John Stott on Jesus:
I could never myself believe in a God, if it were not for the cross.  The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as "God on the cross."  In a real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?  I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.  But each time after a while I have had to turn away.  And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from the thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerable thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkenss.  That is the God for me!  He laid asside his immunity to pain.  He entered into our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.  He suffered for us.  Our suffering became more manageable in light of his.  There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.  "The cross of Christ...is God's only self-justification in a world such as ours."