through him!Rom 5:9
11.The cross is place for atonement.Through the cross, Christ has made an atonement for our sins. He paid the compensation for our sins.Through his sacrifice. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.1 John 2:2First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made).Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Heb 10:8-10
12. The cross is a place of fulfilment of prophecies. Alone of all the beliefs of mankind, be they religious or political or philosophical, “Christianity (including its Old Testament foundation) is based upon historical acts and facts and prophecies. Other religions are centered in the ethical and religious teachings of their founders, but Christianity is built on the great events of creation and redemption. The Moslem faith is based on the teachings of Mohammed, Buddhism is based on the teachings Buddha, Confucianism on the teachings of Confucius, Marxism on the teachings of Marx, and evolution on the teachings of Darwin. Not one of these is based on the observation of historical data or facts, or prophecies but on the teachings and theories of men. For example Gen 3:15 was fulfilled on the cross, where Jesus destroyed the devil and death.
Conclusion:
The cross is a place of paradox. An anticlimax for the wickedness of Satan who led humanity to depravity and put him under the wrath of God, but it is also the climax for the mercy of God where humanity experience restoration of fellowship. Calvary shows how far man will go in sin, and how far God will go for man’s salvation. The cross says that God especially loves those who are hurting--those who are under the penalty and power of sin. If you will turn to Jesus Christ and put your trust in what He did for you in taking your just penalty for sin on the cross, He will deliver you from sin’s penalty and from its power. He wants to be your Shepherd and Overseer. He loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way. He wants to heal you from the devastating effects of sin. Will you turn to Him?
The challenge of the cross is no more of what Satan did or what God has done it is in what will be your response to what Jesus did on the cross. Let the cross lead you to accept God’s graciousness, righteousness and his mercy. Let the cross help you to resist and repel every temptation to sin. Let the cross help you hate sin. Let the cross help you choose who to be your friend and how to live your life.
Let the cross help you to make a declaration like Paul:“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain”
Pastor Amos Dada is an author and a notable conference speaker, he is the Senior Pastor and District Superintendent Christ Apostolic Church Bethel Toronto. He is the Convener of International Gathering of Eagles (IGOE) Conferences and President of the Canadian Institute of Leadership and Development. Invite him to your next event and do your best to attend IGOE 2018 from September 13-16. Save August 11, 2018 for Canada Return to Your Maker Prayer Summit, in Toronto, Canada. You can also subscribe to his channel on YouTube, join him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.@amos_dada
