The Cross of Christ; Our Vantage Point
(Part One)
By Jay Wegter
God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by that most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will; to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy (Of Divine Providence, The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689).
What God is doing in human history by way of His providence will ultimately reveal the perfections and excellence of the Godhead. At the center of God’s providence is the cross of Christ. The cross is God’s chief instrument for working out His plan in the world.
The cross viewed as a bare event stripped of its infinite scriptural significance holds no attraction to the eye of carnal man; it appears to only be unspeakable cruelty and injustice. In the cross there is weakness, ignominy, shame, victimization, agony, and dereliction; the opposite of innate beauty and desirability.
But what the world regards as foolish, weak, even hideous, is God’s might and wisdom (1 Cor 1:25, 26). By the cross of Christ God is establishing His kingdom. He is tearing down strongholds raised up against the knowledge of God; He is defeating His enemies and the enemies of His bride. He is taking the Church from dust to glory so that Christ will be the First-born among many brethren. And by the cross He will ultimately liberate the universe from its bondage to corruption.
For the saints of God, the death of Christ on Calvary is our vantage point, our ‘Everest’ from which we can see who our God is and what He is doing in the world.
By the cross God is removing all human boasting and all human wisdom.
For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside” (1 Cor 1:18, 19).
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are that no man should boast before God (1:27-29).
God is not simply
removing
human wisdom; He is exposing it; shaming it;
nullifying it; mortifying it. God is in the
pride destruction business.
He is putting a drastic end to all human boasting and worldly wisdom. He will reveal it to be folly, absurdity, futility, vanity, ignorance, and death.
God is using the “foolishness” of the cross to destroy human wisdom and boasting. Christ and His coming kingdom comprise the stone cut out without hands which will fill the entire earth (Dan 2:44). The stone cut out without hands will crush to powder every remnant of human wisdom and boasting. It will grind to the finest powder and blow into oblivion the accomplishments of man and human philosophy.
Everything in the created order that can be destroyed will be; every human institution, edifice, possession, monument, and kingdom will be shaken into nothingness so that the things that cannot be shaken may remain (Heb 12:27).
By the cross of His only begotten Son God will fill the earth with His glory and in so doing He will not leave a single trace of human wisdom and boasting. The cross is God’s instrument by which He will replace the old corrupt order.
On that last day there will be not a speck of human pride and wisdom remaining. The innumerable host of the redeemed will stand before God and each and every one of them will fully understand the meaning of creaturehood.
All the host of the redeemed will affirm the infinite distance between the defiled creature and the self-existent God of the universe -- for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36).
At the Day of the Lord, the elect will look upon the corpses of those who have transgressed against Me (Is 66:24). The redeemed (to a man) will all say on that day -- But for the sovereign pity of God Almighty, we too deserve a destiny of eternal misery like the damned.
In view of the above, let us consider the idiocy of religious systems that feed and build upon the wisdom of man. Religious efforts that exalt man’s will and moral merits are totally at odds with what God is doing by the cross.
God’s purpose is to shame all human wisdom, boasting, cleverness, and strength. He will forever display human pride and wisdom on the gallows of His justice as despicable as a demon, and as worthless as dung.
But key to God’s plan is how He is carrying out this overturning of human wisdom. He is carrying out His plan by means of that which is considered
foolish and
weak
in the sight of man’s wisdom.
He is carrying out His plan by means of the cross; but in the cross God’s power and wisdom are hidden apart from faith in Christ and submission to God. If a man never gets beyond trust in his own natural wisdom; He will never perceive the power and wisdom of God; and he will never know what God is doing.
By the cross God is glorifying His grace.
God cares deeply about the reputation of His Name. God’s care for His Name is the very security of the believer; for our salvation is by the knowledge of the Holy One (Jn 17:3). God’s righteousness is not merely His quantitative and qualitative righteousness exceeding our own by an infinite degree; His righteousness is His zeal for His Name.
This should not surprise us; for He created the universe in order to manifest His Holy Name. The universe and its history exist as a stage for the outshining of the attributes and character of God.
His jealousy for His Name is in keeping with the fact that all of His acts in time and eternity flow from His purpose to glorify His Name and manifest His perfections.
So vital is this to the character of God we could say that our salvation is a byproduct of God’s jealousy for His own Name (Ez 36:21-38). God’s purpose to glorify His grace means that the recipients of God’s grace are exhibit “A” of God’s gracious character and saving activity – we are truly trophies of His grace (Eph 1:3-14). The more this truth fills our mental horizon; the more we will be able to perceive things from
the Divine View Point.
Not only is every bit of the credit to go to God if the soul of the sinner is to be saved; but also the means of salvation must lift up and make known the Name of God. When God saves the wicked; all of God’s attributes and perfections must be magnified in the process.
This is the very reason why God has displayed publicly, placarded, and exhibited His crucified Son as the propitiation for sin. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the
demonstration of God’s righteousness (Rom 3:25, 26).
This truth scandalizes the human intellect. It is a wide and stony stumbling block. How could the greatest travesty of justice in human history; the murder of the holy Son of God, be the demonstration of God’s righteousness?
To know the answer is to believe the Gospel. God cares (beyond what a human can fathom) that men and angels know the divine rationale for pardoning sinners. God has a
legal basis under His moral government for the release and deliverance of sinners. There is a legal foundation for the Holy Ruler of the universe clearing guilty
sinners. God puts this legal basis for forgiveness in the form of shorthand when He says that the crucifixion of Christ is the demonstration of His righteousness.
