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The Message of the Cross
Galatians 6:14 and selected Scriptures
/“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”/ (Galatians 6:14).
!
Introduction
Since 1998 black billboards with white letters have appeared on roadways all across America.
These billboards have captured the attention of millions of people.
Hundreds of news articles and broadcasts have been devoted to spreading the word about the billboards.
Much of the intrigue was because the person behind the billboards wanted to remain anonymous.
This person did not want the attention to be focused on him.
He or she wanted the attention to be on someone much higher and more important: God.
The billboards purport to display a message from God.
I am sure most of you have seen one or more of these billboards so allow me to remind you of several of the messages.
One reads, “Let's meet at My house Sunday before the game.”
Another issues an invitation to, “C'mon over and bring the kids.”
One that always makes me chuckle asks, “What part of ‘Thou shalt not…’ didn't you understand?”
And my all-time favorite: “Keep using My name in vain and I'll make rush hour longer.”
These billboards are fiction.
They are not really messages from God, but they sure make you think about God even if it is just for a moment as you sit in traffic.
Did you know that God has erected a far more powerful billboard than these?
The billboard I am speaking of today was erected for the entire world to see over 2000 years ago outside the city walls of Jerusalem on a windswept hill called Golgotha.
The message was a man, the Son of God, Christ Jesus.
The cross where Jesus died is a message from God’s heart to us.
God does not remain anonymous.
God is speaking to you today through what He did on the cross of Jesus Christ.
God wants to speak to you the message of the cross.
I have been reading a book by John R. W. Stott entitled, “The Cross of Christ.”
In it Stott writes, “Just as human beings disclose their character in their actions, so God has showed himself to us in the death of his son” (p.
204).
That is what I want to speak to you about today.
I want us to consider the message of the cross.
What is the message God is communicating to us through the cross?
The observations of John Stott will be helpful.
! 1.
The Cross Displays the Glory of God.
First, the cross displays the glory of God.
The glory of God can be defined as the outward expression of the excellence and honor that belongs to God alone.
The Old Testament often spoke of the glory of God.
For example, the glory of God was declared by the psalmist when he wrote, “Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain” (Psalms 104:1-2 [NKJV]).
The glory of God could be seen in the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day that led the children of Israel during their wilderness wandering.
It could be seen in the glory cloud that filled the Tabernacle.
The glory of God was the visible manifestation of God.
In Psalm 24:10 David asked, “Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory!”
Is it any wonder then that we come to the New Testament and hear the Apostle John declare, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 [NKJV])?
Jesus is the manifest glory of God.
He is the embodiment of God’s glory.
Jesus is the supreme and final expression of the honor and excellence that belongs to God alone.
The glory of God is displayed most prominently through the cross as Jesus reveals the grace and truth of God.
To be certain, the glory of God was often on display through Jesus as He loved, lived, and ministered.
Every miracle He performed was a display of the glory of God.
His transfiguration on the mountain top was a glimpse of His divine glory before the eyes of Peter, James, and John.
But the supreme manifestation of glory is seen on the cross in His humiliation and self-sacrificing love.
Stott comments, “The cross which appeared to be ‘shame’ was in fact glory” (p.
205).
Do you know why Jesus willingly died on the cross?
He died as our substitute.
He took our place under the righteous wrath of a holy God.
He bore our sin because every one of us has sinned and “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23[NKJV]).
In our sin we have failed to give God the glory due His name.
Instead we have become a reproach to Him.
We have brought shame into the world.
We have robbed God of His glory through our selfishness and sin.
But Jesus came as God in flesh and died in our place.
Where we failed to obey God and glorify Him Jesus perfectly succeeded!
But to think of the cross as a display of glory may seem strange.
Here again Stott rightly points out that on three separate occasions Jesus Himself referred to His death on the cross as glory.
The first time is when Jesus likens His death, burial, and resurrection to that of a grain of wheat that is planted in the ground, eventually bearing much grain (John 12:20-28).
Death seems like the ultimate humiliation, especially the death of the sinless Son of God on the cross.
What can be more tragic than the Maker being murdered by men?
What could be worse than the Creator crucified by His creation?
However, death gave way to triumph as Jesus was raised from the dead.
His glorification entailed nothing less than His obedience to the Father in giving His life on behalf of sinful men and His resurrection from the dead.
Amazingly His death results in life, not only for Himself, but for all who place their faith in Him as Lord and Savior.
The second time Jesus called His death a glorification was in John 13 at the last supper.
“So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out.
And it was night.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once’” (John 13:30–32 [ESV]).
Jesus clearly saw the cross as a manifestation of His glory and of the Father’s glory.
God would be honored in the Son as He obediently surrendered to the Father’s will.
He even had confidence that the Father would glorify Him quickly in resurrection.
Finally, Jesus said as He hung on the cross, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you… ” (John 17:1 [ESV]).
Jesus is asking the Father to show the world that He truly is the Son of God, the Christ.
His resurrection would prove that He was not just another man, much less a criminal.
These verses are instructive to us as we consider what it means to glorify God in our own lives.
Jesus shows that before there can be ultimate and lasting glory there must be humiliation and submission (Philippians 2:5-11).
Jesus humbled himself to the Father’s will trusting in the Father to vindicate Him.
Jesus glorified God through the cross by showing the holiness, the mercy, and the love of God.
But He also glorified God through humble obedience.
Can we do anything less in light of the cross?
There is no doubt that the cross displays the glory of God.
Next we will consider how the cross displays the Justice of God.
! 2. The Cross Displays The Justice of God.
Stott notes how people have always struggled with how to reconcile the notion of a good God with the presence of evil in the world.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why does God often allow evil to seemingly go unpunished?
Why does God often seem deaf to the mournful cries of the abused?
These, and questions like them, haunt the conscientious souls of men.
Stott shows how the Bible answers men’s concerns about injustice in the world in two primary ways.
First, the Bible points to final justice that will be meted out at the Judgment Day.
Second, the Bible speaks to injustice by pointing back to the decisive judgment of sin at the cross.
Stott skillfully points to Psalm 73 as an example of how God gives His people a new perspective on the destiny of the unjust.
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