The Truth of the Cross
by R.C. Sproul
Reformation Trust, 2007

Overview

The cross has been the center of discussion and debate since the early beginnings of Christianity. What exactly happened that night? Did it even have to happen? What was Jesus going through as it happened? Who benefits from what happened on the cross? These are the simplified versions of some very complex theological questions arising from our understanding of Christ’s work on the cross but if you think about it, so much of the way you live the Christian life is rooted in what you believe really took place on the cross. The author himself spells out how important this is in his comment

If you take away the cross as an atoning act, you take away Christianity.

Outline

R.C. Sproul’s most recent book The Truth of the Cross checks in at about 167 pages, a quick read if you are willing but certainly not sparse in depth. When the cross is discussed, normally you would hear the words atonement, justification, sacrifice, redemption, substitution, debt, suffering, and hell. Amazingly enough, you will find all of these topics covered in this book in a way that RC is well-known for: easy to understand but never lacking in thought-provoking theology.

Obviously in a shorter book like this it is difficult to thoroughly examine all of these topics but that wasn’t the author’s intent. The author seems to have written an introductory book, giving the reader who may have questions about the cross or maybe hasn’t ever studied some of these topics a good overview of the subject.

Although the book answers a lot of questions throughout its first nine chapters, I particularly enjoyed the tenth chapter, “Questions and Answers”. Some great questions are asked and RC briefly responds with just enough to cover the question but leaves the reader to ponder some more and, hopefully, dig into the Bible for more answers. I wish more authors provided a Q&A section within their books; a mini-catechism of sorts. This also serves as a good quick-reference guide to the book written in a much more readable form.

Summary

This is a great book for those looking for a quick introduction to the questions they have about the cross and some of the more theological terms associated with it. But of course, this would be an excellent book for anyone who has studied the cross but loves to hear the story again and again.

The Associated Press is running a story today with the details of a handwritten letter found in the car of the Colorado gunman who killed 4 people in Dec. 2007. I can’t seem to find a copy of the whole letter but the bits and pieces found in the article are difficult to read: “Jesus, where are you? Do you even care these days?”, “What have I done so wrong? What is wrong with me anyways? Am I really such a bad person?”, and the most telling “Am I too lost to be saved? My soul cries for deliverance. I’m dieing (sic), praying, bleeding and screaming. Will I be denied???”.

How many millions have these same thoughts?

I wonder though, if someone were to share similar thoughts with you as a reason they didn’t believe, what would you say to them?  It would be great to get some discussion going on this topic so maybe I can start off with a few things.

• Am I too lost to be saved? Two Scripture passages come to mind, Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” and Luke 23:39-43 where the thief condemned on the cross cries out to Jesus and Jesus assures him he would join him in heaven. One passage gives clear teaching that Christ died for unworthy sinners, not somewhat worthy sinners or sinners with a little bit of good in them. There is no distinction here, it says that Christ died for those who needed salvation the most. The other passage gives an example of a man who was so lost in his sins that he was sent to his death but yet Jesus still assures him that his sins will be forgiven. The condemned sinner has no chance to prove his salvation by living a good life afterwards, he died in a few hours.
• Will I be denied? Romans 10:13 (quoting Joel 2:32) “for ‘whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved’”. This is pretty clear teaching that God will deny no one who calls on him for salvation. I think we need to be careful here though, Jesus talks about people who try and get in through a back door by believing in Jesus but still attempting to work their way into heaven by their good works in Matthew 7:21-23. Salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9), it is not of man’s good works.
• What have I done so wrong? Again, Romans 1:23 says we all have exchanged the glory of God for an idol. We have all traded what is infinitely valuable for what is worthless. Everyone has done this, everyone has sinned against God. It is important to talk about our sinful nature and not our individual sins though. People easily get hung up on a one-time sin they did a long time ago, or they are caught up in a repetitive habit of the same sin over and over and can’t get past this. But, it’s not like God overlooks all the other smaller dirt and just focuses on the mud pile so that if you could just find forgiveness for the one big sin everything would be ok. All of these sins we commit are the evidence of our sinful nature, our bent towards doing the opposite of what we know to be the right thing to do. We need salvation from our sinful selves and Christ promises to forgive all sins.

Now it’s your turn, would you say things differently? What else would you say? The gunman also asked, Why couldn’t you write your (expletive) book more clearly?” What would you say to that?

It says in Romans 8:15 that “you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ” Abba! Father!” This adoption we have into God’s family is difficult to grasp. I still call my earthly dad, dad and my earthly mom, mom. The process of adoption we have in the world today is a legal process. At some point, an adopted person legally goes from being under the care of one family to being under the care of another. But this spiritual adoption that Paul describes is different, we retain our family here on earth while at the same time we join a much larger family. We are adopted into Christ’s family, his church, and receive all the blessings of his inheritance. In fact, Paul will later say that we are joined with all who have been chosen by God. This means that every person who ever had a saving faith in God (before Jesus’ death and after) is considered a brother or a sister to us.

We know what the process of earthly adoption looks like, but how does this spiritual adoption work? John 1:12 says that all who receive him, who believe in his name, have this right of spiritual adoption. It says that we must believe, we hear the gospel message of forgiveness and put our faith in Christ and his righteousness. But what a blessing it is to know that, just as a family chooses the child it adopts, so to does God choose his children. You may say that God’s choosing seems unfair, but I wonder how many adopted children who were taken out of desperate situations and brought into a home of love and kindness and protection will say the same?

