The Offense of the Cross

“And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.” Galatians 5:11

The Cullinan diamond, also called the Great Star of Africa, one of the largest polished diamond gem at 530.2 carats now adorns the Sceptre with the Cross, one of the British crown jewels. A recent ad for a diamond cross read, “your faith deserves a shining tribute”. With such associations it is hard to imagine that the cross is an offense or an insult to anyone in the modern world.The cross may have gained popularity as a symbol, but the essential offense of the message of the cross has not ceased. And I am not referring to the quarters where the offense would be expected. For example, atheists objecting to the display of the cross in publicly funded places. I am not too shocked by that. There are some to whom the Christ of the cross is an offense, so it is no surprise that the cross of Christ is an offense. What I am bothered about are those to whom the Christ of the cross is not an offense, but the cross of Christ is. I remember having quite a lengthy discussion with a young man who had no trouble accepting Christ, even worshipping Him but when I diverted the subject to the message of the cross, He simply could not accept that Jesus would have to suffer on the cross for his sins. There are others I know who adore Christ, and heartily cheer the name of Christ, but are offended by the message of the cross.

Paul was writing to the same problem. There were those among the Galatians who could accept the cross as long as Paul preached the circumcision. In other words, cross would cease offending if it simply would accommodate human effort at salvation. But the cross in Paul’s day, as well as today is an offense because it is all-inclusive in one sense and all-exclusive in another.

It is all inclusive because it makes nothing of human effort. It invites one and all to the same cross of Christ. It levels the criminality of one sin or a hundred. At the cross, they are all the same – the saint and the sinner, the upright and the thief, the moral law keeper and the flagrantly disobedient. It gives preference to no one, it ignores all titles, it levels the ground and makes nothing of human effort. And this is an offense to those who think that their standing, their uprightness ought to amount to something. They want to have a part in their own salvation. These are those who think too little of their sin, and to much of their works. They do not like the broadness, this horizontal nature of the cross.
It is all exclusive in the sense, the Cross of Christ unequivocally states that there are no other alternatives to reconciliation with God. We have been hopelessly alienated and the only way is the way provided by God Himself. There are no other options. All can come, but all must come to the foot of the cross, cognizant of their sinfulness, thankful of His offer. And this is an offense to those who think too little of God’s Sovereignty, and too much of their autonomity. They do not like this narrowness, this vertical nature of the cross.

The cross is an offense because it is too infinitely parallel for some, and too infinitely perpendicular for others! It is God’s all-inclusive offer – no matter you’re your state, and it is God’s all-exclusive offer – there is no other way to be reconciled to God.

I pray if you haven’t done so, that you come to that cross of Christ today.

Danesh Manik

The Value of Imperfection

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:6-8 Just this week someone paid $405 for a $1 coin.  Apparently the US Mint released an unknown number of new U.S. $1 coins bearing the image of George Washington which were missing the words “In God We Trust” and other lettering along the edges.  Those who understand numismatics nod in appreciation, but many of us would not assign that value to a dollar.  

One of the resonating reminders of our humanity is the assigning of value to a thing.  We sell imperfect clothes at a discount, but we pay 400 times more for an imperfection in a coin.  Economists tell us that the intrinsic value of a thing is proportional to the scarcity and the usefulness of a thing.  But we know that it is not always so.  Often it is the intangible emotion or an association to a memory of that item.  How many of us know of things around the house we would never sell, or bear to see it damaged because of the loving memories it contains?  It has a value beyond usability, it has an imputed value.   And imputed value is a precious thing because it has acquired a value it could have never achieved on its own.  It was given to it by the giver.  It is a reflection of the one owning it.  And one of the most consistent thoughts all across the Bible is the value imputed to man by God.  Paul, the persecutor who ruthlessly executed those he saw as dangers to his faith, now with passion reverberates this value God put on mankind – “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”    

