(12) The Glory of the Cross

The Cross is the center of history. Everything before the Cross pointed forward to the Cross. Everything after the Cross points back to the Cross. Why? Because the Cross is the fullest, most complete display of the glory of God. God's redemptive work in rescuing man from spiritual and physical death and imparting life to man is the greatest display of the entirety of His glorious nature. The Cross is all about the glory of God. It is, in its ultimate purpose, God-centered, not man-centered.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD." (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

The glorious thread of redemption runs all through the scriptures right from the Garden of Eden pointing forward to the Cross. In Gen. 3:15, God declared that, " The serpent will bruise His (Messiah’s) heal, He (Messiah) will crush the serpents head." Abraham was told by God that he would bless the world through Abraham’s seed. The Passover, celebrating Israel’s escape from Egypt also celebrated the coming of a sacrificial Lamb. And the sacrificial system of Israel was in fact, the most extensive preview or God's glorious redemption.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12)

God established a very intricate and detailed plan for the Tabernacle and for sacrifices. But they were incomplete in that they only dealt with external cleansing offering no remedy for a guilty conscience. Christ died as the one, perfect and final sacrifice for our sins. All of history before the cross looked forward to the cross.

All of redemptive history, as intricate and glorious as it was in its on rite, palled in significance to the cross. All of the Old Covenant ceremonies, feasts, and sacrifices were merely a shadow looking forward to the cross. That's the centrality of the cross!

We tend to focus our attention on the display of God’s great love when we talk about the Cross. But there is so much more on display at the Cross. The Cross does showcase the love of God, but the Cross also showcases the wrath of God. God’s redemptive work in rescuing man from spiritual and physical death and imparting life to man is the greatest display of the entirety of His glorious nature. In the most glorious act of redemption . . . at the cross, God showcased His glory.

At the Cross, God displayed His righteousness, holiness, justice and wrath. God demonstrated that He could not ignore sin. God is righteous and holy. Sin has to be dealt with. Sin must be punished, eradicated. God is a God of justice and wrath. At the cross, Jesus took the sin of the world on Himself, God poured out His wrath on Jesus. Sin is dealt with, righteousness is granted. God’s justice and wrath are satisfied . . . at the Cross.

At the Cross, God displayed His sovereignty, power, knowledge, presence, eternality and immutability. God was not helpless to have a people who would honor His glory. God had a plan and made a promise. He executed His plan and fulfilled His promise with flawless precision and timing. God enacted His eternal plan, entered into the plight of humanity and conquered sin and death forever . . . at the Cross.

At the Cross, God displayed His love, grace, mercy, compassion, kindness, and faithfulness. God desires to give man the greatest gift He could ever receive: Personal relationship with the God of all glory. A relationship of delighting in knowing Him and worshiping Him. God promised it to man from the Garden of Eden. God demonstrated the extent of His desire to give the gift of Himself to man by sacrificing His Son so we can be free to love Him and live with Him . . . at the cross.

Redemption is a glorious display of the essential nature of God!

The central moment of all history . . . the greatest display of God’s eternal glory, indeed the very reason that God made the world and worked out all of history was to bring things just to that point – to the fullness of time, to the minutely and flawlessly prepared stage for the mightiest of all acts – that central moment was the eternal Son of God’s taking on human flesh, accomplishing a perfect obedience, and offering himself up as a substitutionary sacrifice to accomplish eternal redemption in magnificent, brilliant display of God’s glorious greatness.

The central event . . . the main act in all history, orchestrated by God for the display of His glory is the cross.

How great is the display of who God is on the Cross of Calvary!

How great is the display of God’s glory at the Cross of Calvary!

Soli Deo Gloria

Next: The Glory of Redemption