One reason is that since I lead our church through communion each month, I need to read things that keep the truth of the cross fresh and exciting to me. But the most significant reason is that we are people of the cross. We have no message apart from the cross. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving? There is no meaning for any of those holidays apart from the cross. Sunday? No meaning without the cross. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday? All senseless without the cross.
So when I go to the bookstore or find a new book catalog, one place I always go is the Christology section. Will there be something new that will stimulate my mind and move my heart into greater Christlikeness and love for Christ?
And that is why I was intrigued to see a new book by R. C. Sproul on the cross.
The Truth of the Cross has just been released and it is another helpful book by Sproul. It is shorter (167 pp.), in a smaller format, and more conversational in its tone than some of his other writings — making it more accessible to a wider audience.
The book has ten chapters, all centered around the great themes of the cross. Among the chapter titles are:
- The Necessity of an Atonement
- The Just God
- Debtors, Enemies, and Criminals
- The Saving Substitute
- A Secure Faith
I am drawn to this book for a number of reasons:
- the simple and clear explanations of the intricacies of the cross. The cross is simple enough a child can understand it; yet that simplicity should not be confused with a lack of depth and richness. This book elucidates that richness.
- the use of exposition to explain these truth throughout the book (he not only provides theological arguments, but also Biblical arguments and explanations).
- concise definitions of theological terms, multiple extended illustrations in virtually each chapter, making the truths come alive for the reader. So an extended explanation of expiation and propitiation helps the reader understand that while related in that they both look to the ransom paid on the cross, expiation refers to the act of ransom, and propitiation refers to the one who receives the ransom and His attitude towards the ransomed person.
- the "quotability" of the book. In each chapter, I marked several sections to copy and place in my illustration files, meaning my "communion" file is now expanded by at least a couple dozen more concise statements about the cross.
- the repeated affirmations of the importance of the cross. For instance, "if you take away the substitutionary atonement, you empty the cross of its meaning and drain all the significance out of the passion of our Lord Himself. If you do that, you take away Christianity itself" [p. 81].
- the relationship of each chapter to the others, demonstrating how the various truths are linked to one another.
Of particular help in this last regard was the chapter, "Debtors, Enemies, and Criminals." Of all the reasons that people don't respond to the cross and the gospel, perhaps the most significant is that they do not understand their need for salvation. I've often said to a friend, "that person has to get lost before he can get saved," meaning that the person in question still refuses to understand the depth of his sinfulness and his utter inability to offer anything commendable to God to produce God's satisfaction. He is dependent on God for salvation, but he doesn't know it. This chapter expounds that doctrine wonderfully and fully. At the beginning of the chapter Sproul writes this:
"Sin is cosmic treason." With those words, I [am] trying to communicate the seriousness of human sin. We rarely take the time to think through the ramifications of our sin. We fail to realize that in even the slightest sins we commit, such as little white lies or other peccadilloes, we are violating the law of the Creator of the universe. In the smallest sin we defy God’s right to rule and to reign over His creation. Instead, we seek to usurp for ourselves the authority and the power that belong properly to God. Even the slightest sin does violence to His holiness, to His glory, and to His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is truly an act of treason against the cosmic King. [p. 32]
There remain two detractions to this book. The first of these is actually more of a desire than a detraction. Upon completing the book, I was left wanting more. Like a good roller coaster or ice cream cone, I wanted one more turn and one more bite — "give me more," was my desire.
The second significant detraction relates to the chapter, "A Secure Faith," his explanation of limited atonement. The weakness of that chapter is the lack of Biblical exegesis and exposition to support his thesis, which is (ironically) a strength of the rest of the book. He relies too heavily in the final chapter on his theological system and places too great of an emphasis on limited atonement. Even Wayne Grudem notes,
Although Reformed people have sometimes made belief in particular redemption a test of doctrinal orthodoxy, it would be healthy to realize that Scripture itself never singles this out as a doctrine of major importance, nor does it once make it the subject of any explicit theological discussion. Our knowledge of the issue comes only from incidental references to it in passages whose concern is with other doctrinal or practical matters. In fact, this is really a question that probes into the inner counsels of the Trinity and does so in an area in which there is very little direct scriptural testimony — a fact that should cause us to be cautious. [p. 603]
Additionally, I was left wondering, "is this really one of the most significant aspects of the cross? Was there not some other aspect of the cross that deserved more significant explanation than this topic?"
That being said, this is a book that I will read and use repeatedly. It is probably not my favorite book on the cross, but it is one I am glad to own.
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