THIRD QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #2
JULY 11, 2026
"THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS".

 

The message of the cross stands at the very heart of the everlasting gospel. Conceived "before the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8), it was revealed immediately after humanity's fall. Genesis 3:15 contains Scripture's first proclamation of the gospel: "And I (God) will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

Overwhelmed by guilt, shame, and fear, humanity needed more than information—it needed the assurance of God's love. The promise of a coming Messiah revealed the eternal counsel of peace between the Father and the Son, whereby the offended One would reconcile the offender by bearing humanity's guilt and penalty. Since sin had fractured both humanity's relationship with God and with one another, the cross would restore both. To illustrate this plan, God instituted the sacrificial system, foreshadowing the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Paul affirms that Christ accomplished this reconciliation through His death (Ephesians 2:14–16).

Sin also disrupted the harmony of the entire creation. Adam forfeited the dominion entrusted to him, bringing the earth under the curse of sin. Thus, "The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together" (Romans 8:22). God purposed through Christ "...to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:20). 

Although Christ performed countless miracles, humanity would have remained under the sentence of death apart from Calvary. The cross is therefore the central message of Scripture. Christ became our Kinsman-Redeemer, bearing our guilt and securing our redemption. It is no coincidence that nearly one-third of the Gospel narratives focus on the final week of Christ's ministry. Likewise, the cross became the very center of Paul's ministry. Once a persecutor of believers, he had himself experienced the transforming power of the cross, as evidences by these texts:

1 Corinthians 1:17— “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.” 

1 Corinthians 1:18— “For the message of the cross is…the power of God.”

2 Corinthians 2:2—“For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

Galatians 6:14— “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ….”

The cross was not merely God's answer to the problems in Corinth; it is God's answer to the sin problem itself. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 13:4–8, “Love suffers long and is kind…; does not seek its own, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails!” Thus, the cross never fails.

For Paul, the cross is the supreme revelation of agape. Through it, salvation was accomplished, humanity reconciled to God, and believers transformed. Yet because fallen humanity judges by human wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5 is termed the "scandal of the cross."

The first three verses of Psalms 14 and 53 expose the universal condition of humanity: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt and have done abominable iniquity; There is none who does good [what is right ESV, GNT]. God looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Paul repeats this verdict in Romans 3:10–12. Since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” God “justified [us] freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood” (Romans 3:24,25).

Yet the cross offended both Jew and Greek. As Paul writes, “The Jews require a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (v. 18).

The issue was never the power of the cross but humanity's perception of it. To the Greek mind, a deity submitting to human suffering was the ultimate philosophical absurdity. The Jews, expecting a conquering Messiah, deduced from God’s declaration in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 that Christ's crucifixion was proof that He was accursed.

Yet Paul transforms that very objection into the heart of the gospel: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’)” (Galatians 3:13). Here God's infinite wisdom triumphs over human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:25), fulfilling His covenant promise:

“’For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, Who has mercy on you” (Isaiah 54:10).

Far from representing weakness or defeat, the cross perfectly satisfies both the justice of God's law and humanity's deepest need. Through Christ we stand justified—"just-as-if-I-never-sinned." Humanity is restored to fellowship with God, Who “Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father.”—Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, March 26, 1894. 

E.J. Waggoner captures this in “The Meaning of the Cross:”

“Why is it that ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin’? Why could not God save men without Christ dying?” With this question, you have touched the very core of the Gospel, and, in fact, the work of the creation, the secret of all existence…. Christ shed His blood because He couldn’t do otherwise and be Himself. It was in His very nature of things that He should die by giving—the giving of life—is the law of the universe. By that means, the whole creation came into existence, and by the same means it is upheld. The cross is not a unique thing, standing apart by itself, but is the expression of all law of life. It was not a thing devised by God after the fall of man, but the continuation of that by which man was created. It was not an afterthought, but God’s original thought, and the fullness of His thought from everlasting to everlasting. The events of Calvary are an object lesson to show mankind what God is continually doing for His creatures; in it we find the Fatherhood of God revealed….

The Cross is the demonstration of the power of God and of the inability of man. Jesus tasted death for every man. Through His death, we receive life. Let us state the case in this simple way: (1) Christ had to give life to the world; (2) To die was to expire, to breathe out; (3) Man has life by breathing in the life of God; (4) Therefore Christ breathed out His life on the cross, that we might breathe it in. Thus, we see that the cross was simply the revelation of the Creator at work, and in the cross we see God creating man, the breathing into his nostrils the breath of life.” —Present Truth UK, June 12, 1902.

The cross is also the foundation of the sanctuary service. Hebrews 9:11-12,22 declares: 

“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come…. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.…Without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 1 reaches its climax in the chiastic relationship between verses 18 and 24. The "message of the cross" is revealed as the "power of God," and Christ Himself is identified as both the "power of God" and the "wisdom of God." Verse 18 presents a striking contrast:

Line A: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,"

Line B: "But to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The same gospel that appears foolish to the world becomes the very power of salvation to those who believe.

"The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is [therefore] the great truth around which all other truths cluster. To be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary. I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption--the Son of God uplifted on the cross." —Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 315.

Christ Himself declared:

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).

Paul likewise affirms:

“As through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:18).

Therefore, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20).

