If Christ is God’s great mystery, then the mystery’s most intriguing enigma is the cross. Christ seems utterly defeated in His death. Yet the tragedy of the cross becomes God’s decisive victory, just as He secretly planned from “before the ages.”
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8)
The cross changes everything!
- From the cross, forgiveness flows for every sinner in Christ’s blood (Matthew 26:28; Ephesians 1:7).
- Through the cross, God reconciles the whole world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:20; 1 John 2:2).
- At the cross, Christ destroys the power Satan held through sin and death (Hebrews 2:9-14; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
- Christ uses the cross to form one body in which former enemies enjoy peace (Ephesians 2:16).
- Christ does this “by abolishing the law of commandments” through His death (Ephesians 2:13-16). The old decrees and debts are nailed to the cross, bringing them to an end (Colossians 2:14; Romans 10:4), and bringing into effect the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15-17).
- Through the cross, we are crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14). Anyone who is in Christ becomes God’s “new creation” where “the old has passed away” and “the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Do we grasp what these changes mean for us? Do we appreciate just how fully the cross removes the law’s rule over God’s people? Then we might also pause to ask, “How does this radical newness affect music?”