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'Why the Cross?' sermon

My sermon on Romans 3:21-26 is here.  Audio is here.

I preached on 'Why the Cross?' on Sunday.  Thanks to all who gave help to this sermon.

In the end I guess I did a version of an old style law-gospel talk.  Basically it ran - sin is very serious, thank Christ for atonement.

Now I'm aware that such a shape to preaching has both a long pedigree and a number of dangers.  The dangers of this kind of preaching seem to me to be:

  • Sin tends to be defined merely as transgression and almost never considered christologically
  • It can sound like there's something called 'Justice' which forces God to punish sin
  • It can sound quite impersonal (even if you accept Christ it can be more 'Whoopee I have a pardon' rather than 'Hallelujah I have the Son!') 
  • All in all, it can be, ironically, less than christocentric

But bearing in mind these pit-falls, there is much to commend such an approach.  And I had a go!

Check it out here if you like.

Do you think my fears of law-gospel preaching are unfounded/insurmountable/irrelevant? 

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0 thoughts on “'Why the Cross?' sermon

  1. yemsee

    just an off the head random suggestion
    how about why the cross from within the Trinity?

    The Father - I will 'perfect' my Son & He will be revealed to His bride

    The Son - I will reveal my Father to my bride and then will praise Him in one flesh with me

  2. glenscriv

    The Son to the Father:

    The Son as Beloved
    The Son as free
    The Son as Heir
    The Son as Other to the Father
    The Son as Image of the Father
    The Son as obedient
    The Son as Glory of the Father

    The Son to His Bride:

    The Son as Bridegroom
    The Son as Redeemer
    The Son as Inheritance
    The Son as Mediator
    The Son as Revealer
    The Son as Lord
    The Son as Glory of Israel

    Therefore the Son as Mediator is:

    Prophet
    Prince
    Priest

    AND SO...

    LAMB

    (I've got my nose in Revelation at the moment, hence sevenfoldness is eeking out. And nothing makes much sense either!!)

  3. Pingback: A thousand posts in a thousand words « Christ the Truth

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