4) Wisdom of the Cross

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It is my firm belief that the message of the gospel applies in every age. There is no way that any civilisation, no matter how superior it thinks itself to past ones, ever outgrows the need for The Good News. The simple reason for this is that humanity has not changed. We may be more educated, more sophisticated, more scientifically knowledgeable; we may have more human rights, have fairer legal systems; we may have good welfare provision and healthcare; but beneath it all, we remain self-orientated sinners!

birth

It takes humility to acknowledge that last point, whilst recognising the benefits of all those positive achievements. This highlights the essential message of the gospel: however, good life gets, the human heart is not changed. Understanding might change – and make us better people in civic society; attitudes might change – and lead to better relationships; behaviour might change – and everyone gains from that. But change of heart is a spiritual enterprise; and only Jesus, working through the gospel, can change the human heart.

The root problem of the human heart is unbelief. No amount of sophistication can deal with unbelief. It requires a divine transaction; it needs light to shine in the darkness of our thinking; it requires a new birth. The Holy Spirit is the executor of the new birth: this is the spiritual change which the heart needs, with the end result that we renounce self-seeking and instead serve the Lord Christ. Jesus taught this in dramatic language:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matthew 16:24-27)

Jesus speaks of a transaction of loss and gain: the loss of the self-life and the gain of spiritual life.

foolishness

The central mechanism is the cross. The cross of Jesus was physical – He did not need the cross to end his self-life as He never had one. His cross brought death to His body. But it represents the work which needs to be accomplished in us – the death of the selfish, worldly life. That message can never become redundant. It is a message of eternal promise. Whereas sophisticated society might promise longer life or wealth, the unsophisticated cross promises eternal life with a divine reward.

This is why there is wisdom in the cross. It is wisdom which the world cannot understand because it is so demanding. It is a message which seems ridiculous to the world. This was the discovery which Paul made and led him to write these famous words:

For 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. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ (1 Corinthians 1:18-19)

The cross does not make sense to the world which lives to gain – it wants to “find itself”. But the message of the cross is to “lose oneself”. And it will never make sense to the world because it lives in unbelief. This unbelief enables those who love the world to think of themselves as wise and intelligent. The message of the cross presents to them an apparent nonsense – losing life to gain life.

power

The deeper message for us from this passage is that the cross is the way to discovering the power of God. This is the missing ingredient in our preaching. We may have well-planned sermons or services, with professional music and indeed an ardent congregation. But in the end, it is the power of God which transforms hearts and brings people to experience the new birth. Here is an excerpt of God’s power at work in the ministry of John Wesley:

In the evening we mightily wrestled with God for an enlargement of his work. As we were concluding, an eminent backslider came strongly into my mind; and I broke out abruptly, “Lord, is Saul also among the prophets? Is James Watson here? If he be, show thy power!” Down dropped James Watson like a stone, and began crying aloud for mercy.

This is not the common experience of 21^st century church meetings – I wish it were.

This work of the cross is inward, changing the heart. It may have outward signs such as ceasing from observable sins. But it is the essential nature of the gospel: the cross deals with the self. In Israel’s Old Covenant, circumcision was meant to demonstrate this turning from self to God. But because it was only an outward sign, it could happen without any inward change. And, of course, it was only available to men – there had to be a way for women to demonstrate their holy commitment of faith from the heart! The cross has replaced any outward signs as Paul relates:

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:14-16)

The cross is the entry point into the new creation by means of a new birth through the power of God. All people, male and female, become the spiritual Israel of God through the cross.

There is within us a natural resistance to the wisdom of the cross. Unfortunately, this can also be true of Christian believers. Paul found people opposed him because he preached this message of the cross. He summarised such opposition in this way:

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18)

It may sound as though he is referring only to worldly, unbelieving people. But the context of this chapter in Philippians is the opposition he encountered from those who were supposed to be brothers and sisters. You can see how the opposition to the cross is from the whole person – bodily desires, pride of heart and personal ambition. These are all signs of unbelief and spiritual deception.

powers

Further wisdom found in the cross is the way that, through the cross, God has dealt with the spiritual opposition to the gospel. In this passage, Paul explains how the cross dealt with the religious powers and the spiritual powers:

having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:14-15)

The Old Testament Law gave an impossible standard for us to reach if we were to be considered righteous enough to enter God’s Kingdom. However, Jesus lived His life according to that standard and then, enduring the cross, redeemed the debt of sin so that we would not have to. Furthermore, the evil spiritual powers which oppose God thought that the cross would be the end of Jesus. But it was the end of their rule: Jesus endured the cross, fulfilled all righteousness and, having risen from the dead, consigned those evil spiritual authorities to impotence.

enduring

The wisdom of the cross is not only central to the message of salvation, but also to the secret of Christian maturity. Jesus wishes to perfect our faith and by embracing the shame of the cross showed us the way to follow Him. The cross means opposition and trials, but like Jesus, we must endure if we are to grow in maturity. We have a race to run and a cross to carry, as we read:

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

The wisdom of the cross tells us that there is no easy way for our faith to be perfected.

And finally, maturity means being divorced from this world and its values. The cross of Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for sin made to God. But, as we read in the bible, the cross was erected on the hill of Golgotha, outside the city of Jerusalem. The wisdom of the cross takes us there too:

The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. (Hebrews 13:11-13)

We cannot be made holy just by believing in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. The cross takes us outside the control of the world and there we can be made holy bearing the disgrace of the cross, holding to the “foolishness” of the cross (as the world would see it), and submitting to the remarkable wisdom of the cross.