The Cross of Christ

The Cross of Christ
John Stott
Inter-Varsity Press 1986

I first read this book on many aspects of the Cross of Jesus Christ by John Stott about 20 years ago, not that long after he wrote it in the mid-1980s. It was in the first handful of serious Christian books I read as an earnest young Christian in my late teens and as such it had a big impact on my views then. Re-reading it now with a lot more theological and biblical reading under my belt, I still felt this is one of the best books on the meaning and implications of the Cross available and it well-deserves the epithet "classic".

The book teaches the penal substitutionary view of the atonement though there are chapters that deal with the truths in the Christus Victor and Moral Influence theories as well. One of the strengths of the book is that as well as the theoretical side of things, Stott devotes a section to "life under the cross" and this section is really excellent.

Stott is brilliant in his expositions of Scripture and how careful he is when outlining the fact that Christ's death is both substitutionary and a satisfaction. It struck me how close some of what Stott writes is similar to what Steve Chalke got into so much trouble for saying in his book The Lost Message of Jesus. Stott equally will have no truck with crude versions of penal substitution that envisage a cruel father venting his anger on his innocent son. He points out that the atonement starts not with an angry God but with a God who so loved the world. He points out that on the cross God the Father suffered and the atonement involved God substituting himself on the cross and in a sense punishing himself in Christ.

This book deserves a place on the bookshelf of every Christian and can be read with much profit wherever you are on your Christian pilgrimage.