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

The March/April edition of the 9Marks journal is available here. The focus is on gospel unity/division, from Jonathan Leeman:

all the writers in this issue of the 9Marks eJournal make their attempt at striking the balance between the gospel’s call to unity and its call to separation

Thomas Watson, 17th Century preacher, wrote in his Art of Divine Contentment:

The gospel is full of jewels, but they are locked up from sense and reason. The angels in heaven are searching into these sacred depths. (1 Pe. 1:12)

We get a picture that the things of the gospel as being very highly desired but very well guarded. To us, the gospel is guarded from our intellect. We would never figure it out on our own, it’s too simple; forgiveness come from being justified to God by faith in Christ? That’s too easy, there has to be a way in there for us to do something ourselves, for us to add to it. But it is that simple. It is that God-centered.

To the angels, it is guarded from their nature. Angels were not created to be the receivers of the gospel message. Christ did not die for the angels. Jesus died so that we would be his people, his church. The angels know that their existence is to glorify God and Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory (Heb 1:3) so they desire to look into the gospel and its mysteries. Looking into God’s reason for creating humans and angels is a wonderful thing to dwell on, it humbles us to know that we are created for God’s glory alone.

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

In John Piper’s Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce he says

This gospel that must be “cordially” embraced (that is, with the heart and affections, not just the head) is the good news that reconciliation and a righteous standing with God precede and ground even the Spirit-given enabling for practical holiness.

And then he quotes from William Wilberforce himself that

The true Christian…knows therefore that this holiness is not to precede his reconciliation to God, and be its CAUSE; but to FOLLOW it, and be its EFFECT. That, in short, it is by FAITH IN CHRIST only that he is to be justified in the sight of God.

It is a common belief that we must be good enough before we are ready to believe the gospel, that once we can get past some certain stumbling block in our lives we will be in a good spot to start paying attention to God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus said he came to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous (Like 5:32). If we try and get to a good enough place before believing in the gospel, we end up trying to be the very thing Jesus came to eradicate; self-righteousness. What’s the cure? Brokenness. God says the sacrifice he desires is a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). How long will you continue to try and fix yourself apart from Christ?

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

In Hebrews 10:19-22 we read, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean…” Christianity is the only major faith whose core belief is in a person. The person of Jesus Christ. If Jesus was not a man, than the entire doctrine of substitutionary atonement falls apart. Substitutionary atonement is a theological way of saying God requires shed blood for sin (Leviticus 17:11) and that Jesus was our substitute on the cross. This is what we mean when we say Jesus paid for our sins, we mean that Jesus shed his blood and became our substitute sacrifice. He took our place on the cross.

So when we peer into the gospel we see that Jesus died the death that saved all who would believe. Could any man have done this? Could anyone else have been this substitutionary atonement that we’re talking about? The Bible clearly states that this would not be possible, no other sacrifice would be pleasing to God (Hebrews 5:9). But I also humbly offer this to you, would you trust anyone else to do it? Your eternal life depends on God’s atonement and your justification to Him, would you trust anyone other than God Himself to accomplish this?

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

We read in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The gospel is not logical to those that do not believe it. It makes no sense. And why should it? It’s not in our nature to think that anything would come to us without some cost, with no strings attached and no way to earn it. We are performance-driven people so when something is offered to us for free, it scares us. It scares us to such a point that we would be willing to pass it by for fear of what it might bring.

I remember a time when I was in line for coffee and had a gift card with a few dollars left on it after I made my purchase. I turned around to the man standing behind me and offered him the card and said there was enough for a cup of coffee on it. He stared at me for a moment and then said no thanks. Thinking I hadn’t explained myself very well, I told him that I wasn’t going to use it and that he could use it to buy the coffee he was standing in line to get. And still, the same response. Now, this metaphor isn’t perfect. The gospel is not free. It cost Jesus his life to pay for our sins and he asks for nothing less than your life as well. But he promises eternal life in return. There is a cost associated with belief, but when you weigh the gain, cost loses its meaning.

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

I loved the way John Piper put this in a recent sermon, “The Meaning of Grace: But God . . .”

Speaking on Titus 3:1-8, Piper explains grace as “but God…”. What he is saying is that after reading through Titus 3:3, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” we get to this wonderful statement in verse 4, “but God…”. So we see how utterly depraved we are without God, we see how enslaved we are to our sins, how foolish we are that we can’t help but cry out for grace because we need it so desperately. If God were to count our iniquities, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3) But when the kindness of God appeared, he saved us.

Grace is the “but God…” when we realize just how sinful we truly are and how much God has forgiven us. John Newton said he “remembered two things, that he is a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior.” Grace shines through the gospel of Jesus Christ so that when we look upon our sins and see His mercy we finally see just how forgiven we need to be and will be if we believe.

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

Our reflection on the gospel comes from John Owen this week as he wrote in “The Glory of Christ”.

This, therefore, deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them. For if our future blessedness shall consist in being where he is, and beholding of his glory, what better preparation can there be for it than in a constant previous contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the Gospel, unto this very end, that by a view of it we may be gradually transformed into the same glory?

I was struck as I read this in how simple Owen makes this. He basically says that if our futures will be with Christ in glory (Colossians 3:4) then we can do nothing better with our time than to think about what is made known in the gospel. But he doesn’t use the words “think about”, he uses the word “contemplate”. Contemplating something does not mean we give it a passing thought and then we’re done. Contemplate means we get so wrapped-up in our thoughts that everything else loses its importance and we will not stop thinking about an issue until it is resolved. The problem is, we cannot resolve an infinite God. There is something new to learn of His mercy and grace every day. So, while we wait to be with Christ in glory we are urged to continue to contemplate the good news of Jesus Christ. His death on the cross for our sins and resurrection for His glory.

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives