Can we penetrate into the deep meaning of the cross of Christ? T. F. Torrance tells us that we cannot think our way into the cross but only out from it. And we only think our way out from the cross with understanding as we view it from the resurrection side. And yet, even in this “understanding” we are confronted with mystery beyond our knowing.

The Spirit of Christ must open to us the mystery of the Crucified Christ by bringing Christ to us in living encounter. Only then do we see something of what his cross means. In the presence of the risen Jesus we see that his tragic death has actually conquered death. Sin reigns in death, but now we know that both sin and death have been defeated and we are liberated from their power.

As the Spirit opens to us the meaning of the cross it still remains hidden as mystery. As David Willis says, “the more we know of its hiddenness the more it grows in its hiddenness. And the more we are caught up in its hiddenness, the more we are encountered in its disclosive power” In this encounter we do not invent our own theories of atonement trying to gain mastery over the meaning of the cross. Rather than trying to gain mastery over the cross we gaze into the mystery of Christ crucified. In wonder we say, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”