Paul is astounded, and deeply grateful.  Twice he repeats this in a short three verses. First, Christ died for the ungodly.  There was not a natural worth that we had that Christ undertook such a mission.  And as if that was not enough, he reminds again that while we were yet sinners, that is, it was not because we showed any signs of becoming worthy.  There would seem to be no reason to salvage this fallen mankind, yet God saw that humanity was worth redeeming.  Like that imperfect coin, our value was not diminished in God’s eyes due to imperfection, but rather the cross is the evidence that God put a very high value on even in our imperfection.   In our modern age much has been written about self-worth, and trying to motivate people to believe in themselves.  But self-worth will always fall short because it is based on “self”, and the great yearning of the human heart is to be found worthy by a standard outside of oneself.  But here is a wonderfully liberating thought – our value is not in simply our usefulness or even our uniqueness, the great value that we have is the value that is imputed to us by God.  It is the value we carry because of the reflection of the One who values us.   

Friend, God valued you as worth the pain, shame and isolation of the cross.  In those moments of honest reflection, are you haunted by guilt?  Are you disappointed in yourself?  Are all your actions, your passions and desires directed by wanting to be worth something to someone?  God has put a value on your life, and it was His life for yours.  May I point you to the cross where “Christ died for us while were yet sinners”.  The cross is, and forever will be an eternal symbol of the imputed value of an imperfect humanity!   Danesh Manik

The Primacy of the Cross of Christ

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures”  1 Corinthians 15:3-4

In the middle ages one of the legends that grew around Saint Martin , the Bishop of Tours was that of Satan appearing to him in the guise of the Savior Himself.  St. Martin was ready to fall to his feet and worship this magnificent being, when he gazed into the palms of his hands and noticed something missing.  He immediately asked, “Where are the nail prints?” Upon which the apparition vanished.  It may be simply a legend but the veracity of all of Christianity revolves around the nail prints. 

Have you ever wondered that the Lord who could touch the leper and the leprosy disappeared, put clay in eyes of a blind man to make him see, put his fingers in the ears of the deaf to restore hearing, take a sliced ear and restore it without any surgery, could not wipe out the scars of nail prints from the hands of a victorious, glorified risen body? 

Of course, He could! But the nail prints are not just physical marks, they are the very brand.  Of course He could.  But the nail prints are not just physical marks of an execution, they are the very essence of our salvation! The Cross is the touchstone of the Christian faith.  All of Christian experience and theology can be tested by the nail prints. 
Paul, writing to the Corinthians says, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins”.  Paul is essentially declaring the primacy of the cross of Christ.    If we exclude the cross, no matter how eloquent the style, and how deep the theology – it is nothing.  Christianity is not essentially a system of   morality, or even just the hope of immortality, it is essentially a religion of salvation – first of all … Christ died for our sins.

This is exceptionally important for it grounds the faith, not simply in an experience, or in some acceptance of a creed, but most importantly in that day in history when Jesus was nailed to the cross as a vicarious sacrifice for our sins, and subsequently the day in history when He rose again.  I am convinced that unless we understand the atonement, we will never be able to seriously answer any questions that are leveled against the Christian faith. 

Let me illustrate.  In a recent article, “Selfless Consciousness Without Faith” by Sam Harris, the avowed atheist and author of, “A Letter to a Christian Nation,” writing of his experience of “a blissful stillness” and a “feeling of peace” on the shore of Galilee , argues, “ If I were a Christian I would undoubtedly interpret this experience in Christian terms.  I might believe that I had glimpsed the oneness of God, or the descent of the Holy Spirit, but I am not a Christian.”  He goes on to explain how   he would interpret this experience as if he were a Hindu or a Buddhist, but then writes of how he as an atheist interprets this experience.  In his own words, “ As someone who is simply making his best effort to be a rational human being, I am very slow to draw metaphysical conclusions from experiences of this sort. The truth is, I experience what I would call the “selflessness of consciousness” rather often, wherever I happen to meditate—be it in a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, or while having my teeth cleaned. Consequently, the fact that I also had this experience at a Christian holy site does not lend an ounce of credibility to the doctrine of Christianity.” 

