7 We Preach Christ Crucified
In the first
issue of our church magazine, we shared about the direction of Church
ministry. One of the goals is to
commit that which we have heard and learned to our next generation. In the olden days, Paul had exhorted young
Timothy: ¡° the
things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to
reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others¡± (2Tim.2: 2). Not only that such commitment is our
responsibility, but indeed it is also our privilege. Concerning the issue of our Church
ministry and direction, so far we have not made any presentation to our
members. What messages from the Lord
had the elders taught us through their labor and nurture? What have we learned about the way of
pursuit of God? What sacrifice did
we have in practicing Christian faith?
Have we left ¡°the elementary teachings about Christ¡± to proceed on to
maturity in faith? Are the
functions of the Church simply maintained by social interactions? In the last issue we have explained our
view on evangelism, in the current issue we intend to share about the direction
in the pursuit of the knowledge of the Lord.
To
the Corinthians Paul had clearly announced: ¡°Jews demanded miraculous signs and
Greek look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified¡± (1Cor.2: 22-23). This is a unique message, just as Isaiah
prophesied: ¡°Yet it was the Lord¡¯s
will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and..... makes His life a guilt
offering¡± (Isaiah 53:10). It was
God¡¯s plan for Christ to experience suffering of death, in order to manifest
the unsearchable riches of His salvation.
It was on the cross that this glorious and noble One became shameful and
abased; this living and almighty One experienced
weakness and death. But then He was
raised from death. And by
overcoming the power of death He accomplished redemption and brought forth the
Church.
At
any age or place, the central message proclaimed by the Church is always Jesus
Christ and He crucified. He is the
Head of the Church, therefore we do not boast about people or organizations
lest they might usurp the Lord¡¯s rightful place. The Church is a body called to be
separated from the world to be under the direct sovereignty of Christ. Her mission on earth is to preach the
gospel of the
The
crucifixion of Christ achieved two vital purposes: First, by offering the wages of sin to
God, He absolved us from our sinful acts.
God forgives and justifies the believers on this foundation. Second, He caused us to be crucified
with Him through faith. Once and
for all He had dealt with our sinful nature and had saved us from the power of
sin. This is the message of the
cross we learn to proclaim. For all
the spiritual pursuits and victory and all virtues and spiritual integrity only
come with the recognition of dying and living together with Him. The Church¡¯s main cause of failure in
edification is the lack of proclaiming this dual message of the cross. Without the instruction and exhortation
on these aspects of truth, believers will have no foundation for spiritual
growth and victory.
Many
have experienced the joy and peace through the forgiveness of sins. But, in the process of spiritual growth,
they may still attempt to deal with their sinful selves and sinful nature by
their own efforts. At first we
might struggle hard for righteousness and to resist our sinful nature. But eventually we discover that we can
achieve nothing. In the face of the
old nature that dominates us, and the sinful power that manipulates us to sin,
we experience countless failures and defeats. With such dejections and
frustrations, we grieve along with Paul:
¡°For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want
to do --- this I keep on doing...
What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death? ¡± (Rom.7: 19,24). On the
path of spiritual pursuit and growth, many believers have bitterly experienced
such agony of struggle and disappointment of incapability! At such times, the Lord will bring us
back to the cross, where once again He will lead us to rethink the meaning of
dying with Him. The Lord wants us
to recognize clearly one spiritual fact:
That our sinful selves and old nature stand in opposition to the life
and nature of God. If we only
recognize the death of the Lord in resolving our sins, we have no means at all
to overcome the power of sin. Until
He shows us that His death actually effectuate the crucifixion of our old
beings with Him, then we can recognize that we are dead to sin in Christ. Since ¡°by His death He might destroy him
who holds the power of death¡± (Heb. 2:14), we have then the confidence to
believe that we in Christ have also escaped the control of him who holds the
power of death!
When
we preach the message of dying together with the Lord, we also preach the
message of living together with Him.
Just as the Lord¡¯s death was not only for our sins but also for our
sinful nature, similarly, His resurrection does not only guarantee the promise
of eternal life for us but also provides the ground for our victorious
living. The salvation of Christ
comprises one great truth: God does
not reform our old life and nature, but lets them die --- to be crucified with
the Lord, and let the life of God reveal in us! There is a hymn written like this:
Dying on the cross with Jesus, Buried and raised up with Him,
In the Heavenly realms now seated, No longer I to live.
Christ lives within,
He takes over all, See as He sees, speak as He speaks,
Ask as He asks, do as
He does, He is my Lord.
(Heavenly
People 49)
¡°Dying
with the Lord¡± and ¡°living with Him¡± are inseparable truth. The two epistles on justification by
faith in the New Testament, namely:
Romans and Galatians, purposely expounded the
meaning and effect of this truth.
The act of Christian baptism fitfully illustrates the dual meaning of
dying together and living together with Him: ¡°We were therefore buried with Him
through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live
a new life¡± (
Those
elders before us, who had learned of the Lord, and had been whole-heartedly
guiding us in growth, have meaningfully quoted two Biblical exhortations for
our generation of believers as a direction of spiritual pursuit:
¡°For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son¡± (Rom. 8:29).
¡°Therefore let us leave the
elementary teachings about Christ and go
on to maturity¡± (Heb. 6:1).
In
the pursuit of God, the Church, as well as the individuals, should be fully
encouraged to recognize and to experience this in-depth message, to conform to
His image and to attain spiritual maturity. We expect that believers will desire for
self-denial; that they will accept God¡¯s demolition and reconstruction in our
life, to the effect that their spiritual life is strengthened while the
activities of the flesh wither. We
desire the Church to proclaim the Word of life, that She
would not degrade Her belief to a philosophical debate to please the worldly
trend of academic approach. We wish
the Church would keep Her noble, heavenly status,
without conforming to the world in its modes and movements.
The
theme of dying and living together with Christ through the cross is not new,
and it is not exclusively for our church alone. In fact, every church
could, and should, proclaim such a message. This is basically the pathway for
Christians to go through salvation, to experience self-denial, and to undergo
refinement towards sanctification.
It is in this way we have received the teachings, and have experienced a
bit on self-denial and life molding.
So it is our obligation to pass this message on. This is our church¡¯s direction in the
pursuit of the knowledge of the Lord.
My heart is athirst and
longing,
The homeward way
of the cross.
Fiery age urges me onward,
No
hesitation or halt.
Fixing my eyes upon the cross -- The bloodstained
path leading home.
Fixing my eyes
upon the cross --
The only path leading home.
Follow
Christ to Gethsemane,
Follow Him to
Till we
enter eternity,
No
more sorrow or woe.
(Selected from The
Homeward Way of the Cross)