Peter Jeery
Hot Cross Buns
Nearly everyone likes a hot cross bun. These delicious cakes were intended to be eaten at Easter but they are so good that it’s possible to get them all the year around. They were intended to focus people’s minds upon the cross and all it means. It’s a pity this good intention has long ago ceased but we still need to ask, what is the cross of Jesus all about? The message of the cross speaks of human sin and guilt, and of divine wrath and judgement. Today, people reject both sin and judgement, so they change the message of the cross. They sentimentalize it or shroud it in superstition so that the cross becomes nothing more than a lucky charm. Basically, men reject the cross as God's answer to human sin because they do not see sin as a problem. Therefore, there's no need for an answer. But the fact is that men and women are perishing and going to hell.
They were intended to focus people’s minds upon the cross and all it means.
God warns us over and over again in the Bible of the terrible consequence of sin. The message of the cross comes to us with its invitation of salvation, but also with its warning if we reject the message - and yet still men reject it; they do not take their sin seriously.
The death of Jesus, both with regard to its manner and its purpose, was set and determined by God Himself. It wasn't a last minute adjustment to a plan that was going wrong. It always was the plan We still need as the many references and to ask, what allusions to the cross in the is the cross Old Testament make clear. To of Jesus all the Christian, this is a thrilling truth because it puts our about? salvation at the heart of God's will and purpose for this world. When Jesus died it was an act of substitution – he died instead of me, and in his death he paid the price for my sin. That God is love is a precious truth that is accepted by practically everyone, but the meaning we give to love is not always biblical. Modern man confuses love with sentimentality, and sees God's love as a sort of general benevolence which has no other purpose but our happiness. It then follows that God will not punish sin. Consequently, every notion of hell
is dismissed as incompatible with the idea of a "God of love:" Such thinking is seriously awed because, although it's true that God is love, this is not the only thing that's true about God. He is also holy. The love of God as seen on the cross saves sinners, but what are they saved from? The Bible has only one answer to that. Men are saved from the consequence of their sin, from the wrath and judgement of This is how God God upon that sin. Why showed His love in John 3:16 are people perishing? Because God among us; He sent His one and is holy and will not, and cannot, tolerate sin. In 1 only Son into the John 4:9-10, we see both world that we the love and holiness of might live God linked together: "This is how God showed through Him. His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacriďŹ ce for our sins."
Why was it necessary for Jesus to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins? Because God in His holiness had declared that the wages of sin is death. He will not wink at human sin or pretend it's nothing. It has to be dealt with in accordance to His own law. That’s what the cross is about.
peter@peterjeffery.org.uk
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