Over time, humans have been persuaded to have justice systems based on laws they hope are just, and justice has become in some respects something universally agreed, although each country or state has a variation of it. This persuasion took two thousand years of debate. Yet the simple cross symbol says it all. The ultimate judge is the God who has revealed Himself, and the cross reveals God most fully, both as truly just requiring sin be paid for, and lovingly merciful, sending His Son to pay for it on your behalf and mine, and to give us sayings by which to learn to behave justly so we need not be ultimately condemned. Of course, Christianity did not invent justice, but it brought the possibility of having a genuine knowledge of the just God who ultimately judges all, and of knowing how to live to please Him and not be ultimately condemned. The cross reaches the heart and opens it to this knowledge and love. The Father, God, reveals Himself. Jesus His Son reveals himself too, as risen from the dead. This confirms our persuasion as humans that death does not make us cease to exist, but something remains, a soul, which can be raised from the dead, as the same person who died, even after a long time being dead. In the case of Jesus we remember it is the gospel that he was dead a few days before rising from the dead, and now he lives forever, with God who sent him.
