"The Bible and the Cross"

. . . [T]here is one fact which stares us in the face. It has sometimes been strangely neglected. It is the fact of the enormous emphasis which the Bible lays upon the death of Christ.

. . . [I]t is the death and not the birth that we chiefly commemorate in the Christian church. . . .

   Yes, I say, thank God for the Christmas season; thank God for the softening that it brings to stony hearts; thank God for the recognition that it brings for the little children whom Jesus took into His arms; thank God even for the strange, sweet sadness that it brings to us together with its joys, as we think of the loved ones who are gone. . . .

   But, after all, my friends, it is not Christmas that is the greatest anniversary in the Christian church. It is not the birth of Jesus that the church chiefly celebrates, but the death.

   Did you know that long centuries went by in the history of the church before there is any record of the celebration of Christmas? Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King—that is, at some time before 4 BC, when Herod died. Not till centuries later do we find evidence that the church celebrated any anniversary regarded as the anniversary of His birth.

   Well, then, if that is so with regard to the commemoration of Jesus’ birth, how is it with regard to the commemoration of His death? Was the commemoration of that also so long postponed? Well, listen to what is said on that subject by the apostle Paul. “For as often as ye eat this bread,” he says, “and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” That was written only about twenty-five years after the death of Christ and after the founding of the church in Jerusalem. Even in those early days the death of Christ was commemorated by the church in the most solemn service in which it engaged—namely, in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

   Indeed that commemoration of the death of Christ was definitely provided for by Jesus Himself. “This cup is the New Testament in my blood,” said Jesus: “this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” In those words of institution of the Lord’s Supper,  Jesus carefully provided that His church should commemorate His death.

      Thus the Bible makes no definite provision for the commemoration of the birth of Jesus, but provides in the most definite and solemn way for the commemoration of His death.

   What is the reason for that contrast, which at first sight might seem to be very strange? I think the answer is fairly clear. The birth of Jesus was important not in itself but because it made possible His death. Jesus came into this world to die, and it is to His death that the sinner turns when He seeks salvation for his soul. Truly, the familiar hymn is right when it says about the Cross of Christ:

 “All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.”

 The whole Bible centres in the story of the death of Christ. The Old Testament looks forward to it; the New Testament looks back upon it; and the truly Biblical preacher of the gospel says always with Paul: “I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

 ~ ~ ~

 The above article is an excerpt from J. Gresham Machen, “The Bible and the Cross.” God Transcendent and Other Sermons. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949, pages 185-87. Machen  (1881-1937) was a New Testament Scholar and author of New Testament Greek, a work used extensively in Christian colleges and universities.