Glorying in the Cross

From The Living Church-

By James M. Stanton

In an age when the significance and centrality of the individual seems to be taken for granted, preaching of the cross may seem to be not only counter-intuitive but also counter-productive. It is easy to pillory or caricature the biblical story as follows: God sets up impossible commandments; his human creation cannot fulfill these commandments; God’s divine honor is thereby insulted and his honor requires vindication; because God is infinite the insult is infinite; human beings are finite and cannot pay the debt of the insult; so God sends his “Son” to die a horrible death in order to pay the debt which he himself has imposed.

Many, apparently, are trying to remove the cross from the Christian story. We are instructed by the enlightened today that Jesus is no “savior” and that humanity is not in need of saving. A whole band of New Testament scholars even questions whether Jesus died on the cross at all, claiming that there is evidence of alternative views in the early Church that do not include his death as of any significance, and that offers versions of these other — sometimes called “lost” — gospels and their implications for Christian living.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/8/30/glorying-in-the-cross