History often appears random and uncontrolled. Nations rise and fall, rulers come and go, and human lives seem small in the grand sweep of time. From a merely earthly perspective, history can seem like a stream of disconnected events shaped by political power, natural forces, and human decisions. Yet Scripture teaches us to see history differently.

The Christian knows that the sovereign God is Lord over all. Daniel 4:34–35 reminds us that His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and Proverbs 21:1 teaches that the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord. Colossians 1:17 declares that in Christ all things hold together. This means history is not moving aimlessly. It unfolds according to the will of the God who rules heaven and earth.

If that is true, then we must ask: what stands at the center of God’s redemptive work in history? What is the great turning point toward which the ages moved and from which the message of salvation now goes forth? Scripture directs us to one answer. The cross stands at the center of God’s redemptive work in history.

From the Fall to the Cross

The story begins in Eden. Adam and Eve, representing the human race, fell into sin and plunged humanity into corruption and misery. Yet even in the moment of judgment, God showed mercy. In Genesis 3:15, He declared to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” From the earliest pages of Scripture, God revealed that a coming child would crush the serpent and deliver His people.

From that point forward, redemptive history moved toward the fulfillment of that promise. God called Abraham out of his homeland and made a covenant with him. Through Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons of Israel, the Lord formed a people for His name. He preserved them in Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness, established them in the land, chastened them through exile, and restored them according to His covenant mercy.

Throughout all these generations, the promise remained. The prophet Isaiah declared, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). He also foretold the suffering of the Servant who would bear the sins of His people: “he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). The history of Israel was not a random sequence of events. God was preparing the way for the coming of His Son.

In the fullness of time, Jesus Christ came into the world. He lived in perfect righteousness, fulfilled the Law, and went to the cross to save sinners. His death did not take place by accident or merely by the will of wicked men. Scripture teaches that it occurred according to God’s sovereign purpose, yet through the sinful actions of men. As Acts 2:23 says, Christ was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” and yet was crucified “by the hands of lawless men.”

At the cross, the Son of God bore the wrath of God in the place of His people. There He triumphed over sin, satisfied divine justice, and accomplished redemption for all who trust in Him. The cross was not a tragic interruption in history. It was the great goal toward which the promises, covenants, prophecies, and preparations of the Old Testament were moving.

The Cross in the Unfolding of History

After Christ’s death, the message of the cross began to go out into the world through the ministry of the apostles and the life of the church. The book of Acts shows us that God continued to govern history so that the gospel would be proclaimed among the nations. Persecution scattered believers, yet wherever they went they preached the Word. Acts 8:4 says, “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” What seemed to be hardship became an instrument in God’s hand for the spread of the gospel.

Again and again, the Lord used events that seemed disruptive or painful to advance the message of Christ crucified. Storms, imprisonments, opposition, exile, and suffering all became servants of His purpose. The cross was not only the center of the church’s message. It was the truth God was pleased to send forth through the unfolding events of history.

This remains true in every generation. The apostle Paul declared, “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23). That proclamation stands at the center of the church’s mission because it stands at the center of God’s redemptive work. The world may consider the cross foolishness or weakness, yet Scripture reveals it as the wisdom and power of God for the salvation of His people.

The Cross and the Meaning of Our Lives

This truth is not only theological in the broadest sense. It also speaks directly to the meaning of our own lives. Many believers can look back and see how God used unexpected turns, disappointments, losses, and interruptions to bring them to Christ or to deepen their understanding of His grace. A failed plan, a painful trial, a closed door, or a season of uncertainty may appear meaningless to us in the moment. Yet God often uses such things as instruments to bring His people under the sound of the gospel and to shape them according to the message of the cross.

If the cross stands at the center of redemptive history, then our lives also find their meaning in relation to it. We are not the center of the story. Christ is. We are not redeemed to live for ourselves, but to belong to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. The cross humbles our pride, exposes our sin, anchors our hope, and compels our witness.

The Cross at the Center

The cross is not a distant event buried in the past. It is the decisive act of God in the redemption of sinners. It stands at the center of His redemptive work in history. From the promise in Eden to the calling of Abraham, from the prophets of Israel to the mission of the church, Scripture shows that God has ordered history toward the glory of Christ crucified.

To understand history rightly, we must see the cross clearly. To understand our own lives rightly, we must see that same cross as our only hope. The message entrusted to the church is not a message of human achievement, self-improvement, or cultural triumph. It is the message of Christ crucified for sinners.

May our hearts be shaped by that truth. May our confidence rest in the finished work of Christ. And may we, in every generation, proclaim the cross as the center of God’s redemptive work in history.

Pick up Robert’s new book, The Call of the Cross: Beginning to Follow a Crucified King.

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