“The Cross is Not Enough”

A Clarion Call for the Centrality of the Resurrection:

I would like to recommend a book by Ross Clifford and Philip Johnson with the provocative title of,  “The Cross Is Not Enough:  Living as Witnesses to the Resurrection.”  This book is calling the Church back to an emphasis on the Resurrection which they contend is the “lynchpin” of our faith. The following is a review I posted on Amazon. I believe the interconnectedness between our focus on the resurrection and the doctrine of  the “Ultimate Restoration of All” is astounding.

“The Cross Is Not Enough” (Our Review on Amazon)

“Until we refocus on the resurrection all the chatter about a new day for the church is paralyzed.”  (pg 15)

Strong words. I believe that recovering the centrality of the resurrection will be one of THE most important endeavors our theologians make in the next decade. Authors Clifford and  Johnson explain why. The Church has been lagging in its effectiveness due to its lack of resurrection-focused preaching and living. We have heard a considerable amount of teaching on “cross-centered living” but rarely on the resurrection-focused life that apparrently ignited the early church for the first 500 years (beginning with Acts which does not “unpack atonement theories” btw). The cross was not their symbol because it was not their focus. It was not, in their estimation, the “last word” in the Story of God. It was clearly the resurrection.

This book exposes how presently “there is much confusion and vagueness about how the resurrection connects.” (pg 48)

The Cross Is Not Enough because you can have the cross without a resurrection but the resurrection will always encompasses the cross. Therefore it is, as they say, the “lynchpin” of our faith. And this is not for apologetic reasons but because it is foundational to seeing how life works personally and as a faith community, and therefore for the world. Scott McKnight wrote his “A Community Called Atonement” but I reckon these authors would say we need “a community called Resurrection”!

The resurrection’s implications go far beyond that of the vindication of Christ’s atonement or evidence for the sceptic; it is the reality woven into the universe. It is the worldview in which we are to swim and breathe. Therefore, the authors contend, we need to see how its truth is found everywhere and draw our broken and dying world into it. It can then offer hope to a world that has lost its hope, in this world and for the next. But that very future expectation infuses our present with the hope needed to begin the renewal and restoration now as a foretaste and glimpse of what God can and will do for this universe. This is the “holistic” view of the resurrection the authors believe will be the way to a more holistic Gospel. This means a world more effectively and directly drawn into the heart of the Good News: Out of death comes life.

The authors ask, “If there is any kind of legitimate worldview, what would be the shape of it?”  The authors believe it will encompass who we are and what we love. We are shown how the resurrection connects very well with the stories and symbols present in our culture.  There are “God-given triggers to be found in myth, culture, and other religious stories” that point us and our world to the legitimacy of and inherent human need for resurrection.

This clarion call to refocus on the resurrection is one of several ways the Church is moving into the Story of God as He intended us to live it: as a cosmic Story of redemption and restoration encompassing all of creation. The cross-centered theology weakened the churches grip on personal holiness, cultural impact and missions. This profound book takes us through a thorough journey to see how and why we lost our edge and the multifaceted ways we can return to a robust community of believers who understand that the foundation of the universe resounds with resurrection!

A COUPLE OF KEY QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:

“By our lack of clarity and our failure to positively share the truth of the resurrection we actually help to create the sculptural space into which alternative afterlife views now pour”.  (page 48)

“We must place the Resurrection in the very front of our confession or we must lay aside our Christian name. Even in its ethical aspect Christianity does not offer a system of morality, but a universal principle of morality which springs out of the Resurrection.”  Quoting Brooke Westcott (page 221)

The Cross Is Not Enough/Amazon