LENT DEVOTIONAL: The Cross of Christ

This year, during the Lent season we would like to challenge you to take an extra step to focus on Christ, His perfect life, His atoning death, and what exactly that means for you as a Christian.

For the 40 days of Lent — not including Sundays — we will be using John Stott’s The Cross of Christ as a devotional guide through the Lenten season. Stott’s book is one of the most comprehensive but approachable works on the theology of the cross. It thoroughly goes through the aspects of the atonement as well as what they practically mean for the Christian. Each day of Lent we will post a new devotion on the church blog with this format:

READ — Each devotion starts with a scripture, followed by an excerpt from The Cross of Christ.

REFLECT — Every reading is followed by a simple question to ask yourself, to challenge you to apply what you’ve read to your life, not just your head.

REST — Each day has either a prayer or a line from a hymn to help you rest in quiet prayer. Anyone can follow along with the daily blog, but if you’d like to dig deeper, you can follow along each day in the book which you can order here (we’ll even tell you which pages to read). No sign up necessary, just follow along on the blog each day!


DAY 1 — 2.22 Ash Wednesday | The Centrality of the Cross

DAY 2 — 2.23 | Perspective of Jesus

DAY 3 — 2.24 | The Apostles Emphasis

DAY 4 — 2.25 | Persistence Despite Opposition


DAY 5 — 2.27 | Why Did Christ Die?

DAY 6 — 2.28 | Judas Iscariot, the Traitor, and Us

DAY 7 — 3.1 | Looking Below the Surface: Last supper in the upper room

DAY 8 — 3.2 | Agony in the Garden: The cry of dereliction on the cross

DAY 9 — 3.3 | The Gravity of Sin

DAY 10 — 3.4 | True and False Guilt


DAY 11 — 3.6 | God’s Holiness and Wrath

DAY 12 — 3.7 | Satisfaction for Sin

DAY 13 — 3.8 | Satisfying the Law

DAY 14 — 3.9 | God Satisfying Himself

DAY 15 — 3.10 | The Self-Substitution of God

DAY 16 — 3.11 | Passover and ‘Sin-Bearing’


DAY 17 — 3.13 | Who is the Substitute?

DAY 18 — 3.14 | God in Christ

DAY 19 — 3.15 | Propitiation

DAY 20 — 3.16 | Redemption

DAY 21 — 3.17 | Justification

DAY 22 — 3.18 | Reconciliation


DAY 23 — 3.20 | The Glory of God

DAY 24 — 3.21 | The Love of God

DAY 25 — 3.22 | The Wisdom and Power of God

DAY 26 — 3.23 | The Conquest of Evil

DAY 27 — 3.24 | Entering into Christ’s Victory

DAY 28 — 3.25 | The Book of Revelation


DAY 29 — 3.27 | The Community of Celebration

DAY 30 — 3.28 | Christ’s Sacrifice and Ours

DAY 31 — 3.29 | The Cross and the Eucharist

DAY 32 — 3.30 | Self-Understanding and Self-Giving

DAY 33 — 3.31 | Self Affirmation

DAY 34 — 4.1 | Self-Sacrificial Love


DAY 35 — 4.3 | Loving our Enemies

DAY 36 — 4.4 | Overcoming Evil with Good

DAY 37 — 4.5 | Suffering and Glory

DAY 38 — 4.6 | Mature Holiness

DAY 39 — 4.7 Good Friday | The Hope of Glory

DAY 40 — 4.8 | The Pain of God