Apart from the very obvious problem that on the same grounds Mr. Harris rejects the interpretation of the Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist (namely, that they are biased in their interpretations), he essentially destroys his own argument.  For his atheism is also a bias that he brings to the experience he calls “selfless consciousness without faith”.  He is right in saying that his experience does not lend an ounce of credulity to the Christian faith.  But neither does it lend any credulity to atheism!  And it only disproves faith if faith were based on this sort of experience.  But Christian faith is not an accumulation of experience of “feelings of peace” or “blissful stillness”.   Experience does occur, but the Gospel call is that “first of all Christ died for our sins”.   

I pray that as we approach this season of Easter, let this thought cheer our hearts and provide an anchor for our faith – that first of all Christ died for our sins!

Danesh Manik

Bruising That Was Pleasing to God

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him…”  Isaiah 53:10 It is perhaps one of the most startling statements in the Bible.  God taking pleasure in pain of His Servant!  It is even more startling if you consider the previous verses.  The Servant, the One being bruised, is described as one without any deceit (Isaiah 53:9).  The ones He is getting bruised for are God’s people who have abandoned God.  They are described as those “who have sold themselves for their iniquities” (Isaiah 50:1).  If this was not enough, the reason for this bruising of this Perfect Servant is the transgressions of the ungrateful people who have forsaken their God!  In these heart gripping words it is described – “Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.. He was bruised for our iniquities…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”   

It would be hard to understand it had it not been revealed to us in the Cross.  Isaiah, 700 years before Jesus, is prophetically talking about the suffering Messiah, Jesus.  “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” was simply saying that Jesus was to be the substitute for people estranged from God, and it pleased God, not to see the pain, but the ultimate achievement, of this bruising, for the verse ends, “When You make His soul an offering for sin.. the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”   In that sacrifice, Christ resolved the conflict between God’s infinite love and God’s ultimate justice.   It is this pleasure that God foresaw, and it pleased Him to bruise Jesus.  It is what the theologians call the “atonement”.  It is not a doctrine that was created to explain away the cross, it was anticipated 700 years before it happened as the only way to reconciliation of man and God.  It is this paradox of “just for the unjust”, this substitutionary death that is central to the core of Christianity, is perhaps directly or indirectly challenged most often, and even confounds many Christians.    

How can Jesus pay for our sins as a substitute?  How could one man represent all of us?  Is it not the height of injustice?  In these questions, what we are really questioning is the veracity of substitution.  Actually, substitution happens all the time.   In our own lives we are constantly applauding substitution.  When a soldier dies fighting for the country, he dies a substitutionary death.  He dies as a substitute for many others who are then free to live.  When our brave firefighters, policemen, and medical personnel died trying to save others on 9/11, we, very justifiably, build memorials to them. Who has not felt the surge of nobility in purpose and deed reading the stories of men such as Father Damien who died of leprosy while serving lepers?   I contend that it is not the death of Jesus in our stead that causes us to recoil, it is that that the cross of Jesus reminds us vividly the ugliness of our own sin, and the seriousness of that sin in God’s eyes.  The atonement will never make sense, the cross will never become more than a symbol, the  love of God will never be more than a fuzzy feeling to anyone who does not first see clearly the seriousness of their own sin.  It is in the light of that sin that alienated us, the love of God that longed for reconciliation, we understand why “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.”   

Friend, it pleased God, not that He rejoiced in the pain of Jesus, but He rejoiced in the pleasure of those whom Jesus came to save, and that is you and me.  Will, what pleased God, displease you?  Will, what God came to save, you reject because it does not suit your fancy?  Will you dishonor the one who came to be your substitute sacrifice?   I pray that you will look upon Him and be saved!   Danesh Manik