April 5

The cross is the internationally recognized symbol of Christianity. We wear it around our necks, or in our ears, or on our fingers; we hang it on the walls in our homes and from our rear-view mirrors; we fight over whether we can display it on public property. To Christians, the cross is the symbol of something profoundly wonderful; to Muslims it is the hated symbol of the Crusades; to radical Hindus it represents people who are trying to destroy their culture. What does the cross mean to you? And what does the cross mean to God? What was God doing and saying through the cross of Jesus Christ?

This coming Friday, we celebrate, if we can use that word, Good Friday, the day when Jesus was nailed to a cross and hung up in the sight of all to die. Very few, if any, of the people there that day understood what was going on then. It wasn’t just the death of a religious fanatic, dying as a martyr. Something really earth-shaking was taking place, something that has implications for us 2,000 years later. But what? What was the cross all about?

The cross is all about our relationship with God. I want to start with this question, that cuts right to the heart of the matter:

Almost everyone thinks they are going to heaven, if they believe there is such a place. If you ask people why they think they’re going there, here are three of the most common reasons they give.

Lots of people think God grades on a curve. The way it works is this: Everybody’s performance in life is evaluated, and their scores are displayed on a standard distribution curve, which looks something like this graphic. The ones who are at the left end of the curve were the worst, and they will surely go to hell. The ones in the middle and right end did better, and most people think that if they are better than half of the people on earth, they’ll be fine. And of course, everybody thinks they are better than half of the world’s population. I mean, just think about how many crooked politicians and CEO’s there are in our country alone, not to mention the terrorists, drug dealers, drug users, and the guy next door who drinks too much on weekends. Lots of folks think, “God grades on a curve; I am better than most people, so I deserve to be saved.”

Nobody’s perfect, but I’m not as bad as I could be, so I get a little of the credit for the good things I have done. This variation of the argument says that no matter how bad I am, no matter how much gray is in the box, it is not completely black; I am not completely bad. I may have really messed up in life, but there was that time when I helped a little old lady across the street; there was that time when I forgave the person who hurt me; I gave my brother in law some money when he was down on his luck. So even though it may only be a little good, there is some good in me, and I should get partial credit for that. Every student prays for partial credit. We got the wrong answer, but we did some of the problem right, so we should get partial credit. We want a piece of the action.

Another hopeful approach is to believe that God grades with a balance-beam type scale.

He puts all my good deeds on one side of the scale, and all my bad deeds on the other side, and if the needle tips toward the good side, I’m in. Many people are aware of some of their bad deeds, but they are absolutely convinced that they do far more good deeds. They believe, “My good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, so I deserve to be saved.”

In each of these scenarios, people want to believe that they can do something to make themselves right with God, and that they are doing it. They believe, in one way or another, that they are earning their way to heaven, that they deserve to be saved. Lots of church-type people think, “I went forward at a church meeting and prayed the prayer, so I must be going to heaven.” “I’m a good person.” “I’m a religious person—I’m in church almost every Sunday.” “I go to Bible studies, and serve on church committees.” “I’m active in the youth group.” “I put money in the offering plate.” “I wear a cross around my neck.” “I was baptized.” Or whatever. In all these cases, salvation depends on what we do.

The message of the cross is positively offensive to that whole attitude and approach to God.

The Apostle Paul wrote, Galatians 5:11, “Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.” He says, If I say that you should be circumcised as a way to be acceptable to God, then I’ve taken the position that we can do something to make ourselves acceptable to God, and that removed the offense of the cross. The thing that is offensive about the cross is that it doesn’t let us take any credit for any part of our salvation.

People really do not want to hear that. They want to go on deluding themselves that somehow, they can be acceptable, or partially acceptable to God on the basis of what they have done. It is humiliating, and therefore, it is offensive, to think that all the good things you’ve done in your life don’t count for anything when it comes to pleasing God.

In fact, it’s even worse than that. God says that if we are counting on those good deeds to score some points with Him, then in His eyes, Isaiah 64:6, “… all our righteous acts are like filthy rags[1].” God is not impressed with those “righteous acts”, no matter how hard we worked at them, or how impressed others are. And most people find that offensive: How dare He not give me credit for what I’ve done? How can God not be impressed with all the money I gave to charities, or all the time I spent volunteering in my community, or all the religious things I’ve done? We are offended at the very notion that we have to trust the cross instead of our good deeds.

Most people in this country believe there is a spiritual realm called heaven, which is the destination for those God is pleased with. And not surprisingly, the vast majority of people think they are going to heaven. But when you ask them why—why do they think God will let them into heaven, they say something like, “I’ve been a good person; I’ve tried to live a good life; I’m better than most people; my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds.” Sorry. Not good enough. Filthy rags. Zero credit. You can’t possibly be good enough for God! [2]

You can’t do anything to make yourself right with God. But Jesus has done all it takes.

