By Ben Owens | April 18, 2025

There's something strangely compelling about the cross. As we recall this image of the Son of God lifted up for all to see--arms outstretched the world--it's clear that something beautiful was happening there. Something profound. The image has permeated our cultural memory. Even non-believers often regard the cross with a sort of generic religious reverence. We see crosses on jewelry, on hillsides, in cemeteries and we know they stand for something to do with God's love for the world. 

But there's an irony here. The ubiquity of the cross in our culture is a testament to the power and efficacy of what Jesus accomplished there. But a casual familiarity with the cross may actually obscure its real meaning. All of our notions of religious beauty and wonder would have been utterly bizarre to first-century Romans. In the time of Christ, the cross was the ultimate horror. There was nothing beautiful about it. It was "the extreme penalty"--a punishment so cruel that it was illegal to apply to Roman citizens. It was designed to ensure that the time of one's death was as painful and humiliating as possible. It was a four letter word (c-r-u-x), not to be uttered in polite company. In fact, it is this word that forms the root of our word, "excruciating."

So the idea of a crucified God was a scandal. It was unthinkable. It was disgusting. Any God who would fail so catastrophically as to be publicly humiliated in death was certainly no savior. Blaise Pascal attempted to recapture something of this when he called Christianity, "the religion of the humiliated God." It is striking, then, that the Bible makes no attempt to hide any of this. Nor does it marginalize its significance. The cross is not peripheral, it is central. Christianity is the religion of the God on the cross. 

Two related questions emerge. First, what is God doing on a cross? Secondly, how did the cross come to be remembered as a thing of beauty?

In Christian theology, the central feature of the cross is its vicarious nature. Jesus' death was not an accident. It was the reason He came. Jesus repeatedly predicted his own death, explaining that He had come to give his life "a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). The Bible describes all of us as sinners, guilty before an all-knowing God. God is the perfect judge and the penalty for sin is death. Which is to say, left to ourselves, we are utterly hopeless. But the cross is the story of the God who has not left us to ourselves. 

Jesus, who was in very nature God, "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). And this He did for us, "the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). The cross was a sacrifice--a payment--for the guilt of our sins. Before the foundation of the world, the cross was at the center of the Triune God's plan to redeem humanity. The Father sent the Son as Savior of the World (1 John 4:14). The Son willingly came, offering Himself as the sacrifice that satisfies the Father's just demands. The Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ's sacrifice to all who trust in Jesus. 

And so, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8). This is also the answer to our second question. The cross is a thing of beauty because it was there that Jesus willingly laid down His life for us. It was there that He took upon Himself the guilt, shame, and punishment that we deserve. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). 

Lofty language, you may say. But how could we ever know whether it's true? The earthly powers who murdered Jesus had their own goals, quite distinct from the Father's master plan. But what they did not anticipate is that they would be unable to keep Him dead. Three days later, Jesus would appear to His disciples alive from the grave. And the men who had just been cowering in fear were so convinced of this that they were willing to proclaim it to the faces of the rulers who had condemned Jesus to die.  

And what of all the early converts to Christianity? Within twenty five years of Jesus' death, the Mediterranean world was already peppered with growing Christian congregations. What could convince these people--who hadn't seen the risen Christ--to willingly endure their neighbors' mockery of the crucified God? The simple fact that the gospel "is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). 

Though they had not seen the risen Christ, they had experienced His transforming power. This is why Paul reminds the Ephesians that to trust in Jesus is to experience “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,” (Ephesians 1:19-20).

Two thousand years on, the cross has not lost a bit of its potency. It is still the means by which God saves all who look to Christ in faith. “For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame" (Romans 10:11).