March 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

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THE CHRISTIAN teaching about who crucified Christ is not that the Romans or the Jews or whatever people happened to be there did, but that you and I did, and that all human societies without exception are involved in the crucifixion of Christ.

THEY CRUCIFIED HIM with the criminals. Which is more amazing, to find Jesus in such bad company, or to find the criminals in such good company? ... Jesus died precisely for these two criminals who were crucified on his right and left and went to their death with him. He did not die for the sake of a good world, he died for the sake of an evil world.

GETHSEMANE invites us to consider … what it meant for Jesus to be, in a unique sense, God's Son. The very moment of greatest intimacy—the desperate prayer to "Abba, Father"—is also the moment where ... he is set on the course for the moment of God-forsakenness on the cross.

SINCE JESUS had no sin either in his nature or in his conduct, he need never have died either physically or spiritually. ... Then why did he do it? What was the rationale of his death? There is only one possible, logical, biblical answer. It is that he died for our sins, not his own. The death he died was our death, the penalty which our sins had richly deserved.

REGARDLESS of all the gold or silver with which it is covered, the Cross remains what the apostle Paul said … "a scandal for the Jews, and folly for the Gentiles" (1 Cor. 1:23). In our given situation the "Jews" represent those who seek only help from religion, while the "Gentiles" are those who seek clever and easy explanations. And in this case the Cross is truly a scandal and folly.

MY LORD, my Love, is crucified: Is crucified for me and you. To bring us rebels near o God; Believe, believe the record true,Ye all ...