The Cross of Jesus Christ

The only hope of redemption, life, and blessing for the world

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal. 6:14)

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Three times in this letter Paul speaks of being crucified with Christ. In the first instance, he says that he himself has been crucified with Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (2:20). In the second place, he says that all believers—those who “belong to Christ Jesus”—have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (5:24). And, finally, in the concluding chapter, he writes that the world itself has been crucified to him through the cross of Jesus Christ, and indeed he to the world: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).

The cross, then, stands at the heart of the apostle’s thinking, both with respect to the Christian life at an individual level, but also on a cosmic scale. The cross, in other words, is not a mere abstraction for the apostle Paul; it is not a theological trinket or a dusty relic confined to the realm of hymns and Sunday school lessons. For Paul, the cross stands at the very centre of the world, bridging the gap between heaven and hell, between this “present evil age” (1:4) and the “new creation” now dawning in the death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus Christ (6:15).

The cross is the vehicle of blessing for the world (3:14), the doorway into life in the kingdom of God. It is the ground of our justification (2:20-21), and the means by which our curse has been removed (3:13-14). Moreover, through the cross the flesh is crucified, along with its passions and desires (5:24), and those who belong to Christ Jesus are thus freed to walk in newness of life in the Spirit (5:16). Slaves become sons through the redeeming work of Christ upon the cross (4:3-5), and are gathered together into the “household of faith” (6:10), filled with the Spirit, and joined to God’s covenant people across the ages.

All these blessings flow to the saints from the cross of Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder that Paul resolves to boast in nothing else? The cross is the linchpin, the fountainhead, the cornerstone upon which the whole edifice of redemption is built. Without it, slavery, death, and condemnation reign, but through it life, redemption, forgiveness, blessing.

Keeping First Things First

We need to be careful to never lose such a rich and enlarged view of the cross. Ours is a tumultuous world and in such a world it is very easy to grasp at any number of things we think will make for stability and peace. But God has not placed the locus of world-transforming power in any human institution. He has not ordained that salvation come through the wisdom of man. Rather, God’s answer to the chaos and rebellion of the world is the very last thing to which the world would naturally look, namely, the crucified Christ, whose death, by the inscrutable wisdom of God, is life and blessing to the world.

Our call in these troubled times, therefore, must not primarily be one of politics and power, as though these were the vehicles that could effect cultural transformation. They are important, to be sure: valuable, needed, and ordained by God. But they are not ultimate, and they do not go deep enough.

The thing that will truly save us—the thing that will make all our efforts in these other areas enduring, effective, and worthwhile—is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to us and we to the world.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Gal. 1:3-4)