Wednesday, 20 March 2019

BOOK REVIEW - The Cross of Jesus Christ. Authored by Pastor Chukwugoziam Onianwah!





THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST
ITS MESSAGE AND POWER
By Chukwugoziam Onianwah



The Cross of Jesus Christ: Its Message and Power – An Overview


This book deals with the most significant foundation of the Christian faith. It is not just one of the books because it is upon the subject it treats (the Cross of Jesus Christ) that the hope of the human race rests.  Moreover, this book is unique in the sense that it does not combine many themes of the Christian faith but addresses the most important one of them all.  The reader is not saddled with the responsibility of having to be sorting out the multiple plots and themes of the narratives before he or she can understand the objective of the book.  In other words, the author gets his mission right from the beginning to the end and there is no ambiguity in his use of language and message is passing across.  The illustrations through his personal testimonies as a believer in the Cross and practitioner of the Christian faith drive home his points and they are refreshing.  Through this book the author has succeeded in
educating the world that the Cross of Jesus Christ is more than a piece of metal that people wear on their necks as a decoration or a long crucifix being hung on the wall of living room as a sign of being Christian or being carried about in front of the priests during liturgical procession from Sunday to Sunday.  Its significance is profound, refreshing, assuring that with the Cross believers can live victoriously here on earth and in the world to come, eternal life.




The major weakness of this book is that it lacks citations from previous works on the subject of the Cross of Jesus Christ, hence it has no section of references.  It could have been more robust in scholarship if a chapter is devoted to the efforts of previous authors who did not only write but also believed in what they wrote on his subject of enquiry. The author sparingly makes references to one or two authors.  A more in-depth review of previous works could have revealed the gap which I personally believe that this book has successful filled when compared with previous writings on the subject of the Cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

However, this book is highly recommended to all genuine enquirers on the subject of the Cross of Jesus Christ and the Atonement which brings man back to God’s eternal fellowship.





Chapterization

In Chapter One, the author asks a question which the book answers satisfactorily.  This question is, “Who is Jesus Christ?” Every man must be able to answer this question personally and correctly.  Like Peter, one of the apostle, whoever gives answer to this question experientially is blessed.  Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. According to the author, the answer to this question is revealed by the Holy Spirit.  In other words no one can know Jesus Christ correctly without the help of the Holy Spirit.  This is the reason why Jesus Christ said we must be born of the Holy Spirit.  Other attributes of Jesus Christ is also highlighted in this chapter.  For example the author affirms that Jesus Christ is God who became man in order to pay the debt of sin which attracts death.  The author says, “The sacrificial death on the Cross is a symbol of the end of the consequences of sin, including death.”

In Chapter Two, the author puts forward another question, “What is the Cross of Jesus Christ?”  After making some general comments on the concept of the Cross by many scholars and Churchmen, Pastor Onianwah submits that the Cross is the place where the sacrifice and death of the Son of God culminated because the Cross symbolizes the totality of the suffering of Jesus Christ. According to the author, the events of the Cross was the fulfilment of prophecies concerning the suffering of the Great Deliverer as they were severally written in Isaiah and Jeremiah respectively.  These suffering also symbolize with all forms of hardship, agony, shame and death that every sinner would have suffered.  This accounts for the reason why God turned His face away from His dying Begotten of the Father – seeing Jesus Christ carrying the guilty of sinners.  It is the candid opinion of the author that peak of God’s love for mankind is the Cross upon which the God-man offered Himself to redeem the humankind.

In the Third Chapter of the book, the author discusses two great separations that changed the course of human destiny in two opposite directions.  The first separation is the negative one, caused by the sin which Adam and Eve committed and thus separated them from their Maker, the Benevolent God. The second separation was the like the first one but this time was positive in the sense that it dealt with the cause of the first separation when the Son, Jesus Christ, was momentarily separated from His Father for the first and the last time in the Trinitarian relationship.  According to the author, “The cross creates room for the miracle of our reconciliation with God, while Jesus dying on the cross opens up communication again between God and man.”[p. 70]  Onianwah lists eleven blessings of the Cross among which are removal and forgiveness of sin, removal of enmity between God and man, redemption, reconciliation, adoption, restoration of access to the Father, divine blessedness and total deliverance from satanic power and oppression.  By grace through faith, anyone can gain access to this blessedness in the Cross of Jesus Christ including unimaginable influencing the powers that be into godliness and good governance.

