The central focus of the Christian faith is the atoning work of the eternal God who died on the cross for my sin.

“God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  That is the central focus of all redemptive history. 

I underscored that in light of a recent funeral I went to when the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul” was passionately sung. Because the press of time, the music director omitted the third stanza (While it was not an intentional denial of the centrality of the cross of the music director, I thought it underscored that it is easy to push the cross to the periphery and not have it central). Please, if you ever sing the glorious hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul”, do not omit stanza #3. 

The third stanza goes as follows:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! 

In The Cross and Christian Ministry, D.A Carson makes the following insightful statement, “Somewhere along the way, we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning…I fear that the cross, without every being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy by relatively peripheral insights that can take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.” (p. 26) 

I pray that we will continually and passionately pursue the Christ who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

Buster 

The totality of the lordship of Christ over all things. May we always glory in the greatness of the cross.