Good Friday is Really Good!

Unlike the UK and USA, Good Friday is a public holiday in Australia -- and rightly so! Good Friday is good.

Here's a great vid for thinking about the cross.

After that check out Scot McKnight's reflection An Atoning Death.

And if you doubt the importance of the Christus Victor view of the atonement then go and sing a few lines from the hymn Christ Alone: "And as he stands in victory, sins curse has lost its grip on me!".

Happy Good Friday!

Theology of the Cross

My recently viva'd student, Jason Hood, has written a number of articles on the cross and evangelical theology. The first one is published in WTJ and is available on-line as The Cross in the New Testament: Two Theses in Conversation with Recent Studies (2000-2007). On the second one, Patrick Schreiner offers a good review of Hood's article on "Christ-Centered Interpretation Only?" published in SBET (2009).

Signing the Cross

Here's a patristic quote on signing the cross:

"Let us not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Let the cross, as our seal, be boldly made with our fingers upon our brow, and on all occasions; over the bread we eat, over the cups we drink; in our comings and in our goings; before sleep; on lying down and rising up; when we are on the way and when we are still. It is a powerful safeguard; it is without price, for the sake of the poor; without toil, because of the sick; for it is the grace from God, a badge of the faithful, and a terror to devils; for 'he displayed them openly, leading them away in triumph for force of it.' For when they see the cross, they are reminded of the Crucified".

- Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 13.36.

I'm not sure if signing the cross will heal people or keep evil spirits away, but remembering the cross from morn to dawn, immersing oneself in symbolism related to the cross, and eating bread and wine in memory of Calvary sounds like a good way to cultivate a cruciformed spirituality.

Paul's spirituality of the Cross

Today I preached at two services with the good folk of Culloden Baptist Church on 1 Cor. 1.10-17 and 1 Cor. 1.18-2.5. In my latter sermon I touched upon the centre of Paul's spirituality and the word of the cross with a quote from by forthcoming Paul book: "The lesson of Paul is that a spirituality that is rooted in anything other than the cross of Christ will inevitably become novel, then triumphalistic, then wishy-washy, then worldly, then trivial, and finally, dead. For Paul, Christian spirituality is not a private matter that takes place in the mental events of our thought-life but it is manifested in action. A spirituality of the cross means not merely wearing a cross but carrying one as well."