The Scandal of The Cross

We must insist that the resurrection is nonnegotiable

It is one thing for a secular psychologist like Jordon Peterson to treat the God of the Bible as a fictional character. It is far worse when some so-called Christian churches do the same thing. In his book Religionless Christianity, Eric Metaxas says the following of the secularization of many churches:

[W]e must be supremely clear that [the events of Scripture] are also actual events in time and history. And this matters infinitely. We cannot relegate them to the merely mythical, as though they happened “once upon a time” – which is to say that they never actually happened at all. This is one of the ways that our “religious” instinct often deals with the parts we don’t like. It puts “religious” reality in a separate box from the rest of reality, as though our faith has no bearing on the rest of reality when, of course, the exact opposite is true. If our faith exists apart from the rest of reality, then it is meaningless. This is precisely what dead “religion” always does. . . . But real faith in the God of the Bible is exactly the opposite of this. It spreads into the real world in every dimension, because faith in the God of the Bible is faith in the One who called Himself Truth and who created every part of the reality in which we live.[i]

From the beginning, the Christian faith has been self-consciously grounded in historical facts. As Metaxas says, Christianity absolutely depends on actual events in time and history having happened. And as Lewis says, if those events did not happen, Christianity is worthless. The resurrection is the central event upon which it all hangs. Paul put it this way in a letter to the believers in Corinth:

Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.[ii]

Paul absolutely insisted that the actual resurrection was essential to the faith because “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” This is the scandal of Christianity. The English word “scandal” has its roots in the Greek word skándalon, which means something that causes someone to fall, a stumbling block. The Bible uses the word figuratively of the cross. To many, the idea that righteousness can be obtained only by faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus instead of scrupulous adherence to religious rules is a stumbling block (literally, a skándalon) that prevents them from believing.[iii] Though the doctrine of the resurrection is a scandal to many, all Christians everywhere have insisted on that doctrine for nearly 2,000 years. It is non-negotiable because it lies at the very core of the faith. The old Christian hymn captures the idea:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame[iv]

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name

On Christ the solid rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand

The cross is a scandal to Jordon Peterson. He cannot bring himself to believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and instead, he offers an ersatz Christianity stripped of its most basic and essential doctrine. This makes me immensely sad. As Metaxas writes, “The secular narrative needs to be boldly denounced not merely as false, but as a pernicious lie that has harmed billions of human beings throughout history.”[v]

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[i] Metaxas, Religionless Christianity, 9.

[ii] I Cor. 15:12-16.

[iii] I Cor, 1:23; Gal. 5:11.

[iv] In this context, the word “frame,” means state of mind, as in “frame of mind.” “So you see, brethren, you and I live for God according to a holy, high spiritual logic and not according to shifting and changing frames of mind or moods.” Tozer, I Call It Heresy!, 48-50.

[v] Metaxas, 137.