Why the Cross?

1 Corinthians 2:2

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. 2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.

Why did Jesus die on the cross?

1 Corinthians 15:3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

Mark 8:34-35

34 Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.

Why the Cross?

• The problem of sin is more than wrongdoing.  It is an infection that has so corrupted the person that we must be retrained how to think, to will, and to live.

• The cross is not just a wooden object or a place.  The cross is the context in which God uses the life of Jesus (life, suffering, death, resurrection) to teach believers a whole new way to think and live.

1 Corinthians 1:11-18

11 For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters, by members of Chloe’s people, that there is rivalry among you. 12 What I am saying is this: One of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say you were baptized in my name. 16 I did, in fact, baptize the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t recall if I baptized anyone else. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

1 Corinthians 1:28-31

28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one may boast in his presence. 30 It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption— 31 in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Cruciformity

• Living life in the shape of a cross

• "It is the ministry of the living Christ, who reshapes all relationships and responsibilities to express the self-giving love of God that was on display on the cross."

What does it mean to become like the cross, to become like the Jesus who died on the cross?

• Cruciformity is about a Person

• Cruciformity is about Dying to Live

• Cruciformity is all about Love