Col. 1:19-20, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], [20] and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

We don’t really appreciate how hard it was to reconcile us to God, because we think, OK, God made peace with us; He got over His little snit at our sin, and now we’re tight again. Well…no. It’s not that simple. Because God is just. Yes, He’s love; but He’s also just.

If He were not just, He could simply ignore our sins. He could say, OK, Jim, I see that you are judgmental and envious of others, I notice that you are greedy and lustful, but I’m just going to overlook all that. After all, to err is human; I don’t really expect you to be perfect. So we’ll just sweep all those sins under the rug and pretend you didn’t do them. That’s what we’d like to think happens.

But God is just. He doesn’t sugar coat our sin by pretending it wasn’t all that serious. He calls a spade a spade. If we didn’t tell the whole truth, we lied. If we took something that wasn’t ours, even some time from our employer, or some music that we didn’t pay for, we stole. If we had an affair in our minds, we were unfaithful. If we wished misfortune on someone, we have just committed murder in our hearts.

And that creates a problem, because God is just. The law—His law—the rules of the universe—say that the person who sins will die forever; that the only way to be acceptable to God is to keep the law, keep the rules, obey His commandments—perfectly. Since God is just, He is going to enforce the rules justly.

I find that some people don’t like the notion of a just God sitting in judgment of their actions, words, and even their thoughts. But consider the alternative. If you are robbed and assaulted, and the perpetrator is arrested and brought to trial, do you want a just judge, or someone who will say to the criminal, “Oh, now, it looks to me like you’ve had a rough childhood; I’ll just change this aggravated assault charge to a parking ticket, and waive the fine; you can go on home”? Do you want that in a judge? No!

If you think about it, we don’t want a God like that either. We don’t want to live in a universe of moral anarchy, where no degree of injustice is ever punished, where no one is held accountable for their actions. Does anybody want to live in a world where dictators and terrorists and rapists and people who gun down innocent immigrants get off scot free? No, we don’t. The good news is that God is just.

The bad news is also that God is just. Because we are guilty too, not just the other guy. We are guilty of selfishness in a thousand different forms. Guilty of sexual immorality; guilty of gossip and malice toward others; guilty of obscenities; guilty of little white lies and big black ones; guilty of envy and jealousy towards those who have more; guilty of blaming others for our failures; guilty of blaming God for the bad things that happen to us; guilty of loving pleasure more than God; guilty of thinking that material possessions can make us happy; guilty of greed and self-indulgence. And we are guilty of tolerating all those sins in our lives. Friends, we are white-washed tombs. And the paint is fresh and new. We look so respectable. We are respectable—on the outside. So everyone who knows us respects us. We’re the nicest people in town. But inside… Alcoholism is not confined to the drunk in the gutter; it’s in the church, too. I learned yesterday that most of the women in the Alternatives to Violence program here in town are Christians—their “Christian” husbands are beating them up! Christian men and young men are staying up late at night, polluting their minds with pornography. White-washed tombs.

So there is a law, an absolute moral code that God has given the people He created to live by, and we don’t keep it. That means we’re in trouble.

Col. 2:13-14, “When you were dead in your sins …, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, [14] having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Picture yourself standing before the judge who is going to determine your fate with regard to a series of crimes you are charged with. (I know it’s far-fetched, but for the purposes of this illustration, you have to imagine that these crimes carry the death penalty.) There is no question about whether you did these things or not. The evidence is overwhelming, and after brutal questioning by the district attorney you finally broke down and admitted everything. The judge calls you to approach the bench, and you nervously come forward. As you stand there, he solemnly reads the list of crimes you have committed, each offense sounding worse and worse in your ears. Then the judge picks up the massive book that is the law code applicable to your case, and opens it to the first page. Then he reaches over and takes a rubber stamp that says, “CANCELLED”, and begins to slowly and methodically stamp the word “CANCELLED” on every page of the law. When he is finally done, he turns to you and says, “You can go. This law doesn’t apply to you anymore. You are not guilty. You can start your life over.”

You were as good as dead. You were going to die for your crime. Now you have your whole life in front of you. You have been forgiven of all your sins. When the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross, they were nailing the law-code of the universe shut; they were cancelling that law for everyone who would believe in Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote, 1 Cor. 1:18, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are spiritually perishing. It’s offensive to their pride, and it sounds foolish to their minds. To begin with, the whole concept of sin is foreign to many people today, (I might think that our current economic mess and international terrorists might convince a few skeptics that there is such a thing as evil and sin.) But then if we get past that point, and they are willing to agree that there is such a thing as sin, to try to explain that Jesus Christ has taken that guilt on Himself and is willing to forgive us if we will trust the cross sounds foolish to them. They just don’t get it.

What about you? Do you think this sounds like foolishness? In your heart of hearts, are you discounting this as a religious fairy tale?

I urge you not to do that, because the message of the cross is not only true, it is unbelievably powerful.

