"If you don't make it to the cross . . ."

The following quote comes from an old post (Nov 07) over at Justin Buzzard's aptly named Buzzard Blog. Read it slowly and carefully, because it's something we need to remember always. Justin's topic here is Bible reading:

If you don't make it to the cross, you'll make your Bible reading and your relationship with God about your performance rather than about Jesus' performance. You'll gravitate away from the gospel and towards religion. Anxiety and fear will take the place of confidence, joy, and rest. Legalism will replace freedom. If your eyes don't catch a glimpse of the cross as you turn the pages of Scripture, you're likely to spend much of your day staring at yourself, wallowing in endless introspection, rather than staring at your Savior, delighting in his costly love.

Justin is talking about Bible-reading here, but I want to expand the theme to preaching. It hits home for me because yesterday I listened to a sermon about generosity. "Let us be a people of generosity," was the gentle imperative here, and all the relevant Bible passages were cited, but in fact we never made it to the cross. Jesus was expressly held out as a model of generosity that we would do well to emulate, but this was nothing more that the winsome legalism of today's be-a-better-you-Christianity.

So let me take Justin's words and substitute "preaching" for "Bible-reading." Now it goes something like this (altered text is in italics):

If you don't make it to the cross in your preaching, you'll cause your hearers to think that their relationship with God is about their performance rather than about Jesus' performance. They will gravitate away from the gospel and towards religion. Anxiety and fear will take the place of confidence, joy, and rest. Legalism will replace freedom. If you don't give them a glimpse of the cross as you preach, they're likely to spend much of their day staring at themselves, wallowing in endless introspection, rather than staring at their Savior, delighting in his costly love.

I think preachers make things difficult for themselves and for their flock when they fail to take them to the cross each and every Sunday.

Hats off to The Gospel Trust for directing my attention to Justin's powerful blogpost.