You don’t know how dirty your windows are until you clean them. Dirt and grime will pile up little by little, and because it happens slowly, it’s almost imperceptible. But then you clean the glass and look through. You’re amazed at how clearly you can see and can’t imagine how you saw anything through it before it was cleaned!  

In a similar way, the cross of Jesus cleans the windows of our heart’s vision. In the competing messages of the world around us, our vision becomes so obscured that we might not even realize how much so until we see through the lens of the cross. 

So what specifically does the cross make clear? At least three things:

1. The Cross brings Clarity to the True Problem.

We find ourselves living in an ironic time. Never has the world been so convinced that people are basically good,  yet never before have so many wondered what’s wrong with the world. The cross brings clarity to the true problem.

So what IS the true problem? 

• Poverty? 
• Homelessness? 
• Violence? 
• Dishonesty and lack of integrity? 

While the answer is yes to all of these things, the true problem is sin. Not just the acts of sin, but the state of sin in which we all live. 

We. Are. Broken.  

Our world is broken. And we see how severely broken we are at the cross. The cross shows us with stark clarity just how desperate the situation is – so desperate, so evil, so wrong that the perfect Son of God had to suffer and die.

2. The Cross brings Clarity to the Character of God.

As we look around the world, and even at the circumstances of our own lives,  we have all sorts of questions about God. Where is He? What is He doing? What is He like? We ask these questions not in a vacuum, but against the backdrop of school shootings, cancer, and global violence. But the cross brings clarity to who God is:

We see that He is a God of justice, for He is unwilling to compromise on the just punishment for sin. We see that God is committed to love, for He is unwilling to allow sinful humanity to bear the price for that sin. The cross is the window through which we see God’s character demonstrated; it is the stake in the ground by which we can say, “This is who God is,” regardless of what other people say or what circumstances befall us.

3. The Cross brings Clarity to the Future.

The cross was not the end. No, my friend, not even close. Jesus died, and Jesus rose and is gloriously alive today. In His life, we have life. It’s the cross and the resurrection that show us exactly where we are headed. Either we are headed to resurrection with Jesus, to reign with Him as forgiven, bought with His blood co-heirs, or we are headed to the ultimate consequence of our insidious rebellion.

Further, the cross and resurrection show us that creation is bending toward the recognized rule and reign of Jesus. There will come a day when every knee will indeed bow and every tongue will confess what the Christian already knows – that Jesus Christ is the resurrected Lord of all. 

This is the future. Your future, if you will only believe.

This Easter season, God once again reminds us that He has given us the gift of clarity, not confusion. Though we might still have questions about the days in which we live, of these things there is no doubt.

Written by Michael Kelley, Guest Contributor

To read more of Michael’s writing, check out his daily blog, Forward Progress http://michaelkelley.co/