Wide-angle view of the cross (part 1)

Yesterday I wrote about two ways of looking at the cross, both Biblical, and both essential. They are the close-up view and the wide-angle view. The work of the cross is a unified whole, but it's like a many-faceted diamond. It is personal, but it's also cosmic. Today and tomorrow I'm posting quotes from two of my favorite theologians expounding on the cosmic dimensions of what Jesus of Nazareth accomplished by his death and resurrection. I hope you'll find them thought-provoking and encouraging.

First up, here's John Calvin commenting on John 12:31.

The Lord now, as if he had already succeeded in the contest, boasts of having obtained a victory not only over fear, but over death; for he describes, in lofty terms, the advantage of his death, which might have struck his disciples with consternation. Some view the word, judgment (πρίσις) as denoting reformation, and others, as denoting condemnation. I rather agree with the former who explain it to mean, that the world must be restored to a proper order; for the Hebrew word mishpat, which is translated judgment, means a well-ordered state. Now we know, that out of Christ there is nothing but confusion in the world; and though Christ had already begun to erect the kingdom of God, yet his death was the commencement of a well-regulated condition, and the full restoration of the world.

Calvin on John 13:31.

. . . in the cross of Christ, as in a magnificent theater, the inestimable goodness of God is displayed before the whole world. In all the creatures, indeed, both high and low, the glory of God shines, but nowhere has it shone more brightly than in the cross, in which there has been an astonishing change of things, the condemnation of all men has been manifested, sin has been blotted out, salvation has been restored to men; and, in short, the whole world has been renewed, and every thing restored to good order.

John 12:31 and 13:31 -- two great verses to meditate on this week. And the references are easy to remember!

Quotes from Calvin, Commentary on John