What's the Center?

 I remember a few years ago speaking with a friend about the cross of Christ. Our theology overall was similar but different enough to generate some good debates. I remember him saying to me that I was too focused on the cross. To him the cross was the tool that the Lord used to glorify Christ, thus securing salvation for us. He thought I should be more focused on that. To me the cross was and still is everything. As C.J. Mahaney addresses in Living the Cross Centered Life (read this book if you haven't!), we never move away from the cross, but instead only into a deeper understanding of it. Below is a quote from It is Well. In this passage Mark Dever addresses the Christian finding their identity in the cross and how it is the only focus of the Christian's life.

Occasionally some will accuse evangelicals of being too atonement-centered. But I don't know what it would mean to be too centered on the Suffering Servant suffering for us for our salvation. That's what makes us a people. That is our identity. Just a we saw in the last chapter, Jesus clearly understood Isaiah 53 to be talking about his life and his death. He knew that his sufferings were vicarious, that they were endured in sinners' stead. Thus, in just a few nights he would look into his disciples' eyes and say, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mark 14:24). As Paul would later put it, "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3). What would you suggest we put at the center of our focus instead of the cross?

For Our Sake

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteosness of God.

Isaiah 53:10

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

This is something that I don't think I'll ever fully understand. That is was for our sake that God the Father crushed his own Son. Isaiah 53 is so detailed in the description of what suffering and pain Christ endured for us on the Cross, it's impossible to understand a Father loving sinful people like us enough to put his Son through that. After finishing The Cross Centered Life I'm understanding that the gospel is something that I'm never going to move on from.

A Few Quotes From Current Books

From TACTICS by Gregory Koukl:

"Just make sure it's your ideas that offend and not you, that your beliefs cause the dispute and not your behavior." (p31)

"I focus on being faithful, but I trust God to be effective. Some will respond, and some will not." (p37)

" 'I understand that many of you think Christians are stupid,' I said to the audience. 'Well many of them are,' I admitted. 'But many non-Christians are stupid, too, so I don't know how that helps you. What I want to do this evening is show you that Christianity is not stupid.' " (p40)


From Living The Cross Centered Life by C. J. Mahaney:

"R. C. Sproul wrote that the most perplexing question is not why there's suffering in the world, but why God tolerates us in our sinfulness." (p61)

" 'Hey, how are you?' For a number of years I've been giving a particular response to that frequent question...'Better than I deserve,' I answered." (p59)

"Our Mediator's work would be a labor of blood." (p69)