Cross-centered. We put that compound adjective before nouns like life or preaching or church. Cross-centered life, cross-centered preaching, cross-centered church. And for over 20 years, it has been a catchphrase in the American Reformed world. Cross-centered. Of course, the concept is far older. In the Navigators Bible reading plan today, we read 1 Corinthians 1 verses 18 to 31, where Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God, that's according to verse 24. The cross of Christ is the sharp edge of the sword that meets all the fake and false hopes of this world. The cross is essential to our ministry and it is so essential. According to legend, Charles Spursian once told preachers that every sermon should make a beeline to the cross. Whether he actually said that, it's doubtful. But he did this very thing, and that's quite obvious. He took every sermon to Calvary and with Good Friday tomorrow, it's a timely topic today on Ask Pastor John. The wrong kind of cross-centered. We get there, Pastor John, because you say some controversial things, even some perplexing things in your book on preaching. Exposatory exaltation, your new one, Exposatory Exaltation. Specifically in chapter 16, that chapter on expository exaltation in Christ crucified part two, that we might live to righteousness, which is basically a chapter on 1 Peter 2-24, which is a key text for you here. Not only preachers, but lots of people who listen to preaching would love to hear you, I think, explain more fully what you're getting at when you criticize the method of preaching that begins with a text and makes a beeline to the cross. You say that the beeline should be to the cross and then from the cross as well. Explain why. Why does this matter so much to you? I am really exercised about this because of the way I have seen the pattern of the New Testament distorted, the pattern of the New Testament distorted in the name of making much of the cross of Christ and of justification by faith alone. Here's what I mean. There's a kind of preaching and a kind of treatment of justification that goes like this. The Bible says, be holy, but we can't be perfectly holy because we're sinners. Therefore, Jesus Christ came into the world and was perfectly holy on our behalf. Therefore, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and His holiness will count as your holiness. End of sermon, go in peace. So you make a beeline from all the imperatives to the cross, get justification clear, make the people feel better, and dismiss them. That's the sermon. That is absolutely not the pattern of the New Testament. The pattern of the New Testament is this. The Bible says, be holy. We can't be perfectly holy because we're sinners. Therefore, Christ came into the world and was perfectly holy on our behalf. Therefore, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and His holiness will count as your holiness. Now, in the power of this justification and freedom, the freedom and power of the cross, go, be holy. End of sermon, go in peace. The point of hundreds and hundreds of biblical imperatives concerning holiness and love and justice is not. The point of all those imperatives is not. You can't do them. Christ did them. Trust Him. End of message. That's not the way the New Testament reads at all, not even close. The point, rather, of all those imperatives is that Christ died to use the words of Romans 7.4, so that in union with Him, we might die to the law, belong to another to Him who is raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. That's Romans 7.4. The aim of the death of Jesus and our union with Him in justification was that we might belong to Him and bear fruit for God. Christ died for us that we could obey biblical imperatives by the power of the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of God. Not perfectly in this life, of course. We're not perfectionists, but rather real, real transformation confirming a real supernatural change. The cross of Christ is glorious not only because it purchases forgiveness and justification, but also because it purchases new power to be holy and causes us to be holy and warms us against the dangers of not being holy. The thrust of the New Testament is not to end with a celebration of justification. Let me say that again. The thrust of the New Testament is not to end with a celebration of justification, but to end with a celebration of the glory of God manifest in bloodbought sanctification. Another way to say this would be, don't just make a beeline to the cross and stop with a celebration of justification. Rather, make a beeline from the cross, from the power of the cross to the hundreds of commands in the New Testament that describe our sanctification. That's the direction of the New Testament. It's the achievement of the cross in the practical transforming power of the cross that gives it a public glory. The New Testament takes us to the cross in order to send us from the cross justified, forgiven, into a newness of life and holiness. Over and over again, the Bible says that it was the purpose of the cross to make us holy. Romans 8.3, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. That's one of the most beautiful statements of substitutionary punishment in the Bible. He bore our condemnation in his own flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In other words, Christ was condemned in our place so that we would walk according to the Spirit and fulfill the just requirements of the law, namely love. As it says in chapter 13 of Romans 1 Peter 1.18, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers with the precious blood of Christ. In other words, we weren't just delivered from guilt and condemnation by the cross. We were delivered from lifestyles inherited from our parents. 1 Peter 2.24, Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. In other words, Christ bore our sins not only that we would be forgiven for our sins, but that we would stop doing them, that we would die to sin and live to righteousness. Titus 2.14, Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession zealous for good works. Christ died to create a new kind of people who are zealous for good works. When we're not zealous to do good works of holiness and righteousness and love, we dishonor the cross. We contradict the purpose of the cross. 1 Corinthians 6.19, you're not your own. You were bought with a price, namely the price of the blood of the Son of God. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Christ bought us, just think of it, He bought us with His own blood so that we would use our bodies to make Him look glorious. God intends for the upshot of all redemptive history to be the public glorification of His great achievements in Christ. Forgiveness of sins and justification are invisible. They become public. They become visible. A visible glorification of God on this earth when they bear fruit in the lives of Christ's people. 1 Peter 2.12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. That's the ultimate aim of the cross. Forgiven, justified, transformed, doers of good deeds such that God is publicly glorified in a transformed people. This is what Paul prayed for in Philippians 1. It is my prayer that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that come through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. The practical, lived-out fruit of righteousness comes through Christ crucified and results in the glory and praise of God. That's the pattern of the New Testament everywhere. So, I say, don't just take a text and make a beeline to the cross and stop. Instead, take a text, make a beeline to the cross by all means. Make it the foundation for every undeserved blessing in the Bible, Romans 8.32. Then make a beeline from the cross back to that text and urge your people to obey it in the power of the cross and for the glory of God. Yeah, 1 Peter 2.24 is worth memorizing here. We make a beeline to the cross and then we make a beeline from the cross, which really just echoes Romans 8.32, which is another great text to memorize, that he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will you not also with him graciously give us all things, all things, all things from the cross. That's Romans 8.32. A beeline to the cross, then a beeline from the cross with Christ's power in us to obey. Because as you said, the thrust of the New Testament is not to end with a celebration of justification, but to end with a celebration of the glory of God manifested in blood, bought, sanctification. That's good. Yeah, we don't ignore the cross, we celebrate it, and then we use the power of the cross. We take the power of the cross as purchased by his blood to walk out the door and to pursue holiness with it. And if you've not read Expositor to Exaltation, I would highly commend that you do it. It's a thought-provoking book, a soul-stirring book on preaching from Pastor John. And we've been talking about chapter 16 here today. Check that out. Thank you, Pastor John, for this episode and for that book. And thanks for joining us today. If you have a question to ask Pastor John, find a link to email us and find our complete episode archive, all at the same place, askpastorjohn.com. Next time, sex is worship. Sex is worship. I'm Tony Ranke. See you all Monday.
