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CROSS OF CHRIST
Don’t Forget about Sin
Part of the mystery of existence is sin. When we think about the Crucifixion, we miss the point of it if we don’t think about sin.
—Flannery O’Connor, in a letter to Eileen Hall, March 10, 1956. From A Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor, edited by Sally Fitzgerald. Cited by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese in Books & Culture, Vol. 4, no. 1.
See: Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14.
Live in His Life
Each time we see the empty Cross let it remind us of the suffering of Jesus, but also the victory. In the words of Peter Marshall, “Let us never live another day as if He were dead!”
—Joan Winmill Brown in My Heart Sings. Christianity Today, Vol. 43, no. 5.
See: 1 Corinthians 15:12–13; Galatians 5:11; Philippians 3:18.
Doing Jesus No Favor
“To preach Christ without the cross is to betray him with a kiss.”
—Pastor Charles Stanley, in Strategies for Today’s Leader (Summer 1998). Leadership, Vol. 20, no. 3.
See: Galatians 1:7; Ephesians 2:13; 1 John 2:22.
Outside the Gate
The symbol of the cross in the church points to the God who was crucified not between two candles on an altar, but between two thieves in the place of the skull, where the outcasts belong, outside the gates of the city. It does not invite thought but a change of mind. It is a symbol which therefore leads out of the church and out of religious longing into the fellowship of the oppressed and abandoned. On the other hand, it is a symbol which calls the oppressed and godless into the church and through the church into the fellowship of the crucified God.
—Moltmahn, Jurgen. The Crucified God, quoted in Christianity Today magazine, “Reflections,” April 3, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 70.
See: Genesis 22:6; Luke 23:32–34; John 19:17
God Did It
It was not human beings who accomplished anything here [on the cross]; no, God alone did it. He came to human beings in infinite love. He judged what is human. And he granted grace beyond any merit.
—Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Meditations on the Cross, quoted in Christianity Today magazine, “Reflections,” April 3, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 70.
See: Acts 2:22–24; Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16
Strange New Landscape
There is no smooth path to God which we can ascend with all our expectations of life confirmed and fulfilled. There is only the way of the cross, where the condemned and crucified Jesus contradicts our expectations, forces us to see ourselves as we really are, not as we would like to be seen, and reveals the world as a strange new landscape we had not seen before, a paradoxical game in which only losers can succeed.
—Bauckham, Richard and Trevor Hart. At the Cross, quoted in Christianity Today magazine, “Reflections,” April 3, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 70.
See: Luke 9:23–27; Luke 14:27; John 12:25
Out from the Shadows
Christianity does not ask us to live in the shadow of the cross, but in the fire of its creative action.
—De Chardin, Teilhard. “John, Moses, the Desert,” quoted in Christianity Today magazine, “Reflections,” April 3, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 70.
See: Romans 3:21; Galatians 3:22; Galatians 5:24–25
The Horror of It All
It is curious that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear the story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all.
—Sayers, Dorothy, God in Pain, quoted in Christianity Today magazine, “Reflections,” April 3, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 70.
See: Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 10:36
Unconquered God
God, the God I love and worship, reigns in sorrow on the Tree, Broken, bleeding, but unconquered, very God of God to me.
—Kennedy, G. A. Studdert. “High and Lifted Up,” quoted in Christianity Today magazine, “Reflections,” April 3, 2000, Vol. 44, No. 4, p. 70.
See: Hosea 13:14; 1 Corinthians 15:4; 1 Corinthians 15:54–55
Christianity Today Inc.
, Today’s Best Illustrations, vol. 5, Today’s Best Illustrations (Christianity Today International, 2001).
, Today’s Best Illustrations, vol. 5, Today’s Best Illustrations (Christianity Today International, 2001).
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