At the Cross

My grandfather was the lead singer of a Southern Gospel singing group back in the 70’s and 80’s—The Bryant Brothers. I guess that sort of made him the default choice for song leader in the small Baptist church they attended. Occasionally, my parents and I would spend the weekend with them and attend that church. Even as a lost kid, there was always something about the hymn “At the Cross” that drew me in. And—when your grandad is the song leader—and you are his favorite grandchild (well—that’s one man’s opinion), you get to choose one of the congregational songs. It is what it is. And I remember distinctly asking him to lead “At the Cross.”
 
Today, most of the hymns we sing draw our attention to the salvation of sinners accomplished at the cross of Jesus Christ. Songs like, “The Power of the Cross”—which declares, “This the power of the cross—Christ became sin for us—took the blame, bore the wrath—We stand forgiven at the cross.” Or the old Isaac Watts hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”—“Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast—Save in the death of Christ my God!—All the vain things that charm me most—I sacrifice them to His blood.” But why? Why do orthodox Christian hymns focus on the blood of the cross? Why do God’s people long to sing “O the love that drew salvation's plan—O the grace that brought it down to man—O the mighty gulf that God did span—At Calvary” (Hymn, At Calvary)? Simply put, that’s the focal point of Scripture. Even the Old Testament—through ceremonial offerings—pointed forth to something much bigger—something far greater—“the righteous [dying for] for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18).
 
This was evident as the eternal Son of God—in prophetic declaration announced, “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” (Psalm 40:6-8). This “open ear” is a Hebrew idiom referring to a body being formed. The writer of Hebrews makes that clear when he quotes this Psalm—“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” (Hebrews 10:5-7). The point is clear—God wasn’t satisfied with the type. No, those types—those “burnt offerings and sin offerings” pointed forth a much greater antitype—“a body have you prepared for me”. In Jesus’s death, He was going to do something the sacrifices of animals could never do--“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14).
 
But the idea that God forgives sinners on the basis of Jesus’s substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary has been opposed since the beginning. In writing to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul declared, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18). In other words, unbelievers simply cannot fathom that God could possibly save sinners through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross without something added to it. It seems all too easy (though it certainly wasn’t easy for our Lord). The false teacher or the loud skeptic would say Jesus’s sacrifice at Calvary simply couldn’t have been enough. To believe that, they’d say, is “folly”. But to refuse to believe that Jesus’s sacrifice at Calvary is enough is to stand hand in hand with “those who are perishing”.
 
Paul gets more specific—“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). As is seen in the Gospels, the Jews wanted miraculous signs from Jesus before they would accept His testimony. And even when He offered such signs, they still refused to believe. To the Gentiles, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross seems to be more of an insult of their intelligence. They want something deeper—more intellectual. They were thinkers, you know!? And yet, the Bible consistently and repeatedly points to the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary’s cross as the way God has chosen to redeem sinners. And “those who are called” take this message at face value—just as it is written again and again.
 
The prophet Isaiah prophesied of Messiah’s suffering. Most people are familiar with the clearest Gospel pronouncement in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53. There we read, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5). Peter echoed those words when He wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). To refuse such a clear message is to refuse to believe inspired Scripture. To say that sins weren’t paid for in the offering of the body of Jesus Christ on the cross is to distort the Christian Gospel. To even imply “that is not enough” is to call God a liar.
 
The Gnostics were early heretics. They believed they had some type of special knowledge that other people weren’t privy to (gnosis means “knowledge”). They simply refused to accept that Jesus’s death is how sinners are redeemed. As their spiraling trajectory continued, they finally rejected the idea that Jesus even had a physical body. This early heresy is addressed in multiple New Testament writings. One of those books is Paul’s letter to the Colossian saints. In perfect clarity, the apostle wrote these straightforward words—“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20). According to these words, Jesus is God in the flesh. Secondly, it was through His death at Calvary that He made “peace by the blood of his cross.” Paul drives the point home that Jesus bore our sins when He died on the cross. If he isn’t saying that then he utterly failed to communicate what he was trying to say. But of course, that is what he is teaching because that’s the message of the Bible.
 
If any of the New Testament writers intended to teach us that we were redeemed in some other way than the cross of Christ, then they failed miserably in relaying that message. The Bible—from cover to cover—points to the actual blood of the sinless Savior. Jesus laid down His life so that we, as believers, could be freed from the penalty of the sin we were guilty of. That is the message of the Christian Gospel. And that, my brothers and sisters, is why we sing “At the Cross”.