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THE
BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?
EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?
GOD
- MAN
Is Jesus really God?
RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?
SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?
TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.
SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.
FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?
GUIDANCE
How does God guide?
REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.
BORN
AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?
SAVING
FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven
ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?
TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?
MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.
THE
CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the
new millennium.
PURPOSE
How
can I find a great purpose for living?
IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of
God.
SELF-ESTEEM
How
can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.
LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.
THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.
Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.
The cross and history’s reversal of values
"Women, minorities, the disabled, environmental and human rights
activists—all these draw their moral force from the power of the
gospel unleashed at the Cross, when God took the side of the victim" Yancey |
In another
of his insightful “Back Page” articles in Christianity Today,
“Why I Can Feel Your Pain”, Philip Yancey mentions the book
Violence Unveiled by Gil Bailie, which builds on the work of René
Girard. Girard, a prominent literary critic, began to focus his work increasingly
on the role of violence in human culture. In Violence and the Sacred and
other books he expounded a theory of culture in which Christ’s death
on the cross is a single pivotal event. As Yancey explains:
According to Girard, societies have traditionally reinforced their power
through “sacred violence.” The larger group…picks a
scapegoat minority—or, in the case of the many societies that have
practiced human sacrifice, a single individual—to direct its self-righteous
violence against, which in turn bonds and emboldens the majority. The
Cross, however, upset the longstanding categories of weak victims and
strong heroes, for the victim emerged as the hero.
Paul was indicating something like this when he declared: ‘”Having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). The most refined
religion of the day accused an innocent man, and the most renowned justice
system carried out the sentence. It was indeed a public spectacle.
Bailey points out that the gospel may not make societies less violent, but it makes them less sure about their violence. Before Jesus came, nations didn't worry about such distinctions as "just" and "unjust" wars. Moreover, the gospel set something loose that Bailie describes as "the most astonishing reversal of values in human history. Today the victim occupies the moral high ground everywhere in the Western world." As Yancey says
Women, minorities, the disabled, environmental and human rights activists—all these draw their moral force from the power of the gospel unleashed at the Cross, when God took the side of the victim.
It is ironic that those who criticise the church for its failures to live
by its own teachings in areas such as violence, slavery, sexism and racism,
do so by gospel principles. The message of the cross continues to leaven
a culture when the church fails to live up to it, or even takes the wrong
side. God has entrusted us flawed human beings with a gospel so powerful
that it often does its work in spite of us. We best commend the gospel
by humility and repentance where necessary, while continuing to point
people to the source of all true goodness.
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Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: What the Bible says about the cross
Images
of the cross from the Old Testament
The tree of life
The serpent’s fatal wound
Thorns—symbol of the curse
Our nakedness covered through the shedding
of blood
A God who is prepared to die
The Father’s sacrifice
Passover—safe beneath the Lamb’s
blood
Bitter waters made sweet
The smitten rock—God in the dock
Animal sacrifices
Day of Atonement—the rent curtain
The bronze serpent
Isaiah’s Suffering Servant
The Psalms
Death leading to resurrection
The
cross in the Gospels
The emphasis on the passion and cross in the Gospel
Hints and clear references to the cross before
its occurrence
The Last Supper
Gethsemane
The trial
The crucifixion
The burial
The resurrection
Between resurrection and ascension
The cross—the focus of prophecy
The
cross in Acts
The cross in the New Testament letters
Christ’s death “for our sins”
The blood of Christ
The cross in Paul’s letters
The cross and sin
The cross central in Paul’s preaching
Our identification with Christ in
his death
Our identification with Christ in suffering
The cross and the wisdom of God
The cross and the challenge to godly living
Christ death and our death
The death of Christ and his exultation
Benefits
of the cross
Forgiveness
Justification
Salvation
Reconciliation
Redemption
Sanctification
Propitiation
Adoption
The
cross in Hebrews
The cross in 1 Peter
The cross in 1 John
The cross in Revelation
Part 2: Related themes
The cross and the Trinity
The cross and the love of God
The cross and the justice of God
The cross and suffering
Why Easter Saturday?
God’s “Yes” of Easter Day
The cross and history’s reversal of values
Why
the cross is not popular
The cross and discipleship
The cross and other religions
The cross and our response
