There has been much talk around these parts recently of knowing God primarily through Jesus. However, within that primary means of knowledge lies a further primary revelation of who God is. We do not primarily know who God is through an examination of Jesus' prayer life; we do not primarily know who God is by wrapping our heads around Jesus' ethical teaching; we do not primarily know who God is by marveling at Jesus' many miracles. As important as these things were to His life and ministry, it is the Cross to which we must look if we are to have a revelation of who Jesus is, and therefore who God is.
In his book with the snappy title, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification and Theosis in Paul's Narrative Soteriology, Michael Gorman makes the simple and yet profound point that God is cruciform. That is, God is shaped like a cross. Through this Ancient Roman method of capital punishment we find a definitive revelation of God breaking through.
We don't -- or at least I don't -- often think of the cross in such a way. Usually the cross is seen by Christians as an event -- the event -- through which sins were once for all dealt with. It is of course nothing less wondrous than that, but there is yet more. There is revelation to be seen at the foot of the cross. The character of God -- indeed the heart of God -- is on display every time we survey the cross of Christ. There on Calvary He showed power in weakness, glory in humility, love in pain. Moreover, this is what genuine divinity looks like. Jesus' call for His disciples to follow His example of servanthood in Mark 10 was nothing less than a call to theosis - conformity to the image of God.
"You shall be cruciform, for I am cruciform" is how Gorman paraphrases God's call for His people to be holy, because holiness is now to be understood in the light of the cross. Our response to this revelation is emulation, not merely by our own efforts of course, but by the power of the cruciform God who works within us.
My problem is that I don't always want to be cruciform. And yet in my clearest moments I realise that there is nothing more beautiful, nothing more powerful, than a life lived for the sake of others. This is the life of the Kingdom, and we see it no more manifestly than on the cross where the Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us.
In his book with the snappy title, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification and Theosis in Paul's Narrative Soteriology, Michael Gorman makes the simple and yet profound point that God is cruciform. That is, God is shaped like a cross. Through this Ancient Roman method of capital punishment we find a definitive revelation of God breaking through.
We don't -- or at least I don't -- often think of the cross in such a way. Usually the cross is seen by Christians as an event -- the event -- through which sins were once for all dealt with. It is of course nothing less wondrous than that, but there is yet more. There is revelation to be seen at the foot of the cross. The character of God -- indeed the heart of God -- is on display every time we survey the cross of Christ. There on Calvary He showed power in weakness, glory in humility, love in pain. Moreover, this is what genuine divinity looks like. Jesus' call for His disciples to follow His example of servanthood in Mark 10 was nothing less than a call to theosis - conformity to the image of God.
"You shall be cruciform, for I am cruciform" is how Gorman paraphrases God's call for His people to be holy, because holiness is now to be understood in the light of the cross. Our response to this revelation is emulation, not merely by our own efforts of course, but by the power of the cruciform God who works within us.
My problem is that I don't always want to be cruciform. And yet in my clearest moments I realise that there is nothing more beautiful, nothing more powerful, than a life lived for the sake of others. This is the life of the Kingdom, and we see it no more manifestly than on the cross where the Son of God loved us and gave Himself for us.
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