Focus On the Cross

There are many things we can focus our thoughts upon in worship. We can think about attributes of God (love, holiness, grace, mercy, long-suffering, sovereignty, omnipotence, etc.). We can focus on the works of God (creation, protection, defeating tyrants of the world, etc.). We can even focus on the good things men do (service, ministry, love & care, friendship, worship, etc.). I believe the supreme or ultimate focus of our worship should be to focus on the cross, which is the center of the message of the gospel, coupled with the resurrection!

I Corinthians 1:17-18 gives this focus, “For Christ did not send me (the Apostle Paul) to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 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.:”

The work of the cross is payment for our sins before a Holy God. No other faith system in the world has this ethic, because they don’t understand the holiness of God. The Old Testament sacrificial system clearly pictures the price that had to be paid for the sins of man. Once a year, the high priest would find a perfect lamb without spot or blemish. He would tie up the lamb and take it to the altar for sacrifice. Slitting its throat, he killed that lamb, sprinkling its blood on the altar in the temple area called the "holy of holies", where he entered in to sacrifice atonement for his own sins and the sins of the entire nation. The holy of holies was a very serious place (behind a huge veil in the temple) where no one could go, except the high priest. They took this so seriously that a tradition began where they fixed a rope with a bell on it which they tied to the leg of the high priest. In case God struck the high priest dead in the holy of holies, they wanted to be able to pull his body out without entering behind the veil and being struck dead themselves.

Jesus Christ was/is the spotless Lamb of God, sacrificed for our sins before a Holy and Righteous God. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the only acceptable sacrifice before God. Any and every other sacrifice of man was unholy (sin born in him/her), so they are unacceptable before a Holy God. God the Father so perfectly orchestrated the sacrifice of His Son that His trial and crucifixion took place during the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem, the Holy City to the Jews. The Feast of the Passover celebrated God's deliverance of His people from Egypt when Moses led them to sacrifice a spotless Lamb and apply the blood to the doorposts of their homes. When the death angel came through Egypt that night to take the lives of every first-born son (the final plague upon Egypt to force Pharaoh to let God's people go), he would pass over the homes where the blood had been applied to the doorposts.

As we consider the cross, it is so easy to focus on the method of crucifixion, the unlawful trials of Jesus Christ held by Jewish leaders, the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Simon Peter - all human reasoning; and think that Jesus' death was the result of being treated unfairly. We must remember His words in John 10, "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." No man took Jesus' life from Him. He laid it down by an act of His will. The agony He experienced in the Garden was not the physical pain of crucifixion, but taking on the sin of the world (One who was completely holy) and being separated from His Father. Literally, the Father could not look on His Son on the cross because He became the embodiment of sin FOR US!

THIS IS THE POWER OF THE CROSS. The cross, a symbol of Roman torture for unspeakable crimes, became a picture of beauty because of the redemption all of us may receive through the price for sin Jesus Christ paid for us (us, being all men). If it were not for the cross, we would have no access to God. We would still be going through an earthly high priest. Allow the truth of a powerful cross sink into your heart in your personal times of worship. Enable others to make the cross their focus in corporate worship!