Sufficient

In 1st Corinthians 1, we can read these verses about the cross - even though it was regarded and continues to be an offense, it also provides hope to the world.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."

Those verses were quoted in a recent Decision magazine article, to which I will be referring coming up on today's Front Room commentary.  We have just completed our celebration of the two most impactful events on the hearts of human beings - the death of Jesus and His resurrection.  But, we don't leave that celebration behind...His death and resurrection is also our spiritual story, because the Bible teaches us that we have died with Him and we have been raised to new life in the Spirit.  Our hearts have been transformed as we have been willing to lay down our lives and acquire His new life.

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The first two verses of Hebrews 12 comprise a powerful passage that can help us to reflect on what
our Lord did for us on the cross:
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

On Good Friday, I offered a commentary about the cross, portraying it a symbol of life for us through Jesus Christ, of His love for us, and the promise of light for the world.  I mentioned that there is a church in Corpus Christi, Texas that is building a 210-foot-tall cross and how there is a local atheist who has stated his opposition to it, not surprisingly.

The March edition of Decision magazine has an article about the offense of the cross.  It mentions several instances of public crosses that have drawn fire, such as a 45-foot-tall cross in Port Neches, Texas which, according to the article:

The Port Neches cross remains firmly planted—despite aggressive legal threats from an atheist group charging that it violates constitutional church-state separation.

Port Neches is only the latest example in which the cross, and Christian symbols generally, have drawn fire. In Edmond, Okla., a part of the city seal has been blank since 1995—the year a federal appeals court ruled that a cross on the seal implied government sponsorship of a religion. In California’s Mojave Desert, a cross erected in honor of fallen war veterans was held in legal limbo for years until a private group bought the two acres of public land surrounding the cross so that it could remain. Dozens of other cases could be cited.

Yet these brouhahas over Christian symbols in public spaces don’t begin to plumb the depths of offense the cross of Christ evokes.

It quotes from Billy Graham, who said during the filming of The Cross, a video used during the 2013 nationwide My Hope evangelism effort: “People don’t want to hear that they are sinners,” adding, “To many people it is an offense. The cross is offensive because it directly confronts the evils which dominate so much of this world.”

It mentioned the controversy around the hymn by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  For a hymnal, a denomination wanted to change the lyrics of the song, "In Christ Alone:" The committee had sought to change the words, "Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied” to a less offensive “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified.” Keith said in a later interview that God’s love was indeed magnified through the cross, but God’s chosen means to do that involved a particular blood sacrifice that satisfied God’s just wrath toward sin.

The article points out that, "as Mr. Graham said in The Cross, God demonstrated His love for people by giving His Son to die on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world."  He said, "Jesus endured all of that in our place because of our sins,” adding, “We deserved the cross, we deserved hell, we deserved judgment and all that that means.”

So even though the cross may offend, it "offers the only solution for man’s sin debt."

On this day after Easter, making the amazing culmination of a series of events resulting in that sin debt being paid and the purchasing of new life for those who would call upon the name of Jesus, we can think about not only the offense of the cross but the sufficiency of the cross.  We have an all-sufficient Savior who paid our sin debt through His sufficient sacrifice.   We now know the burden and the barrier of sin has been removed, and as we die to sin, acknowledging Christ's sacrifice for us, we can experience newness of life.

But, we should never forget the suffering of the cross.  Just as it had been prophesied, Jesus bore the shame and the pain, ultimately being put to death, but He endured it, just as Hebrews 12 says, for the joy set before Him - the joy of redeeming fallen humanity.  The suffering became a necessary component, and Jesus was strongly motivated to fulfill His purpose and to give His life.

Now, we can live in the supremacy of His victory.  The power of sin and death no longer has a authority over us.  Romans 6 reminds us that the wages of sin is death, but...but, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.  We have access to the power of the God of the universe, so that we might walk in triumph.  Jesus defeated death and we can share in that victory.