A BEELINE FROM THE CROSS

Posted on May 25, 2021 in BLOG |

A Beeline from the Cross C.H. Spurgeon supposedly said that he took his text and made a “beeline to the cross.” The purpose of every sermon, then, should be to preach the cross. There is no evidence that Spurgeon ever said these words, but they represent a common viewpoint used to justify a singular purpose for all preaching.[i] Every sermon has one purpose, in this view, and that purpose is to lead people to Christ on the cross. Every individual Scripture text intends to point us in some way to redemption in Christ.[ii]

Is this what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16-4:4? No, not at all. Heralding the word (2 Tim. 4:2) means equipping the saints for “every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17). The training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16) starts with the cross but does not end at the cross. Sermons become predictable when every sermon must end at the cross.[iii]

FOUNDATION VS. HOUSE

The purpose of pastoral preaching is far greater and much higher than justification by faith. Christ on the cross is the foundation for Christlikeness in our lives, but the foundation is not the house. We cannot build the spiritual house apart from the foundation of Christ on the cross, but the foundation exists for the house, not the house for the foundation. Each passage of Scriptures warns, instructs, and urges us to live Christlike lives because of what Christ did for us on the cross. We need to preach each unit of thought in the Bible according to the purpose of each one, not springboard to the atonement every time.

John Piper, as only he can, put it this way:

“The primary reason for rejecting preaching that makes a beeline to the cross … is that it diminishes the glory of the cross. … The beeline in the Bible is in the other direction. Christ died so that we would make a beeline from the cross to the resurrection to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the giving of Scripture to the blood-bought miracle of new birth to the mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory, to the beauties of Christ-permeating, Christ-exalting self-control and sober-mindedness and love and hospitality without grumbling.”[iv]

The purpose of pastoral preaching is the sanctification of His saints because of the justification by His blood.

THE GOAL OF PASTORAL PREACHING

Spiritual maturity is our goal. Paul expressed it perfectly in Colossians 1:28-29.

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

The goal of pastoral preaching is to “present every man complete in Christ.” God is in the business of transforming people into the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 3:2). Our goal in preaching should be nothing less.

A Christlike life begins with the cross. Without the death of Christ, there can be no life in Christ. All transformational preaching begins with the cross, but it does not end at the cross. When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” Paul was not saying that the only topic he ever preached about was the cross. Obviously, that is not true. The rest of first and second Corinthians shows us that Paul talked about many pastoral and theological topics in his preaching ministry. What he is saying is that the cross is the basis for all Christian living. A Christlike life begins at the cross, but it does not end there.

RESURRECTION LIFE PREACHING

Paul did not preach a justification-only message, and we should not either. Justification, what Christ did for us on the cross, leads to sanctification, what Christ does for us in the resurrection. Paul develops this fully in Romans 5 and 6. In Romans 5, he is talking about the cross as the means of justification. God justified us in Christ on the cross. In Romans 6, he is talking about the resurrection. God raised us in Christ to new life. The old man, the unregenerate man, died with Christ on the cross and a whole new person rose with Christ from the dead (Rom. 6:1-11). We are to “consider ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). The remainder of Romans is about living in Christ because we died with Christ. The cross is the basis for the Christian life, but it is not the goal of the Christian life. Christlikeness is the goal for our lives and our preaching. Pastoral preaching is resurrection life preaching.

Brothers, let us not make a beeline to the cross in every text. Let us make a beeline from the cross to the image of Christ we should exhibit in our lives. Because of the work of Christ on the cross, we call people to demonstrate the qualities of Christ in life – faith, moral excellence, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Peter 1:3-11). God-dependent transformational preaching leads people to grow into Spirit-directed little Christs in this world. Nothing less must be our goal in pastoral preaching.

[i] Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix, Progress in the Pulpit: How to Grow in Your Preaching, Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2017, 107; John Piper, Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2018, 233.

[ii] R. Albert Mohler, Jr., He is not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World, Chicago, Moody Press, 2008, Location 1297; G.K. Beale, “Finding Christ in the Old Testament,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Volume 63, No. 1 March 2020, 45-47.

[iii] Piper, Expository Exultation, 232-233.

[iv] Piper, Expository Exultation, 234.