It has the power to save every person who ever lived. You can’t be smart enough, or strong enough, or good looking enough for God. You can’t be good enough to live in a perfect place with a perfect Person. You are completely helpless to save yourself from the consequences of your sin. But on the cross, Jesus Christ accomplished what you and I never could do. He made it possible for us to be reconciled with the just Judge of all the earth. The law code that previously condemned us has been cancelled, nailed to the cross with Jesus. It no longer applies. Now we relate to God not on the basis of how good or bad we are, not on the basis of anything we can do, but simply on the basis of what He did for us.

You are swept away by an avalanche, and buried under tons of packed snow and ice, but Jesus finds you and digs you out.

You are lost in the mountains, without water, suffering from hypothermia, and Jesus finds you and brings you home safely.

You are a soldier, badly wounded under heavy enemy fire, but Jesus blasts His way to you and carries you safely out of danger.

You couldn’t do a thing to save yourself. In fact, every attempt you made only made things worse. Your best efforts to please God were like filthy rags in His sight. But through the cross, Christ took the guilt of all your selfishness, all your pettiness, all your greed and materialism, all your fear and doubt, all your hardness of heart, all your stubbornness, all the things you have never told anyone about—Jesus took all of that on Himself and died for it. And that can make you perfectly acceptable to God.

Now there is something you can do. You can believe that. You can trust what Christ did on the cross to make you absolutely perfect in God’s sight. Nobody’s perfect in their behavior, but in God’s eyes, everyone who trusts Christ is completely without fault.

It comes back to the original question: Why should God let you into His heaven? It’s a perfect place, ruled by the only perfect Person. What right do you have to be there? If you say anything remotely like, “I deserve it because of something I have done”, you will never make it. But if you are trusting that Christ’s death on the cross has paid the penalty for all of your sins, then God will cancel the law that condemned you to death, and welcome you in to His fellowship forever.

Have you done that? Will you do that today? Will you say Yes to God? Will you embrace the cross? Not as a piece of jewelry, or home décor, but as the only thing in all creation that can make you acceptable to God? Now is a good time, folks. There will never be a better time. Right where you sit—just bow your head, close your eyes, talk to God and say, Yes. Yes, I trust you. I am going to stop trusting my own goodness, and trust the power of the cross to save me. Please forgive me for all my sins. Cancel the law code that condemns me, and make me right with you.

OK, let’s say you’ve done that. You’re saved by the power of the cross. Is that it? Is that all that the cross means, or is there more?

Yes, there is more. For the person who trusts the cross to save them, it becomes a symbol of self-denial and self-sacrifice. It becomes a daily reminder that we are not our own; we have been bought with a price—the death of Jesus Christ. So now we need to live for Him, instead of ourselves.

Jesus was the most unselfish, the most self-sacrificing person who ever lived. Think about what He left behind when He came to earth from that spiritual realm where He was honored and praised and glorified by millions upon millions of angels, where there was no suffering of any kind, where He was recognized for who He was. He left all that, and came as a baby born to a peasant family in a stable and laid in an animal’s food trough. He was misunderstood and hated and hounded to death by the religious leaders of His day. He was brutally beaten and nailed to a cross like a piece of meat in the most painful and degrading form of execution yet devised.

What does it mean to be a follower of this man, Jesus Christ? One thing it means is to follow His example. Jesus said, Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” He went to the cross, so now we have to follow Him there. Our wants, our desires, even our rights and our needs are irrelevant. He gave up all those things for us; we need to give them up for Him. He calls us to deny ourselves, to say No to us, so that we can say Yes to Him, and to the people He calls us to.

He may call you to go to a foreign country to suffer culture shock and persecution for the sake of the cross. He may call you to go across the street, to change your schedule, to make room in your heart and your life for a neighbor, or a co-worker, or a relative who desperately needs the love and joy and peace that only God can give them. He may ask you to forgo that special vacation or that expensive purchase because you are going to give more to His cause than ever before. He will burden your heart with concern for those who are still trying to be good enough for God. He will ask you to share the good news about the power of the cross with them, regardless of their reaction. He will call you to spend yourself in service to others, in the church, and outside it as well. Because that’s what He did, and He calls you to follow Him.

Can you see a cross anywhere in this sanctuary? There’s one in the stained glass window behind me. It is circled with a crown, because Jesus was not just crucified; He rose again as the victorious King. Do you have a cross anywhere in your home or car? Any jewelry with a cross on it? Do you ever see a cross on a church steeple as you drive around town? The cross is portrayed here on this communion table in a different way, because the bread and the juice are powerful symbols of Christ’s body and blood on the cross. Every time you see a cross, remember this. Christ died for you on the cross, so that you would live for Him, instead of yourself. Let’s come to the cross.

[1] The word literally means a rag a woman would use when she was having her period (Jameson, Faucett, and Brown commentary, electronic version).

[2] But! if we don’t take offense at that, if we don’t take offense at the cross, then we can boast in it. Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” This is what is good about me—I am saved through the cross of Christ. I’m no longer impressed with myself, but only with Christ, and what He did for me. I really do believe that the best thing about me is that I have been saved from the consequences of my sins by Christ’s death on the cross.