4S: The Cross
The Cross
This is the beginning of a series focused on the cross. The series might be a single writeup and a single podcast discussed over time. In the comments, I will drop in a number of shows and lectures done by other people for discussion. Going forward, I will view my role in a series as a conversation starter, not the sole provider of content.
Beyond that, I have mentioned before that I want to place more of a focus on deconstruction. It is no longer just about my deconstruction. I am feeling more missional and want to be a resource for other people on the verge of their own deconstruction journey. I am no longer just deconstructing out loud; I am actively calling on others to do the same. In Christianity, the exit door is already wider than the entrance. Let’s bust it open completely.
This slightly new flavor of the cite begins with the cross. This is the focal point of modern Christianity. So it is a good place to start for anyone at the beginning of their exodus. It starts with death and dying. It cannot be avoided. With that in mind, here we go:
Born dead
Original sin means we are all born dead. Note that there are many variations of Christian belief. So if something I say doesn’t fit with your idea of Christianity, it does not mean I am misrepresenting Christianity. With that said, one of the most dominant interpretations of the doctrine of original sin is that we are all spiritually and otherwise metaphysically stillborn.
Sin is the matrix of our reality. The first humans had a neutral nature with regard to good and evil, and chose evil. That resulted in all humans having a sin nature rather than a neutral one. So for a certain kind of Christian, the real beginning of the human story is that we are dead. How we became dead takes up very little space in their imagination. The only thing that really matters is that humans are evil by choice and are without excuse. As for the rest, shut up!
So it is that their story starts with the death of Jesus. I really don’t believe Christians care much about the birth and life of Jesus. Sure, there are some fun bits in there such as the virgin birth they feel obligated to believe. But it is not really central to anything important. Sure, they care about the teachings of Jesus. But even that doesn’t really gain any meaning prior to the death. For anything that Jesus said to matter, he first had to die. But why did he have to say anything? Why did he have to die at all?
Necessity of the cross
I believe the vast majority of Christians believe that there can be no Christianity without the cross. The whole point of the cross is resurrection, which you can’t have without a death. The teachings of Jesus would be the mere ramblings of a mad man had he lived out a normal life. The Christian story only works in light of the cross.
Partially, it is due to the stillborn nature of all humans. We are spiritually dead. As with a physically dead person, we cannot do anything about our situation. Someone has to come along and breathe new life into us. The fact that we’re dead, and that we cannot do anything to save ourselves is the bad news. We have to start with the bad news. If people think they can come to Jesus without a sober understanding of their own sinfulness and helplessness in the sight of god, I’m told that they can never actually experience regeneration. Only the knowingly broken are fit for repair.
Once we are sufficiently convinced of the bad news, we move on to the good news. And the good news is that Jesus died for your sins. See how the good news starts with a death? Few really put much energy behind the question of why death was a necessary component of the good news. The answer starts with this:
Now when a will is involved, it is obligatory to prove the death of the one who made it. For a will takes effect only at death, since it has no force while the one who made it is still alive. He. 9:16-17
It seems salvation is a part of a last will and testament. The thing that activates a will is the death of the person who made it. You literally can’t inherit the promises unless god dies. What a terrible framing. None of this was necessary. And this explanation gets more convoluted as it develops:
Hence, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when all the commandments of the Law had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, together with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to observe.”
All of this is leading to the death of Jesus. He is saying that blood sacrifice has always been a part of the equation. This was wrapped up in a ritual where the leader sprinkled the book of the law and all the people with this blood. They were literally splashed with it. That’s not cult behavior at all, right? Not even the old covenant could work without something bleeding and dying. At risk of repeating myself, the old covenant didn’t work without blood.
And in the same way, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the liturgical vessels. Indeed, under the Law almost everything is purified by blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Here, we get the second reason for the blood fest. without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. God literally cannot forgive you of any infraction, even the most minor, without something or someone dying. Did you disobey your parents that time when you were 12? Someone’s got to die. That is who this god is, and who he has always been.
Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves required still greater sacrifices.
We could get lost in this very weird theology about copies of heavenly things and the real things. For now, we can summarize it this way: If it took blood to purify and forgive those copies, the real thing is going to take something even more.
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.Nor was it his purpose to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own. For then he would have had to suffer over and over again since the creation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once and for all at the end of the ages to abolish sin by sacrificing himself.
Make no mistake about it: This is substitutionary atonement writ large. The only two differences are as follows:
Jesus only had to die once instead of once every year.
This is a human sacrifice instead of an animal sacrifice.
