Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/885582
Left alone to our fallen nature and sinful schemes, we will only encounter brokenness now, death at some future point, and then an eternity of continuing despair. But as Jesus suffered on the cross and then cried out His final words, "It is finished" (John 19:30), God was rescuing us from that miserable existence. Dr. Scott Wenig ENGAGE 3 PRESIDENT'S LETTER Mark Young, PhD PRESIDENT There can be no Christian faith without the cross. For upon the cross of Calvary, the very Son of God, the Messiah, died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). That event stands at the center of all human history. Every human life is defined by it. The destiny of every person is determined by it. N.T. Wright notes that when Jesus died on the cross, "the revolution began." He writes "with this event the one true God had suddenly and dramatically put into operation his plan for the rescue of the world." 1 That's why the cross is the most important and beloved of Christian symbols. It stands in our churches and crowns soaring spires for all to see that this is a place where Jesus is worshiped. Poets and hymn writers invite us to imagine the beauty and power of the cross. We dare not think we know God if we do not see Him hanging on a cross—stripped, humiliated, bloodied, dead. The cross is no mere symbol into which we can read any meaning we like, for it turns our heads to Golgotha. Nor is the cross just a historical curiosity, for upon it the Son of God died. Nor is the cross merely a theological construct, for it is intensely personal. As John Stott wrote, Our sins put him [Jesus] there. So, far from offering us flattery, the cross undermines our self-righteousness. We can stand before it only with a bowed head and a broken spirit. And there we remain until the Lord Jesus speaks to our hearts his word of pardon and acceptance, and we, gripped by his love and brimful of thanksgiving, go out into the world to live our lives of service. 2 Humbled before the cross, 1 N.T. Wright. The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion, 2016, p. 4. 2 John Stott. The Cross of Christ, 2006, p 12.