The Crux of the Cross

Often times we talk about getting down to the heart of the matter. Sometimes we can have superficial discussions about things, but there are times that you need to quit scratching around the surface and get down to business. Crux is a word we use at times for this reason. The crux of any issue is what really matters. If you look it up on thesaurus.com it will give you other terms that are synonymous, such as meat and potatoes, nitty gritty, core, essence, bottom line (http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/crux?s=t).

Did you know the cross of Jesus Christ has a crux? Yeah, we know that people wear one around their neck, we talk about carrying our own cross daily, and maybe even referencing it as a historical event. However, when it comes right down to it, the crux of the cross is of the utmost importance. This morning I want us to look at the crux of the cross from three perspectives.

For the Savior, the crux of the cross was His curse. 

God made man and something went haywire, because sin entered the world. Not to worry though because long before sin appeared on the scene, God had already put a plan in motion. He would send His Son to remedy this problem. Paul says “…He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” (Gal. 1:3). Peter in referring to the work of Christ as the sacrificial lamb of God says “…He was foreknown before the foundation of the world…” (1 Pet. 1:20). God was going to send His Son down to this earth to take care of the sin problem. How was He going to do that?

In Gen. 3:15 it was prophesied that the serpent would bruise His heel. Moses talked about the person being hung on a tree being cursed (Deut. 21:23). We can read about the suffering the Savior would endure as depicted in Isaiah chapters 52 & 53. Jesus was going to have to suffer in order to take away the sin of the world. In order to crush sin, the Savior must be crushed (Is. 53:10).

Paul said that Jesus in going to the cross became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). In doing so, Paul also said this is where He became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). This doesn’t mean that Christ literally became sin; rather it’s that He became the sacrifice for sin, evidenced by the use of propitiation by Paul in Rom. 4:25. The cross was something that He had to endure alone; no other person could take this away from Him. God Himself didn’t even intervene with this divine plan, as Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”  (Mt. 27:46). The crux of the cross for the Savior was His curse.

For the Saint, the crux of the cross is his cure. 

We know that the cross stands for salvation for those who believe. Paul said in speaking of the cross, “…to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). There was a time God brought about a pandemic of death among the Israelites when He caused fiery serpents to bite them because they became impatient and complained. Moses approached the Lord after the people came to him so he could intercede for them to God to have the serpents taken away. Because of this, God had Moses make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole so that the people would look at it when they were bitten and live (Num. 21:4-9). In His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said “’…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life’” (Jn. 3:14-15).

The incident in Numbers 21 served as a type of what was to come with Christ being lifted up on the cross. It would serve as salvation to those who believed. Paul said that Christ’s death on the cross served as the peacemaker: “…having made peace through the blood of His cross…” (Col. 1:20). Those of us who have taken advantage of the cross of Christ have taken hold of the antidote for sin.

In the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Dr. Jones drank some poison without realizing it. The individual who poisoned him showed him the antidote from across the table. There was a mad scamper after everyone heard a gunshot where he was trying to get to the antidote which was at that point rolling around on the floor (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984). If you knew that somebody had a cure for the poison inside of you, I would dare say you would do everything in your power to get it. Those of you who are Christians have not only been provided the antidote for sin, but you have taken it when you obeyed the gospel.

For the Sinner, the crux of the cross is his crisis. 

When Paul was speaking of the reactions of those who didn’t obey when Christ was preached as crucified, he said “…to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23). People who don’t obey the message of the cross are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18). People who are perishing for the most part don’t know they have a crisis. It’s like a person getting a diagnosis they have a fatal disease but they refuse to believe the doctors; and imagine the doctor has the cure to the disease, but the patient not believing there is a crisis don’t take the cure that is offered.

What types of spiritual crises are there? There are people who don’t care anything about God, about the church, about salvation; they have no interest in spiritual matters. They, like the Gentiles described in Romans chapter one, ignore the evidence. There are people who would be what we consider religious, yet they think they are saved. We’ve all known people like this. They believe they are saved because they said the sinner’s prayer. They believe they are saved because they did what the preacher told them to do. They believe they are saved because they have faith, and they don’t need to be baptized. The disciples at Ephesus were confronted by Paul with the news that they needed to obey properly because the baptism of John was no longer valid to be administered after the establishment of the church, thus they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:5).

However, did you realize concerning the cross there can be a crisis for those who have already obeyed the gospel? The writer of Hebrews talks about Christians who have fallen away, as he says “…it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame” (Heb. 6:6).

The cross forces someone to make a decision. This morning some of you are standing at the crossroads. You either choose to be cured by the cross or remain in crisis. Interestingly enough, the Greek word for preacher looks real similar to the English word crux that we have used this morning. The connection for us this morning is the cross. What I have preached to you is the cross of Jesus Christ. The choice is yours. The crux of the cross is either your cure or your crisis. Let the Bible be your guide to see if you are in crisis or not. The Bible tells us to repent of our sins and be baptized into Christ Jesus (Acts 2:38). If you have done this, you are cured. If you haven’t, please come this morning and respond to the cross of Christ. If you need prayers of the church because you are in crisis for falling away, we would be glad to pray with you and for you.