From the Press

My greatest gain I count but loss

By Alister McGrath

This article first appeared in the Church of England Newspaper on Thursday 12 June 2003 and is reproduced with their permission.

I shall have the great privilege of speaking on the cross and spirituality at the National Evangelical Anglican Congress in September, and am humbled by the task. To reflect on the cross is to explore the most profound aspects of our faith. It challenges us to appreciate the double reality of human sin and divine forgiveness; it speaks to us of a God who entered into the darkest and most shameful parts of our world to redeem us; and it offers us a powerful and deeply moving reassurance of God's presence with us as we go through suffering in life.

One of my favourite illustrations shows Martin Luther, kneeling in prayer and adoration at the foot of the cross, determined to keep his life and thought focused on the crucified Christ. To kneel at the foot of the cross has always seemed to me the starting point for the conversion of our souls, the shaping of our lives, our yearning to speak the gospel to our world, and transform its sorrows into joy through our words and deeds.

In a recent essay, leading historian of evangelicalism Mark Noll comments on how evangelicals often best express their ideas, hopes and loves in hymns.

Noll points out how evangelicals have realized that hymns bring together the head and the heart. As I have reflected on the meaning of the cross over many years, I have come to realize how helpful Noll's insight is. Without in any way discounting the value of sermons or works of theology, he points to our great hymns as representing both reflection and response. They reflect what we understand the cross to be all about. And they help us respond to what God has done for us on that lonely cross.

Those great old hymns -- such as Rock of Ages, The Old Rugged Cross and When I survey -- remain wonderful statements of the centrality of the cross to our Christian lives. In my address, I hope to draw on the wisdom of some of our great hymns of faith, as they help us focus on the cross, and engage our minds, hearts and imaginations.

I know that I am unequal to this task, but take great comfort in the fact that I shall be drawing on the wisdom of those who have gone before me, and have found the cross to be the center and focus of their Christian lives. They express the power of the cross so much better than I can ever hope to do. As George Bennard put it in 1913: