The Cross

The cross as a symbol has been used and abused. Naive understanding of the cross has led people to consider it as an object infused with divine power or even as a good luck charm. Some strongly maintain that wearing a cross assures them of ultimate protection. Adding to this assortment of superstitious ideas on cross, movies have 'venerated' the seeming power of the cross to obliterate vampires when a priest brandishes one. 

In the Christendom chiefly, the cross is offered the utmost attention during the passion week as the object of one's relentless meditation. At the end of season, sadly though, the prominence of the Cross quickly fades out.

Contrary all these fanciful purporting, the cross can be understood as a metonymy for the atonement accomplished by Christ through His death.

Different verses or passages in the Bible testify to this. For instance, Jesus Himself reveals the purpose of His incarnation which is to give His life as a 'ransom for many'. In another place He says "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."

Psalm 85:10 says,

"Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other."

This verse succinctly talks about what happened on the cross. The Bible unflinchingly informs us that the entire humanity not only plunged into sin but also incurred the wrath of God due to that one act of disobedience by Adam, the representative of the whole human race. Man with his own ability is ever irredeemable. He can never begin to think about appeasing the wrath of God. God demanded an unblemished sacrifice that alone can propitiate His wrath. Now that the whole humanity comprising of people across all times are blemished with sin, not a single soul was, is or ever will be able to mend the severed relationship between God and men. God the Father in His loving will planned out before creation to send His only begotten Son to do what no man can. And that is precisely why there is a cross.  Upon the cross is where God the Son was bruised by God the Father as the prophet Isaiah declares.

Now the blemishless nature of Christ warrants our brief attention. As mentioned He came down to earth to do what no man can but He did not just take the place of  a mere blemishless man per se. Jesus on earth was not just a man who did not sin. He was much more than that. For instance hypothetically, a sinless human being (if any now!) would be the pre-fall Adam and yet he was peccable (able to sin), which simply means he was able to sin. That is precisely why he sinned and fell short of God's glory. At the same time he was 'able not to sin'. In Adam, as fallen beings, we all do not keep sinning every minute of our lives. In other words, we are simply not the devil personified. But Christ Jesus was both sinless and impeccable. Jesus in His humanity was 'able not to sin' (sinless) as well as 'not able to sin' (impeccable). Contrarily we humans are always peccable and never impeccable. We will never have the ability to not sin at all. Christ was never found with a single sin. He could never ever commit a sin simply because He is not able to sin. So this sinless and impeccable incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity was gruesomely crushed for my sins and yours. And that is the crux of the CROSS. (By the way, did you know that the origin of the word crux is cross?!)

The cross is where the righteousness of God (justice of God established through His wrath) and peace of God (made viable through the atoning death of Christ because He loved us) meet.

The cross is a symbol of Christ's perfect atoning death

The cross is a symbol of Christ's inscrutable impeccability and sinlessness

The cross is a symbol of God's terrifying wrath/justice/righteousness

The cross is a symbol of God's ineffable love

The cross is a symbol of incomprehensible peace between God and His children

The cross is a symbol of God's wisdom

The cross is a symbol of an eternal Kingdom

More than being flippantly treated as a a mere symbol, the Cross should be understood to possess an intrinsic profundity intended by God. The importance of the Cross should surpass the attention given just during the passion week.

Justification and Imputation

The doctrine of imputation is indispensable to comprehend the doctrine of justification.

What is justification?

Theologians say that this word is used in legal/forensic terms. Justification means being 'pronounced righteous'. Justification can be understood to have two elements viz., a)"Negative" element and b)"Positive" element. 

Both these elements include something known as imputation.

What is imputation? 

It is a word used in commerce meaning 'charged to an account.'

According to Paul, there are the three great imputations.

I. Imputation of Adam's sin to humanity (Romans 5:12)

II. Imputation of the sins of the believers to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21)

III. Imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the believers (Romans 5:19, 2 Corinthians 5:21)

a)Negative Element:

The negative element is the forgiveness/remission of sins based on the ground of the atoning work of Christ. The sin that Adam committed led to the fall of the whole humanity. Adam was the representative of the entire human race. In him the entire human race had to be born. God's creative order was that whatever that affects Adam had to affect the humanity as well.  Even Eve was formed out of Adam and hence Eve too found her head/representative in Adam.  Now that Adam had disobeyed and sinned, the whole of human race sinned (Imputation I). In justification this violation has to be taken care of and that is accomplished through the remission of sins.  The atoning work of Christ on the cross (Imputation II), also known as the 'passive obedience' of Christ, takes care of the remission of sins thereby offering forgiveness of all sins to the ones who believe in Christ. However this is only one side of the coin.

b)Positive Element:

Justification is not just about forgiveness of sins. It goes beyond mere pardoning of sins. The law not only condemns sin but also demands perfect obedience. Adam failed to uphold this demand of the law too. So this also had to be taken care of by our perfect Substitute. So the second Adam, Jesus Christ, in the place of first Adam fulfilled the demands of the law which is referred to as the 'active obedience' of Christ. This obedience of Christ is imputed to believers as positive righteousness (Imputation III). So this imputed righteousness makes the believers eligible in God's eyes to receive eternal life. The imputation of righteousness is a "constant" in the topic of justification.

So justification is twofold: the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of positive righteousness.

This subject is really massive and a blog post like this simply serves as a preamble to this great topic. For further reading, I recommend this book. - Jesus' Blood and Righteousness (Paul's Theology of Imputation) - Brian Vickers