Denver Seminary

ENGAGE 23 A hiker, seeking the best pathway that would lead to the summit of a mountain in the French Alps, met a farmer and asked directions. The man pointed up the mountainside and told the hiker to keep his eye riveted to a white cross in the distance. When he reached the cross, the farmer said, the summit would not be far beyond. As the hiker resumed his climb, he heard the farmer shout from behind: "Regardez la croix en avant (Watch for the cross ahead)." This seems an apt phrase with which to end this magazine: the cross upon which Jesus the Savior died for the sins of the world. At Denver Seminary, we have a wonderful faculty of men and women whose eyes are on that cross. No matter the class, sooner or later the cross will be folded into a professor's content with the intention that every student will understand the indispensable work of the cross in our faith. The 18th century hymn writer, Isaac Watts, would have loved the story of the hiker. He had something like that in mind when he wrote one of the first modern Christian hymns. Remember it? The chorus of his hymn went: At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light. And the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith, I received my sight, And now I am happy all the day. In Isaac Watt's day, the word happy meant something far deeper than just pleasure. Happy was an enormous word for Watts. It implied conversion, contentment, assurance, trust, beloved. Ours is a troubled world today. Happiness—Watts version, anyway—is in short supply … until one kneels at the cross. At Denver Seminary, that's what we're trying to do: Regardez la croix en avant! BENEDICTION Gordon MacDonald, DD CHANCELLOR Does the smallness of our earth make it hard for you to believe that God loves the world? Look at the cross! Does the presence of suffering on every hand make it hard for you to believe that God loves the world? Look at the cross! We know that God loves us because of what He did. Dr. Vernon Grounds "Jesus defeated sin and death through His death on the cross and His miraculous and historical resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:1–4). Nothing less could secure our deliverance from the graveyard of our 'transgressions and sins' (Eph. 2:1)." Dr. Doug Groothuis "How did a symbol of violence and death become a symbol of salvation and God's great love for the world? According to Paul, the cross is the symbol of Christ's triumph over sin and death. On a barbaric instrument of torture, God poured out His love for humanity and absorbed both divine wrath and human violence." Dr. Erin Heim "We have the privilege not only of finding at the cross all that we need to be in relationship with the living God, but also all that we would ever hope for in all of human history." Dr. Mark Young WORD FOR WORD

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