not the perfect life of Christ, formed the heart of the apostolic gospel message (1 Cor. 15:3, 4; Acts 2:23, 24; 3:15). The apostles did not see the significance of Christ as that of being a superb teacher, but of being a great Savior—a Savior who died for our sins that we might partake of His righteousness. That message changed the world. The centrality of the cross to Christianity led Moltmann to declare that “in Christianity the cross is the test of everything which deserves to be called Christian.”46
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