Crucified Hearts

A Reply…

In replying to a question on one of my Facebook posts, where I referred to the experience of darkness in the Christian’s life, my life, I posted the following. I thought I would offer it here, being the preacher, disciple, and theologian of the cross that I am.

———————————–

“The theology of the cross is both an attack on sin and salvation from it. It is paradoxical in nature in that respect. It is a call to peaceful life in Christ that comes through union with Him, the Man of Sorrows who lives in conflict with evil. It is a journey through the old Jerusalem of condemnation to the New Jerusalem of perfect joy. It is understanding law and grace working in and on our body of death. It is understanding how we are blessed by Christ being cursed “for us”. It is having faith in the Light and Life, our only Savior, during our darkest hours of suffering, temptation, sin, pain, humiliation, repentance, confession, and death. It is union with the crucified yet risen One. It is believing the sun stills shines somewhere in the world at the apex of midnight in our day.

The theology of the cross is a theology of revelation, of how we know God in Christ, and a theology of suffering, how God in Christ is only known through suffering. It is a theology wherein God hides Himself in suffering to reveal Himself. It means being broken on the Rock lest the Rock grind us to pieces.

The Christian sees, by faith alone, Jesus in a burning bush that is not consumed.

The theology of the cross is the “foolishness of God” and “the weakness of God”, a theology that destroys every possibility of human beings boasting in anything other than Christ and Him crucified. (1 Cor. 1.17-31)

And even in preaching the cross the soul of listener and preaching feels this paradox, this interplay of law and gospel, of condemnation of the flesh but life in the Spirit, as Paul says of his on preaching:

“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” 1 Cor. 2.1-5

What did Paul mean by these words to the Galatian church?

“We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Gal. 2.15-21

He spends the rest of his letter unpacking what the cross means to a church that was forsaking the only true gospel of Christ and coming under the curse of God.

I highly recommend Galatians for the answer of what it means for Christ to be made a curse for us so that we could now war in His Spirit against the flesh and it’s dark works.

Walking with Christ is a whole experience of Christ. He is the Light of the World in a world filled with darkness. He is our joy as the Man of Sorrows. He is our joy in the most profound experience of pain, our life in the throes of death, our happiness in the agonies of loss.

Heaven must wait. But oh, how we demand perfect happiness now, a life free of pain and suffering and darkness! Yes, it is heaven to be in His presence. But what is it when He is hidden from us through temptation, failure, loss, doubt, worry, pride, fear, anger, or bitterness. Or does justification by faith mean we have no battle and losses with the our body of death? That we never fail or fall? That we we never sin again? That within our very being there is not longer the “law of sin and death”? How foolish all the admonitions of Scripture to moral life and holiness if these things were not real in the Christian life.

All will suffer pain and loss, whether Christian or wicked unbeliever. All suffer, but the wicked suffers without hope in Christ. The Christian actually suffers great pain and loss than the unbeliever, because the Christian, if they are true theologians of the cross, “see things as they are” (Luther). They know that a knowledge of God through Christ only comes through suffering, for pride must daily be abased, daily crucified. Self, what the world glories and boast in, must be put to death daily with Christ so that Christ may rule in us as our Lord of life and light.

The wicked have no such battle with the flesh since they already, by their unbelief, live as slaves to the devil, children of darkness, condemned justly under the wrath of God for their wicked hearts and actions.

They do not believe in the one Way, in Him who was made a curse for us, that we might have the blessing of union with the Man of Sorrows, the who is yet daily acquainted with grief.

For further study, study Jesus. Ask two questions of the Bible in all our study: 1. Who is this Jesus, the Son of God and Son of man? 2. What is He doing among us, for us, with us, to us, and in us.

Know God in Christ at the cross.

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” John 17.3,4

His glory is the glory of the cross! We know Him there.

[ Questions and comments are welcome. Faith seeks understanding through the whole journey of life and death. And I believe the seeking is for all, whether coming to faith or having come to faith. We see now in a mirror darkly, but when He comes, then face to face. Until then seeking is done in the “life together”. ]

Jan McKenzie