The Message of the Cross

The Message of the Cross

What is the message of the cross? If nothing else, it is that we might be reconciled to God the Father through Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection. He was the perfect Passover Lamb of God who was sacrificed to pay the price for our sins so that we might be born again, (saved), and have eternal life.

John 3:16-17 (NKJV) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved.”

There are probably many more messages attributable to the cross, but this, surely, is the central message – that we might have eternal life through Him. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

This is all that Paul wanted to preach about – this was his whole Gospel message. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

This, surely, is the central message of the cross? Anything else is just peripheral to this central message. As Reinhardt Bonnke said recently, “Jesus came to save sinners – to save sinners.”