Written by Marco Velasco, Academic Vice President, Nazarene Seminary of the Americas
There is no resurrection without the cross! The four gospels include the retelling of the crucifixion of Jesus. This has to do with the heart of the good news. Death and resurrection are two sides of the same coin.
It surprises me that often my thoughts and sermons express incorrectly that the most important part of the Christian message is the resurrection of Jesus more than his death on the cross. Faith and Christian life are combined and they impact both truths that belong equally to the gospel. In fact, the crucifixion and the resurrection are one truth that should be proclaimed and lived.
The Apostle Paul in his letters shows us and demonstrates the centrality of the cross of Jesus both in his message and in his ethical Christian demands. Standing before the Jewish threat, Paul confirms in Galatians that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). In the middle of the conflict with the Corinthians and their attacks against Paul’s apostleship, he expresses, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2a). This had an effect on the way that Paul preached. “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). In the letter to the Colossians he says, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:13-15).
The cross is a place of victory for the faithful Christian even in the middle of weakness and the attacks of Satan. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9b). What Jesus did on the cross broke the power of sin that enslaved us. The suffering of Good Friday with the crucifixion and death of Christ is the beginning of the Christian celebration of the victory of Christ over evil.
Now! Brothers and sisters, let’s celebrate, live and share this message of victory over sin in the world. “…because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16b).
