1 Corinthians 1:23-24 — but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

You may have heard or read about the sad departure of a long serving Pastor from a church on the East coast of Florida. It’s a tragic, often-repeated, story of a man of God who somehow got tangled in a web of temptation. 
It’s not my purpose, today, to focus on the old sad story. I want to pick up on something Tullian Tchividjian, Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church said in an article he wrote in the “Good News”, a Christian newspaper that Myra and I receive.
Pastor Tchividjian pointed out that “no vertical condemnation does not equal no horizontal consequences, but horizontal consequences do not equal vertical condemnation”.
The symbolism of the horizontal and vertical is used often to connect us to Jesus on the cross. Vertically, He is reaching up to the Father. Horizontally He is reaching out to embrace all mankind.
This is part of what makes the cross so scandalous to the Jews and so foolish to the Greeks. The idea that the Messiah could be crucified, and connected God through the cross was revolting to the Jews. The idea that God could be crucified and still embrace all humanity was ridiculous to the Greeks.
And now here comes Pastor Tchividjian to add another dimension to the symbolism. Now the direction of the influence is somehow to, and through the cross. The Son reached up to the Father. But now the Father pours down grace vertically through the Son. Condemnation pours horizontally from the world and is blocked by the cross. The idea of grace is folly to the Greeks, and the negation of law a scandal to the Jews.
But the cross is all these things to us. It is the symbol of the Father’s grace and the Son’s love. It is the symbol of the end of condemnation. That is the only negation in the cross. That is Paul’s peal of joy:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

By the free gift of Christ there is no judgment, no judicial condemnation, for those who have made the choice to take Jesus as Lord and Master.
None of this, as Pastor Tchividjian points out, will remove the horizontal, earthly, consequences of wrong-doing. The ripple effects of un-resisted temptation are terrible. The man of God who has gone astray has damaged his family and another’s, damaged his flock, damaged his witness, added fuel to the fire of those who would slander the church. And yet … There is grace.