The Cross Before Me

Winner of The Gospel Coalition 2019 Book Award for Popular Theology

In The Cross Before Me, award-winning author Rankin Wilbourne and co-author Brian Gregor offer a provocative perspective on why the cross is God’s wisdom about the way to a good and beautiful life. Drawing on biblical truths, historical writings, and modern examples they ask, “What does the cross have to tell us about the art of living a fully human life? What if the things we’re most afraid of are the pathway to freedom? What if the way of humility and suffering gives us peace in a way our successes never could?”
 
The Cross Before Me is for anyone who wonders what the shape of Jesus’ life has to teach us about finding the life Jesus promises. This unique book helps readers reimagine the good life as they learn to delight in releasing power and embracing the cross as the only path to human flourishing.
 

Rankin Wilbourne is senior pastor of Pacific Crossroads Church in Los Angeles and the author of Union with Christ. Rankin and his wife, Morgen, live in Los Angeles with their three children.
 
Brian Gregor teaches philosophy at California State University and is the author of A Philosophical Anthropology of the Cross. Brian lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Meg, and their two children.
 

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1. The Cross and the Art of Human Flourishing . . . . . . . . . . 29
2. The Scandal of the Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3. Cruciform Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4. Humility as the Heart of the Cruciform Life . . . . . . . . . 101
5. Cruciform Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6. Cruciform Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
7. Cruciform Suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8. Cruciform Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
9. Cruciform Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255