Christ without a cross... HUH?

This...

"A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment

through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross."

--H. Richard Niebuhr

...DOES NOT describe faith in Christ.

This..

Christ's work of redemption does not cancel the twofold aspect of God's dealings with mankind. He continues to deal with us in love or in wrath. For Christ's work does not imply the resolution of a conflict between differing attributes of God, as though God's love had overcome his wrath. Then the Word of reconciliation would simply mean the victory of God's love. But the work of redemption is much more than a process in the mind of God. it is an act of God. God acted when he reconciled the world in Jesus Christ. Christ has borne vicariously the sins of all mankind and suffered for the their sake the wrath of God. By striking him, God's wrath struck all mankind. So the word of Jesus' death is a word of condemnation (law). The voice of condemnation in the law forces all men into the fellowship of the death of Christ. Christ's continued work of redemption makes us die with him, for we stand condemned by the fact of his death for our sins. But he who submits to the verdict of the law submits to the wrath of God as did Christ. He belongs to the Crucified and therefore also to the Risen One. In the midst of death he receives life. To raise us with Christ is the proper work of God, or, as it were, the proper Word of God--the gospel.

--Vilmos Vajta in "Luther on Worship: an interpretation" p. 74

...DOES describe faith in Christ.