The atonement—Christ’s blood shed as the ransom for sinners—is the very core of the gospel. There is no good news without Christ’s sacrifice, for without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. To preach the cross means to preach penal substitutionary atonement. When a preacher says, “I am a gospel man!” he means—he ought to mean—“I am a preacher of the cross of Christ!”
But what does that mean? What did Paul have in mind when he told the Corinthians that he “determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2)? Does it mean that we incessantly preach narrow and shallow “Calvary sermons,” mindlessly rehearsing basic phrases and tropes?
By no means! Of course, first and foremost, it does require that we preach a crucified Christ as the sole object of saving faith. The penal substitutionary atonement of Christ is our good news. When pushing them back to the very essence of salvation, Paul asked the Galatians, “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (Gal 3:1). Such preaching means sweetly, intelligently, engagingly, inventively,
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