Nuggets from An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith by Dave Hunt - The Cross and the Gospel

Nuggets from An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith by Dave Hunt – The Cross and the Gospel

What is this gospel that saves? Paul states explicitly: “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you…by which also ye are saved…how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians:15:4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
See All...). It comes as a shock to many that the gospel includes no mention of a cross. Why? Because a cross was not essential to our salvation. Christ had to be crucified to fulfill the prophecy concerning the manner of the Messiah’s death (Psalm 22), not because the cross itself had anything to do with our redemption. What was essential was the shedding of Christ’s blood in His death as foreshadowed in the Old Testament sacrifices, “for without the shedding of blood is no remission [of sins]” Hebrews:9:22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
See All...); “for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul” (Leviticus:17:11For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
See All...).

This is not to say that the cross itself has no meaning. That Christ was nailed to a cross reveals the horrifying depths of evil innate within every human heart. To be nailed naked to a cross and displayed publicly, to die slowly with taunts and jeers filling the air, was the most excruciatingly painful and humiliating death that could be devised. And that is exactly what puny man did to his Creator. We ought to fall on our faces in repentant horror, overcome with shame, for it was not only the screaming bloodthirsty mob and derisive soldiers but our sins that nailed Him there!

So the cross lays bare for all eternity the awful truth that beneath the polite façade of culture and education the heart of man is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah:17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
See All...), capable of evil beyond comprehension even against the God who created and loves him and patiently provides for him. Does any man doubt the wickedness of his own heart? Let him look at the cross and recoil in revulsion from that self within. No wonder the proud humanist hates the cross.

At the same time, however, that the cross lays bare the evil in man, it also reveals the goodness, mercy, and love of God as nothing else could. In the face of such unspeakable evil, such diabolical hatred vented against Him, the Lord of glory, who could destroy this earth and all upon it with a word, allowed Himself to be mocked and falsely accused and scourged and nailed to that cross! Christ “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians:2:8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
See All...). When man was doing his worst, God responded in love, not merely yielding Himself to His tormentors but bearing our sins and taking the judgment we justly deserved.