In order for the sins of believers to NOT be imputed to them, they must be imputed to the suffering Substitute. So fully does Christ suffer vicariously for the elect that the believer may be brought into a righteous status of unconditional, eternal favor as an adopted child of God.
God’s righteousness is exalted in the process of justifying the ungodly. The pardoning of sinners is founded upon a judicial act; that of Christ’s substitutionary death. Therefore, God’s holy character is lifted up and vindicated in the pardon of the ungodly. God is righteous when He forgives because Christ has been exhibited as our penal substitute.
Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sinners proclaims to the world that in the moral government of God there is a legal basis for the forgiveness of sin. Because Christ is God and man; and because His death for us was voluntary; He became officially guilty of the sins of all who would ever believe (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13).
The cross is God’s public statement that He is righteous when He forgives. By means of our salvation through the cross; God is manifesting His attributes. Now the means of our salvation is chief way that God is making Himself known to the rational universe. By the cross He is revealed as the Just One who justifies. He is the atoned-for God who atones for sin.
We stand in amazement; we marvel that God has taken man’s salvation into His own hands. He sends the Son to propitiate His own wrath. He carves out a city of refuge in the wounds of His Son for us; to protect the redeemed from divine wrath.
As we continue to contemplate God’s saving work toward us in Christ; we grow in our knowledge of God. We commune with God when we keep taking Christ for the reasons God gave Him. God is increasingly known in our personal relationship with Him as we meditate upon the secret of His covenant with us in Christ. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant (Ps 25:14).
By the cross God is perfecting the saints.
Jesus told His disciples that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and in earth (Mt 28:18). Christ is Lord of all. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet (1 Cor 15:25). All things must be subjected to the Son (15:27, 28). Every enemy of God and the Bride of Christ must be totally conquered – the world, the flesh, the devil, sin, and death must all be made the ‘footstool’ of the Lord.
Christ’s is “Overcomer” – He has overcome the world, He has overcome the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:5, 8), He has vanquished sin and death (Rev 5:5). He is Conqueror. By the victory of His cross He has destroyed the enemies of God and the Church.
Because of Christ’s humiliation at Calvary, God has made the Son Head and Ruler of every created thing. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord , to the glory of God the Father Phil 2:9-11).
As Lord of all, and Head of the Church, Christ is sanctifier of His people (Heb 2:11). Christ exercises His sovereignty over all things for the sake of the Church. He is perfecting her. He is going to present her to Himself in all her glory without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:26, 27).
Christ’s absolute sovereignty extends to every detail of divine providence. He has made an absolutely comprehensive promise that every single thing that the elect experience will, in His capable hands, be used for the ultimate good of conforming them to the image of Christ (Rom 8:28, 29). (This promise is NOT made to those who are not called, and do not love God. In the case of countless lost souls, things do not work together for their eternal good. In fact circumstances may even accelerate a reprobate’s rebellious movement toward being given over by God to a depraved mind – Rom 1:28).
We must proclaim that Christ’s present dominion over human history is for the sake of calling and sanctifying the elect. God’s eternal counsels center upon the perfecting of the Church through the work of Christ.
He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him, also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:9-11).
Through the vantage point of the cross we see what God is doing; He is bringing all history to its consummation in Christ. Every single thing in the world is but a tiny ‘subhead’ under one category that fills all – Christ. All things are being summed up in Christ. Each immortal being in earth and in the heavens (whether man, angel, or demon) will carry into eternity his relation to Christ; whether reconciliation or alienation.
This is a cause for both joy and holy fear. It caused John Piper to write the book, Don’t Waste Your Life. All history is catapulting toward this predetermined end – the ‘society’ of the redeemed will be publicly presented to God. All creation is poised for this event (Rom 8:18-25). The universe will be remade without corruption as a habitation for elect to dwell with God forever. How close indeed this event may be – the barrier separating time from eternity is paper thin.
Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. He planted saving faith in us; He is nurturing it, proving it, and bringing it to maturity (Heb !2:2; 1 Pet 1:3-9).
He must have all authority in order to complete this task of bringing us safely home to God.
The elect see by faith what unbelievers cannot even fathom; namely that Christ is Mediatorial King of the universe. Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet, for in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But now we do not see all things subject to Him. But we see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone (Heb 2:8, 9).
By means of His offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, Christ is perfecting the saints. He is subduing their lusts and subjecting their wills to Himself that they might be made glorious in Him. For the promise is through the work of His cross; yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach – if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all the creation under heaven, and of which I Paul, was made a minister (Col 1:22, 23).
The saints boast in the cross; they glory in the cross (Gal 6:14, 15). The cross of Christ is their altar; their meeting place with God (Heb 13:10-13).
Do you see God’s wisdom, power, and love in the cross? Do you see God’s wisdom and might in the cross? Do you see Him conquering all of His enemies and yours by means of the cross? Do you see beauty in the cross? – That by the cross you are made acceptable to a Holy God; and God’s holiness is made beautiful to you?
The more the cross becomes your vantage point, the more you will see what God is doing in the world; the more you will be controlled by a consistent Christian worldview; the more you will love God and rejoice in His works. And the more you will be controlled by Divine View Point so as to have a passion for God’s glory.