The Folly of the Cross

 The message of the cross is folly for those who are on the way to ruin, but for those of us who are on the road to salvation it is the power of God.

I Corinthians 1.18

Suppose a small child has been instructed by his loving king that he must move a large rock from the bottom of a hill to the top.  This task must completed by each of the king’s subjects  so that they might be granted immortality and live with the king forever. The king (loving his people) desires that each one might live with him forever. The child is also told that he has  but a short time to do this, although the exact amount of time is undisclosed. The king, being a just man, also warned of dire consequences of his wrath should the boy fail to fulfill the requirement. If the boy fails he would be cast out into the darkness where he will be alone forever; or perhaps he will be slaughtered by the other degenerates who now live in the darkness or, even worse, devoured by beasts. The young boy begins his work immediately- after all, time is short (he doesn’t know how short) and he knows it is a terrifying thing to fall into the wrathful and just hands of his king.

While engrossed in the task of moving the heavy object before him (and impressed with its impossibility) the young boy was periodically visited by towns folk who had already received their king’s favor. While encouraging him to persevere (because the king’s favor is worth aquiring) they also told him of a way in which he could gain his king’s favor without having to complete the impossible task of moving the large rock. They called this way the “Good News”.

“You see” , they said, “our king has already (once and for all) moved this rock for us. It was many years ago, but indeed he has already met the requirements of his decree! All we are to do is confess our inability to meet his just requirements and ask him to forgive us for our failure to do it ourselves. After this, we are to freely receive the king’s own accomplishment on our behalf. Upon hearing this, our king (who is loving and wishes that none of us shall perish), will release us from our obligation and credit his own fulfillment of the decree to our behalf.”

“How can this be” asked the young boy? “Is not our loving king also just? What shall become of the consequences for not keeping his decree? Our king’s justice requires that a price be paid for my disobedience and his wrath is surely quite severe.”

“Ah yes” said the town folk. “Indeed his wrath is frightful and indeed the price must be paid. This is the most amazing thing about this Good News. Our just king (being also a loving king) has taken his wrath upon himself. Look! Here he comes now! He is back from the darkness and is drenched in his own blood. He has suffered at the hands of the beasts and they have devoured him- and yet he has returned in the fullness of his glory to conquer the darkness once and for all”!

The young boy (beaten and tattered) looks out in the distance and sees his bloodied king approaching from the top of the hill. He knows that his time is near and that he has failed to meet the requirements of his king’s law. Furthermore, the rock now appears to be further away from the destination and much larger than when he first started. What do you suppose the boy should do? With certain death looming on the horizon, the only logical thing to do is to muster up all the strength he can and push even harder than before. Maybe if the king sees that he has been exerting himself he will have mercy. Or perhaps he should break the large rock into smaller pieces and at least succeed in moving certain parts of the rock to the hilltop. After all, accomplishing part of the task has got to be better than nothing at all. What if the town folk were mistaken and have failed to see that the blood which the king wears is not his own, but is the blood of another poor child who has failed to meet the decree?

Faced with our inability to meet the righteous requirements of God’s laws and certain of our own impending death, reason would dictate that the only logical thing to do is to work harder at meeting God’s law. After all, as we are often taught, if at first we don’t succeed, try again. As I said a couple of posts back, we are a resilient people and when faced with a seemingly impossible task, we are often rewarded for the amount of effort we put into completing the task- even if we are never able to actually fulfill it. Maybe our own hard effort will be enough to please God. Or maybe, rather than trying harder and relying on our effort to save us, we should just run off as fast as we can in the opposite direction. Maybe if we can’t escape God’s wrath we might be able to postpone it for a short while by out running Him.

(Now Randy as you requested… here is the folly of the cross)

Instead of trying to work harder at being good enough to appease God’s wrath we simply need to acknowledge our inability and trust that God will credit His own goodness to our account by receiving his offer. Rather than running away from a wrathful God, we run to Him- we run to the cross and we cling to Him because He is our only hope. We trust in His good character to not only pardon our sin, but to accept us with His good favor. This runs contrary to every survival instinct that we have. We don’t run with open arms toward the one who has the authority, power and the right to kill us. To do so would be folly. . .and yet it is our only hope.

~ by aaron on June 14, 2009.