Cruciform Vision
Recently, I sat down with Dana—my friend and one of the pastors on our team—and she asked me, “What do you think Paul meant when he said, ‘I know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified’?” That question opened up a new way of looking at life that I couldn’t keep to myself. What follows is the fruit of the revelation that sprang from our conversation.
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:2
At first glance, Paul’s statement sounds like a narrowing of focus—an intentional reduction to a single truth. But what if it’s actually the opposite? To know Christ crucified is not to know less, but to see everything more clearly.
The crucifixion of Jesus is not simply an event in time—it’s a revelation that transcends time. It is the unveiling of the heart of God, the nature of love, the shape of true power, and the mystery of new creation. When the veil was torn, it wasn’t just a curtain in the temple that split—it was the veil over human perception. In that moment, heaven didn’t just grant access to a holy place; it opened our eyes to a holy reality. A cruciform reality.
To see Christ crucified is to see the unveiled truth about God, ourselves, and others. It’s how we truly know Him. It’s how we know anything at all. Revelation doesn’t begin with insight—it begins with surrender. The cross becomes the lens through which we see all of life.
This cruciform lens reveals that:
God’s nature is self-giving, co-suffering love.
Power is expressed through humility, not control.
Our truest identity is discovered not in achievement, but in surrender.
Resurrection life always comes through death—through yielding.
Revelation 13:8 refers to Christ as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The cross was not God’s backup plan; it was the blueprint. The cruciform pattern has always been the shape of creation’s hidden logic. It’s the mystery that was concealed and is now revealed.
So when we look at others—when we lead, love, or even prophesy—we do it through the lens of the Lamb. We don’t just speak potential; we recognize the cross-shaped value embedded in each person. We learn to see gold in the dirt, worth in the wandering, beauty in the broken. The cross doesn’t just save us—it teaches us how to see.
We live in a world obsessed with veils: performance, pride, appearances, and power. But the veil has been torn. And what it revealed was not just access to God—but a revelation of the heart of God. A broken, bleeding Savior who reframes all things in the light of redeeming love.
To see Christ crucified is to see clearly.
To see clearly is to live cruciform.
And to live cruciform is to step into the unveiled reality of the Kingdom.
