Cross of Christ

Zach Shipman

Christ & The Bible

The Cross of Christ Book Review

12 November 2013

Book Review

I read 100% of The Cross of Christ.

In The Cross of Christ, John Stott explains how without the cross, believing in God would be almost impossible. It is the heart of the Christian faith. He confronts the readers of this generation with the centrality of the cross in God’s redemption of the world, which is now a world completely filled with pain and suffering of the past and present occurrences. From Stott we are told about theology and a modernized meaning of the cross. In this book, the author takes Scripture and ties it into Christian theology and the modern world.

In the first chapter of the first section, Stott proves that the cross should be the center of the Christian faith, both as a symbol and as a central doctrine. He does so by offering a survey of early church history, the life of Jesus, and the Apostles’ ministry. In all cases, he shows that the cross is central and the sign and symbol of faith because it was the purpose of the mission of Jesus Christ. He then explains that there would be no way that the cross would become a symbol of the Christian faith if it were not an idea of Jesus himself. He says that the Jews and the Romans both were terrified of crucifixion and would have never guessed that God would anoint his son to end his life on a cross. Stott goes on to show that from Jesus’ birth, his life pointed to the cross. He quotes that, “ …the cross cast its shadow ahead of him”. He later says that Jesus knew he was living in order to die and atoning death on the cross. The second chapter goes on to answer the question, Why Did Christ Die? He talks about the how the Roman leaders, the Jewish leaders, and Judas Iscariot played a role in Jesus’ death. After explaining about the three, he ends the chapter by pointing the finger to us. Christ died voluntarily for the sake of us. In this chapter Stott says one of his best-known...