“Although the plan of salvation calls for the deepest study of the philosopher, it is not too deep for the comprehension of a child. In dying for sinners, Christ manifested a love that is incomprehensible; and in beholding this love, the heart is impressed, the conscience is aroused, and the soul is led to inquire, “What is sin, that it should require such a sacrifice for the redemption of its victim?.... The apostle Paul…declares, ‘I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.’ John, speaking of the Savior, says, ‘Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin….

 

Men must come to Christ because they see Him as their Savior, their only helper, that they may be enabled to repent; for if they could repent without coming to Christ, they could also be saved without Christ. It is the virtue that goes forth from Christ that leads to genuine repentance.... Repentance is as much the gift of Christ as is forgiveness, and it cannot be found in the heart where Jesus has not been at work. We can no more repent without the Spirit of Christ to awaken the conscience than we can be pardoned without Christ. Christ draws the sinner by the exhibition of His love upon the cross, and this softens the heart, impresses the mind, and inspires contrition and repentance in the soul.”—Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.

Against the backdrop of the Roman Empire, where Caesar was worshiped, and the Pax Romana represented humanity's highest achievement, Paul proclaimed:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”  “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity…, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Romans 1:16; Ephesians 2:14–16).

Ellen White discusses a sobering truth:

“Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ’s agony, but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that were the sure result of separation from God—subjugation by their enemies, cruelty, and death—it is said that ‘his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.’ ‘In all their affliction he was afflicted: ... and he bare them and carried them all the days of old’ (Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9).’” —Education, p. 363.

To reject salvation is to resist the drawing power of the cross. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

The cross reveals both God's creative and healing power: 

“He had bright beams coming out of his side: and there was the hiding of his power” (Habakkuk 3:4).

“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

Christ is therefore everything humanity needs:

1 Corinthians 1:30 states that Christ was made “for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” What glorious news! Christ, in whom “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,”(Colossians 2:3) is ours also.

Christ—the great Center of the three angels’ messages, the everlasting gospel for a dying world, and the heart of the “Come out of Babylon” loud cry—is humanity's only hope. The central message is "faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely!" —Ellen G. White, 1888 Materials, p. 217.

In “The Meaning of the Cross,” Waggoner continues:

“It is all so simple, and yet so wonderful. We see the cross at work giving life and recognize that it is in the cross that we live, and move, and have our being; for the cross is the revelation of God creating all things, and upholding and restoring the things created…. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; and the preaching of the cross is to us who are saved the power of God. Romans 1.16; 1 Corinthians 1.18. But the cross means more than simply our own salvation; it means our union with God, the Giver of life, to be partners with Him in its bestowal on others; for, said Christ, ‘He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ John 7.38. The stream of life, which flows from God to us, is not to be dammed up in us; that means stagnation and death. We have done it already, to our great loss. Therefore, Christ is lifted up before us on the cross, that, seeing Him, we may be drawn to Him, and come into harmony with the soul, the law, of the universe. We are to learn that life means giving. We are to allow the obstruction which selfishness has interposed to be removed, so that, as the life flows out to others, new life from God may flow in.

‘Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.’1 John 3.16. He [laid] down His life that He might take it again. By giving it, He retained, thus showing us that whoever will keep his life shall lose it, and whoever will give up his life shall save it. “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.” Proverbs 11.24. This is the lesson taught by the cross. The seed that is stored away abides alone. More than this, if it be kept by itself too long, it loses the power of reproduction. We sometimes hear of wheat found in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, which, after having been hundreds of years in the grasp of death, was sown and produced a crop; but the story is a fable, for no seed can retain its life-giving power so long. Some seeds retain it longer than others, but the longest period that any known seed will retain its vitality if not used is thirty years. If it does not fall into the ground and give its life before that time, it must abide alone. So we, if we would live, must give our lives. By yielding up the best we have, we obtain more. The reward of service is the power to greater and better service. The grace of God brings salvation (Titus 2.11), not only to us, but through us to others.” —Present Truth, June 12, 1902.

This harmonizes with Ellen White’s view:

“To the death of Christ, we owe even this earthly life. The bread we eat is the purchase of His broken body; the water we drink, of His spilled blood. Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and blood of Christ. The cross of Calvary is stamped on every loaf; it is reflected in every water spring…. Looking upon the crucified Redeemer, we more fully comprehend the magnitude and meaning of the sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven. The plan of salvation is glorified before us, and the thought of Calvary awakens living and sacred emotions in our hearts. Praise to God and the Lamb will be in our hearts and on our lips; for pride and self-worship cannot flourish in the soul that keeps fresh in memory the scenes of Calvary.” — The Desire of Ages, pp. 660, 661.

She further declares:

“Hanging upon the cross, Christ was the gospel. Now we have a message, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.’ John 1:29. Will not our church members keep their eyes fixed on a crucified and risen Saviour?” —Manuscript 49, 1898.

The message of the cross does not end at Calvary; it extends throughout eternity. 

“God’s wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which “angels desire to look,” and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which “seeketh not her own” has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 19, 20.

Calvary forever vindicated God’s character and revealed Lucifer as the true originator of sin and all its misery. Therefore, “Affliction will not rise up a second time” (Nahum 1:9)!

Jeremiah summarizes this gospel appeal:

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight.’” (Jeremiah 9:23,24).

—Rey Forde