As a sidenote, if eternal conscious torment is true, he expects us to suffer continuously forever for our sins. But to pay for our sins as a substitute, he gets a single bad weekend. To an eternal being, that has to be less than a millisecond of inconvenience. He had no intention of doing the kind of sacrifice where he had to die continuously and suffer like we will have to. Justice, am I right?
And just as human beings are destined to die but once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Here again, Jesus was human sacrificed for the purpose of taking away sins. In this theology stretching back to ancient Judaism, you cannot be forgiven without the death of something. In our case, it is the death of an innocent person on a cross. That is why the cross is central to Christianity.
Resurrection?
This long passage only vaguely hints at resurrection. He will appear a second time to bring salvation. One wonders what Christians are really about. Is it that they are so grateful to have their sins forgiven? Or is it that they are so eager to get the prize of living forever? These are very different things.
How many Christians would still be Christians if all they got out of the deal was the satisfaction that they were able to have their sins wiped away and that’s all? In this scenario, there would be no promise of a better life here, no special favors, no heaven, no eternal life, no cosmic rescue of any kind, just death. Would that be enough for Christians. Is that what they celebrate?
Resurrection is the promise of something other than forgiveness. Christians aren’t looking forward to forgiveness of sins: Supposedly, they got that when Jesus died. What they are looking forward to are all the eternal prizes they stand to get. That is the promise of resurrection. If Jesus was raised to eternal life, then we will also be raised to eternal life. He is merely the first fruits of the resurrection. But keep this point in view: resurrection does not secure forgiveness. It is the promise of future reward. Jesus’ death is the only thing that secures forgiveness, not his resurrection.
Jesus didn’t have to be raised at all even if he did have to die. God didn’t need Jesus to rule over the kingdom. God could handle it. Or he could hand it over to Bob. Jesus is not required for god to continue his kingdom. God could have even given all the faithful the gift of resurrection without Jesus. After all, Jesus is the substitute. No one expects the substitute to rise from the dead. If they took your place, they have to take all of it, including dying and staying dead. So god could have forgiven you and raised you on just the death of Jesus and the faith of the believer. Resurrection is an unnecessary third wheel. Again, this is why the symbol is the death. The story can’t be told without it.
Too holy for sin
There is one other reason the cross is necessary. Nothing about the cross is intuitive. Why does god require blood to forgive? If blood, why the torment of the cross? There was no option for death in a quick and painless way. Jesus could have simply died of old age and that could have been the perfect death that follows the perfect life. But that wasn’t an option on the table.
The reason it had to be the cross is that god is too holy for sin. If you only knew how holy god really was, you would understand what an unthinkable offense sin is to god. Heavens forfend! God practically gets the vapors at the very thought of sin. He cannot stand to be in its presence. The punishment has to fit the crime.
All crimes agains god (which is all sin) are capital offenses. Heck, even death isn’t enough. Remember that piece of candy you stole when you were six? Of course you deserve to die. God showed immeasurable love and restraint when allowing you to live to six and a half. From the time you were born, you disgust god. He owes you nothing but the hottest hell.
The only death that can cover it is the death of a perfect man who was also god. And the death had to be really bad. When you understand how bad sin is to god, you will no longer ask why god requires something as terrible as the cross. You will, instead, ask how something as terrible as the cross could possibly be enough to forgive a wretch like you. That’s real Christianity. And that’s why it all hinges on the cross.
Conclusion: Put down your cross
Consider this the alter call.
There is an old hymn that asks:
Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for everyone and there’s a cross for me.
As a condition of discipleship, Jesus said the following:
Then he said to all who were with him, “Anyone who wishes to follow me must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Paul added this idea:
Therefore, brethren, I implore you by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God—a spiritual act of worship.
I’m sad to inform you that the human sacrificing is not over. Jesus might have died only once. But you have to die daily. Jesus carried his cross part of the way. You have to carry yours all the way, faithful to death. Jesus does not carry the cross alone. He is not the only one with a cross to bear. To follow him, you need to take up your own cross. You have to be a living sacrifice, a human sacrifice.
If Jesus conquered sin, why are his people here and still sinning? Why didn’t all the faithful dead rise at that moment? Why didn’t all of the past and future elite get swept up into heaven at that very moment that sin and death were conquered? Because it wasn’t! Nothing happened in this realm or any other besides one more insurrectionist getting the nail.
That doesn’t have to be you. Put down the goddamned cross for jug sake! Instead of being a living sacrifice to a god who doesn’t need it, why not live to be an incomparable resource to your fellow human beings who do absolutely need it. You don’t need a savior. But you can be a savior to someone in your life. There have been enough meaningless crosses over the centuries. Put down your cross and help someone else do the same. Then, you can both rise to the newness of a better life.
See you in the comments…
David Johnson
