The work of the cross is thus painted on a far wider canvas than the narrow concern about individualistic and personal salvation which is the sole preoccupation of many an evangelical pulpit. But in so far as these moves are a denial of our evangelical heritage they are to be rejected. In so far as they are an attempt to avoid the offence of the cross and in so far as they betray a quest for relevance in a culture which rejects, publicly at least, the idea of retributive justice and believes only in restorative justice, they are highly suspect. The message of the cross will always seem absurd to many. If evangelicalism is to retain its integrity the cross must always remain at its heart.
Evangelicalism ceases to be evangelicalism once the cross is no longer central.
Whilst we must strive for new ways of proclaiming it to our world we must insist that it is the place where a holy God dealt with an unholy creation through the substitutionary death of his only Son. We must insist that the Son did more than demonstrate God's love to us there, although he did that in abundance, and did more than merely influence us by his example to turn back to God. He effected a salvation for us we could not achieve ourselves and bestowed on us a transforming grace which we could could never. Unless we preach and, even more importantly, live the cross we have nothing much to offer our broken world. Derek Tidball is Principal of London Bible College and Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Religion.