2 Cor 5:19

The fifth in a series of seven sermons for the season of Lent

Luther’s claim: “The cross alone is our theology,” is simply an axiom based on the what the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor 2:2: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Why did God have to do it this way?  After all, he could have done any number of things. He could have said, “Be done with sin and death.” But this is what he did. And we have asked ourselves why.  This is the basic question.

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Romans 8:37

The fourth in a series of seven sermons for the season of Lent

Since sacrifice is gross, old-fashioned, offensive, and foreign to our culture, and since we simply don’t grasp it, and since there are all these images, a hodgepodge, a kaleidoscope of ways of speaking of the cross, what do we do?

Following Paul and Luther, we confess: The cross alone is our theology. The cross alone is our salvation.

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1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10

The third in a series of seven sermons on the cross for the season of Lent

The cross alone is our theology. The cross alone is our salvation. If we were to sit down and have a conversation about the question: What is the cross about?, one of us would soon say: He died on the cross to pay for my sins.

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1 Cor 15:56-57 

The second in a series of seven sermons on the cross for the season of Lent

If there’s no problem, there’s no need of a solution. If we look at Luther’s statement, based on Paul: The cross alone is our theology, we see the solution is the cross. Then what’s the problem?

A question that often comes up in confirmation is: What is the unforgiveable sin? Matthew 12:32: “Whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” This is like playing with fire. Could there be something God couldn’t forgive? Wouldn’t forgive? It is mentioned in Matthew 12:31-23, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10 (cp. Hebrews 4:2-6).

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1 Cor 2:2

The first of seven Lenten sermons on the theology of the cross

We are going to focus on the statement by Martin Luther: “The cross alone is our theology.” This does not mean the cross alone is important in our theology. This does not mean it’s the key thing in our theology. Rather, the cross alone is our theology. That is an astounding statement. It is not something Luther created in his novel way of doing things. He’s simply repeating what Paul writes: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). And in another way in Gal 6:14: “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Which then leads us to ask: What does this mean?
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