Surveying the Cross

About this sermon

Introduction: There is a difference between simple and simplistic. There is nothing wrong with something being simple. We would do better sometimes to be a little simpler and to realize that we are all, in great measure, simpletons. But when something is simple it is still whole. You have put it forward, (if we are talking about simple teaching), or you have considered it, (if we are talking about simple thinking), in a way that is uncomplicated, in a way that encompasses the whole meaning but in it’s least complicated form. When something is considered or taught in a simplistic way, on the other hand, it has been oversimplified. It is unrealistically simple. And the result of the oversimplification is that we really haven’t seen it or taught it or understood it at all. We have left out vital elements of the thing as we have streamlined it. We have, in many cases, taken a part of the truth and taught it as if it were the whole of the truth. In some cases, this leads to serious error. In other cases, we have obscured the glory of God before the eyes of His people, we have robbed His people of an appreciation for what God has really done and who God really is. We see an example of this danger when we come to verses 25 and 26 of Romans 3. **Let’s be reminded of Paul’s line of argument leading up to these verses. *Verses 21-22 – God has made manifest the way to be given His righteousness and it is a way that is apart from law keeping, and the law itself bears witness to it. It is righteousness from God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. *Verse 23 – There is no other way for this righteousness to be had, there is no way for righteousness to be achieved by keeping God’s law, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. *Verse 24 – So that justification, to be declared righteous in God’s sight, is something that comes to a person by God’s grace, as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. *Verse 25 – This redemption required propitiation, and God Himself put forward Christ as a propitiation by His blood, and that is to be received by faith. But now we come to a very important question. Why? Why did God do this? And this where I’m afraid we have substituted a part of the truth for the whole of the truth. How do we understand the cross? Have really seen it? Have really understood it, as the Lord would want us to? And, to see the cross in its fullness we must look at it not only in its reference to men, but also in its reference to God. I. THE CROSS IN REFERENCE TO MEN We tend to think of the cross in one direction only. We think of the cross in reference to us, in reference to men. We say that the cross was necessary in order for our forgiveness to be secured, in order for God’s wrath to be turned away from us, in order for us to be saved. And that is true. That is what the previous verses about. But the apostle didn’t stop there did he? If the cross was only about making a statement to men about forgiveness, about God’s love, then the apostle could have stopped right there. But he didn’t stop there because the cross means more than that. And there is a sense in which we have never really surveyed the cross; we have never really understood the cross until we think of it with this additional meaning. II. THE CROSS IN REFERENCE TO GOD As we walk through these verses it is important, they we pay special attention to each word that the apostle uses. A. THE CROSS IS A DEMONSTRATION Paul tells us specifically that God was “showing” something, “demonstrating” something when He put His Son forward as a propitiation. The word “endeixis”, means to indicate, to prove something, to point out something. It means a sign, a demonstration.

Topics

• Jesus Christ