Jesus Christ - Scandalous: the cross and resurrection of Jesus

What happens when one of the worlds preeminent theologians expounds on some of the Bibles prominent texts? This book.

MARK DRISCOLL, Pastor, Mars Hill Church, Seattle;
President, Acts 29 Church Planting Network

Don Carsons clarity in communicating Scripture is a great gift, and in this book, he gives it to us. This professor can preach! These are model messages on crucial passages. They are delicious meditations that instruct our minds and feed our souls. Biblical contentstraight, ripped, hard, solidthis is what Carson gives us about Christs cross and resurrection. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.

MARK DEVER, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church,
Washington DC

This is vintage Carsoninformed exegesis and engaging exposition, theologically rich and devotionally warm, lucid, insightful, probing. Gods truth glows! Don Carson shows us what the Bible is for, and his words make me want to preach the scandalous cross of Christ with greater passion.

BILL KYNES, Pastor, Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church,
Annandale, Virginia

There is no Christianity apart from the death of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Carson helps us to more clearly understand the passion of the cross and the triumph of the resurrection. What a gift to every follower of Christ. As you read through these pages you will be moved to worship the Lamb that was slain!

CRAWFORD W. LORITTS JR., author; speaker; Senior Pastor,
Fellowship Bible Church, Roswell, Georgia.

Don Carson has provided a rich, thoughtful, and theologically honest introduction of the person and work of Jesus. With the biblical fidelity, clarity, and wisdom we have come to expect from his writings, Carson provides a treatment of the ironies of the cross not merely as a literary device but as a powerful analysis of the subversive, upside-down nature of the cross; namely, the powerful, redeeming, trusting king of the universe becoming a powerless, marginalized, and crucified savior. He believes that Jesus cried this cry, My God! I am forsaken! so that for all eternity we will not have to. We are grateful for Carsons fruitful labors in showing us the irony of the mocked king who really is the King, not only for the Jews but also for the entire world.

STEPHEN T. UM, Senior Minister, Citylife Presbyterian Church,
Boston; President, Center for Gospel Culture

SCANDALOUS

Other Re:Lit Books:

Re:Lit: Vintage Jesus:
Vintage Jesus
Vintage Church
Death by Love
Religion Saves
Doctrine

Re:Lit: A Book Youll Actually Read
On Church Leadership
On the New Testament
On the Old Testament
On Who Is God?

Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

Copyright 2010 by D. A. Carson

Published by Crossway
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Art Direction and Design: Patrick Mahoney of The Mahoney Design Team

First printing 2010

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-1125-7

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-1126-4

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-1127-1

EPub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2378-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carson, D. A.
Scandalous : the cross and resurrection of Jesus / D. A. Carson.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-4335-1125-7 (tpb)
1. Jesus ChristCrucifixionBiblical teaching. 2. Jesus Christ
ResurrectionBiblical teaching. I. Title.
BT453.C28 2010
232dc22

2009030131

VP 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To
JoyJoy

Contents

Nothing is more central to the Bible than Jesus death and resurrection. The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago. Attempts to make sense of the Bible that do not give prolonged thought to integrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are doomed to failure, at best exercises in irrelevance. Jesus own followers did not expect him to be crucified; they certainly did not expect him to rise again. Yet after these events their thinking and attitudes were so transformed that they could see the sheer inevitability that Jesus would die on a cross and leave an empty tomb behind, and absolutely everything in their lives was changed.

However much the Bible insists on the historicity of these events, it never treats them as mere pieces of raw dataadmittedly, rather surprising raw datathe meaning of which we are free to make up for ourselves. It is as important to know what these events mean as to know that they happened.

This little book is a modest attempt to summarize not only what happened but also what they meanin short, to provide an introductory explanation of the cross and resurrection. I do this by unpacking what some of the earliest witnesses of Jesus death and resurrection wrote. The words of those witnesses are preserved in the Bible; the chapters in this book are explanations of five sections of the Bible that get at these questions.

Over the years Ive had occasion to unpack many parts of the Bible that herald Jesus death and resurrection. In December 2008 I gave these five addresses at a Resurgence conference in Mars Hill, Seattle. I am grateful to Mark Driscoll and the folks at the Henry Center for putting the conference together. And I am especially grateful to Andy Naselli for proofing this manuscript and compiling the indexes that make the written form of these talks a little more useful than they might otherwise have been.

D. A. Carson
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Then the governors soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. Hail, king of the Jews! they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

MATTHEW 27:2731

1
The Ironies of the Cross

Matthew 27:2751a

He was, on the whole, a very good king. He united the disparate tribes, built a nation, and established a dynasty. Personally courageous, he also built a formidable defense system and secured his countrys borders. He proved to be an able administrator, and on the whole he ruled with justice. As if that were not enough, he was an accomplished poet and musician.

But in his middle years, he seduced a young woman next door. To understand a little more how perverse this evil was, we must recall that this young womans husband was at that time away from home, at the military front, fighting the kings battles. Out of this one-night stand, the woman became pregnant and sent word to the king. He was a fixer, and he thought he could fix this. He sent a messenger to the front, asking the military command to send the young man back to the capital with an ostensible message for the king. The young man came, of course, but as it turned out, he didnt return home to sleep with his wife: somehow he felt that would be letting down the side with his mates back at the front. The young man merely slept in the royal courtyard, ready to head back to the frontand King David knew he would be found out. So he sent back a secret message to the commanding officers at the front, a message carried by the hand of this young man, a message that was his death warrant. The officers were to arrange a skirmish, with everyone in the unit except the young man given a secret signal when to withdraw. The inevitable happened: the unit withdrew, and the young man was left alone in the skirmish and killed. Shortly after, the king married the pregnant widow. David thought he had gotten away with his sin.