Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says that Christ sent him to preach the gospel. And what does that mean? Well, in chapter two, he then says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” So, there are a number of places where Paul talks about the gospel, but clearly there in 1 Corinthians 2, we’re seeing this, for Paul, is the heart of the gospel. And he’ll talk about that elsewhere as well. In 1 Corinthians 15, he talks about the things of first importance being Christ dying for our sins. This is the heart of the gospel, the things of first importance, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And the reason why Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the heart of the gospel is because of three reasons.
First, on the cross, we get to see the redemption of the Son. The Son offers a complete and full atonement for sin on the cross, enabling God—So, Paul talks about this in Romans 3:21, on how Christ is set forth as a propitiation, a complete atoning sacrifice for our sins. So that, Romans 4:5, God might be a God who justifies the ungodly because of the cross of Jesus Christ. God, by atoning for our sins in Jesus Christ is enabled to declare the ungodly righteous.
The second reason why the cross is the heart of the gospel is because not only is it the very central moment of redemption, it’s also the central moment of revelation. So, Jesus says in John 12, “When you have lifted me up, when the Son is lifted up,” He said, “that is the hour of my glorification.” That is the hour when Jesus is lifted up on the cross, when the One who is the very glory of God Himself is glorified, when His character is proved. If you want to see the character of the Son, and so the character of God, look to the cross and there you see a God you’d never expect. Who displays a power, you’d never expect a righteousness, a love, a mercy, a grace, a patience, none of which would you expect through the cross, we see the glory of God more clearly than anywhere else.
And the third reason why the cross is the heart of the gospel is because the cross is the moment the Spirit uses to regenerate dead hearts. So, in John 3, Jesus is speaking with the Pharisee Nicodemus and He says, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus doesn’t understand. And so Jesus goes straight on to say, “As Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up that whoever looks to Him who believes may have eternal life.” And so, He’s showing Nicodemus that the way to be born again to live, to come alive is to look to Jesus Christ on the cross. That is the source of eternal life. The cross is where we’re born again. The cross is where we see the revelation of God. The cross is the heart of the redemption offered by God in the gospel.
Dr. Michael Reeves is president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom. He is also director of the European Theologians Network. He is author of several books, including Rejoicing in Christ, Rejoice and Tremble, and Delighting in the Trinity. He is the featured teacher on the Ligonier teaching series The English Reformation and the Puritans and Reformation Truths.
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