Written by Amy K. Hall |
Friday, August 9, 2024
Don’t wander endlessly in subjective feelings and fears. Whatever suffering, confusion, doubt, or anxiety you’re dealing with in a life that feels out of control or separated from God’s love, the cross is an objective historical event you can look to for solid proof of who God is and his unshakable relationship with you through Christ.
I have often talked about the utter brilliance of the cross, God’s method of upholding perfect righteousness and justice while at the same time securing grace—“so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus,” as Romans 3:26 says. Because of the cross, Christianity is the only religion where no evil is swept under the rug yet anyone can be forgiven, where God is both a good judge who doesn’t compromise justice and a forgiving Father who gave his Son to save us—while we were his enemies, no less!
In Ephesians 3:11, Paul refers to the gospel as “the eternal purpose which [God] carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Why was the work of Christ on the cross God’s “eternal purpose”? Because it reveals crucial truths about him that we wouldn’t have seen any other way, and because God’s ultimate goal is for his people, whom he adopts “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:6), to know him deeply “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). This is why knowing truths about God is not just an academic exercise but is central to the Christian life.
In Authentic Ministry, Michael Reeves describes what the cross reveals about God and how seeing those truths changes us and fuels our lives as Christians.