Answering the question that says: “What is the message of the Cross?” in Chapter Four, the author says that the message of the Cross is the information or the idea which the Cross communicates to the entire humanity. This information or idea when received, produces power to become children of God in the believer according to John 1:12 and consequently brings about the redemption of man from eternal damnation.  Unfortunately, this message of the Cross, more often, sounds foolish to the unbelieving minds according to 1 Corinthians 1:17-18.  Moreover, other messages of the Cross includes love, forgiveness, hope, all-round blessings including healing. Thus, the destruction of the works of the devil which was foretold by Jesus in John 10:10 was fulfilled and completed and victory and peace became the inheritance of those who believe in the Cross of the Lord.



In Chapter Five of this book, the author reiterates the power of the Cross as he attempts to answer the pertinent question on what the power of the Cross is.  According to him, the power of the Cross lies with the substitution of the Innocent with the sinner when the terrible consequence of sin was to be visited on the sinner.  But for the Cross, nothing could have appeased the anger of God for the sin of man which injured the honour of the Almighty God.  This chapter also illustrates the way we can demonstrate the power of the Cross.  These include the use of the name behind the Cross – Jesus Christ and confessing what the Cross is capable of doing.

As the author draws the “curtain” of his treatise on The Cross of Jesus Christ: Its Message and Power in Chapter Six, the closing chapter of the book, he announces the way to gain access to the Power of the Cross.  The first key he introduces to his readers is the key of salvation.  According to him, “Salvation is what qualifies you to benefit from the Power of the Cross…” [p. 145]. To gain salvation, therefore, one must acknowledge that he or she is a sinner and that the fellow should acknowledge the need for salvation which is obtainable only in the Cross of Jesus Christ.  The next step is for the fellow to repent of his or her sins with a promise not to go back them anymore.  Finally, the fellow must pray for God’s mercy and he or she will receive according to the promise of God in 1 John 1:7-9.





THE REVEW
Official Presentation will be on the 6th April 2019, at the Redemption Camp.

By Josiah A. Bolarinwa, PhD
Director of Research and Development,
The Redeemed Christian Church of God,
RCCG International Headquarters, Redemption Camp


Preamble

I feel honoured being chosen by the author, Pastor Chukwugoziam Onianwah, one of the Christian ministers in whom I am well pleased.  Ever since he graduated from the Redeemed Christian Bible College in 1995, he has been doing great exploits for Christ, the Cross of Whom he passionately writes about in The Cross of Jesus Christ: Its Message and Power. Washing my theological protégé’s feet through this means is a privilege I will never take for granted. A man of one wife, Pastor (Mrs.) Nzozi, he has a happy married life with a set of twin-sons.


General Description of the Book

The Cross of Jesus Christ: Its Message and Power is beautifully printed with Paper Back Cover, spot laminated with the a picture of a wooden Cross gorgeously adorned in scarlet. It is reader-friendly with bold print by GreatGrace Publishing  copyrighted in 2018.  The contents cover 150 pages with ISBN 978-0-9987461-1-1.  The book is written with references only in the Holy Bible of King James (KJV), New International (NIV), Amplified Bible (AMP), New King James (NKJV), New Living Translation (NLT), The Living Bible (TLB) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB) versions. After the preliminary formalities of Commendations, Acknowledgements and Introduction, this book is divided into six chapters with an average of four sub-titles.


From the Dedication, the author hints his readers on the truth he intends to pass across as he dedicates the book to Jesus Christ, who he describes as One “who gave himself for me and saved my soul.”  This is equally revealed in the Foreword to the book, written by Johnson Odesola who describes the book as containing insights into what Jesus did in order for them to be saved as well as equip the believer in Christ with requisite information in order  to share their faith in Christ with others.  In the same vein, one of the writers of commendations on the book, The Most Revd. Dr. Ignatius C. O. Kattey (JP), the Dean of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) contrary to some concepts that the Cross is a piece of precious metals used to adorn our necks, writes to say that, “The Cross was an instrument of immense suffering.  The victim of the cross was fastened by nail or rope with arms outstretched.”  This is to say that the price of the Cross was of high premium that paid for our sins. Another Churchman who writes to commend the book, Revd. Msgr. Dr. Pius Kii of the Department of Canon Law of the Catholic Institute of West Africa  referring to the book says concerning the book that “It is a rallying call on contemporary Christians who loathsomely reject the Cross and its varied implications as “not their portion.” [p. 15].  According to him, “The story of the Cross which this book highlights forewarns us all that God’s glory comes not by going around the dark valley, but through it.”




The author, himself, does not mince words right from the Introduction to tell his readers that the Cross is a symbol of suffering, mockery, degradation and its concept is foolishness to those that are perishing.  In spite of these, however, Pastor Onianwah affirms that this gory story of the passion and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross is the gospel message.








This information is published by Olamide Adenuga.

Lamide Adenuga is Nigerian, an author and an International Conference Speaker who believes that the right mentality can power anyone to success; an ideas man who is out to transform people and places he comes in contact with.
               
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