Under the Wings of God by Cornelius PlantingaSample

Day Three: Christ Lifted Up

Scripture: Psalm 121:1-2, John 3:14-17, 12:23-26

Christianity is the only religion that centers on the dying and degradation of its God. And glories in it! How peculiar this is! Why does Christ exalted on a cross become an attraction? How can the tortured Christ draw people to Himself, as John says in chapter 12?

The glory in all this suffering and crushing—the glory lies in a love so fierce that Jesus Christ lets Himself be mocked and maimed and hanged to suffer for the sins of the world. And the transformative power of faith in Christ’s love does its work. Yes, the cross attracts its share of coarse persons for whom the death of God is a spectator sport. But for all these centuries, people have also gazed at the dying Lord and found that they were pulled to Him like a magnet.

They have seen the Son of God at work, sweating and straining to redeem human evil by suffering the worst of it himself. They have seen the Son of God emptying Himself and taking on the form of a servant so that whoever looks on Him may live.

And we are strangely drawn to this. The cross is a magnet not because it explains the evils we suffer. It’s not as if in pondering the dying Lord we at last understand the death of little children, or the ravages of middle-aged cancer, or the suffering caused by terrorists all over the world. No, the cross explains very little along these lines.

No, we lift our eyes to the cross—where our help comes from—in order to see that God shares our lot and can therefore be trusted. We don’t understand God. We don’t want some of God’s ways with us. We are sometimes astonished by what God sees fit for us. But we do understand this: God isn’t aloof. God suffers with us, and somehow, in our deepest places, God’s own suffering awakens our faith, and hope in unthinkable circumstances emerges.

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Who would ever have dreamed that this is the way God saves?

Have you noticed Christ’s presence with you when going through hard times? Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, you are the friend of sinners, which means you are the friend of people exactly like me. Your willing sacrifice can only be called amazing grace. In your name, Amen.