THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
No. 1.-THE WORD OF THE CROSS.
"Here-in the ruin of my years-Master,
I thank Thee through my tears;
Thou sufferedst here, and didst not fail-
Thy bleeding feet these paths have trod.
But Thou wert strong, and I am frail;
and I am man, and Thou art God."-Lytton.
It has been said that "The heart of the world is Britain, the heart of Britain is London, and the heart of London is Westminster." The heart of Christianity is the Bible, the heart of the Bible is the Cross, and the heart of the Cross is the very heart of God: a heart full of the tenderest compassion for sinful, erring man; a heart that was bruised and broken while atoning for our guilt. Before we go any further, shall we silently ask the Holy Spirit to give us a clearer vision of this wondrous Cross, and a more real and deeper experience of its transforming power?
The Cross of Christ is at once the most awful and glorious objects ever seen by men or angels outside the gate of Heaven. In 1Co_1:18 we read: "For the Word of the Cross is to them that are perishing foolishness, but unto us which are being saved it is the power of God" (R.V.). The word, or message, of the Cross may not be heard from any single text of Scripture. If we are to receive this message in all the fullness of its significance we must hear the whole Word of God concerning it. The great message of the Cross is much misunderstood, because of the fragmentary fashion in which it is often represented. But no matter how fully the Gospel of the Cross may be preached it will still be to them that are perishing foolishness. How searching this is! It is a sign that you are perishing if you do not see the infinite wisdom and power of God in the Cross of Christ. The word of the Cross is God’s Word about the Cross, and His message of love and grace to us through the Cross. What a wonderful Word this is! Let us try to grasp its deep meaning.
I. The Word of the Cross is God’s Word concerning holiness and sin. I mean the holiness of the Sufferer and the vileness of sin for which He suffered. In Joh_8:34 Jesus said: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant (slave) of sin;" then in Joh_8:46 He says: "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" According to the teaching of Jesus Christ, sin and slavery are inevitably linked together. There is no true liberty where there has not been the breaking away from sin. "Christ did no sin," if He had, He would have come under its dominion, and thereby forfeit His Messiahship and His fitness to be a sacrifice "without blemish." He was holy, harmless, separate from sinners, yet this Holy One, whose character and words were revelations of the invisible and eternal God, bore our sins in His own body, and was put to death by "wicked hands" (Act_2:23). The holiness of God and the sinfulness of man have met in awful conflict in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: that Cross which reveals God at His best, if we might so put it, reveals man at his worst (see Act_4:27-28). As darkness can have no fellowship with the light, neither can the unrenewed spirit of man have fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God. This Word of the Cross then is the word of victory to holiness, the defeat and putting away of sin.
II. The Word of the Cross is God’s Word concerning love and sacrifice. When God gave His Son, it was not with any expectation that some way or other He might escape the cursed death of the Cross. God had no hope of saving men but by the death of His Son, so man has no hope of being saved but through the power of His Cross (Act_4:12). The Cross stands for the love of God the Father, and the sacrifice of God the Son. "For God so loved the world that He gave His Son" (Joh_3:16). Christ also loved us, and gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God (Eph_5:2). Our Lord’s own testimony is: "Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (not to be served, but to serve) and to give His life as the redemption price of many" (Mat_20:28).
The message of the Cross is the message of infinite and undeserved love. Only God could so love a world of sinners as to give His only begotten Son up to the death of the Cross for them. Only God the Son could so love us, while we were yet enemies, as to give His spotless soul a sacrifice for sin. "Herein is love;" herein is sacrifice. The sufferings and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the proof and expression of the intensity of the love of God.
"Inscribed upon the Cross we see
In shining letters, ‘God is Love’."
III. The Word of the Cross is God’s Word concerning righteousness and peace. Some of the early fathers taught that the redemption price offered by Christ was paid to Satan for the liberation of souls. What right had he to the souls of men, who was a "murderer from the beginning?" We are distinctly told that Christ gave Himself a sacrifice to God. The Cross not only stands for infinite love, but also for eternal righteousness, and for peace made, based on righteousness. "He hath made peace by the blood of His Cross." Infinite righteousness is infinitely satisfied with the infinite value of the life and blood of Him who was the Infinite One. Look at Col_2:14. "The bond (law), with its requirements, which was in force against us, and was hostile to us, He cancelled, and cleared it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross." All that was against us in the eyes of a righteous God, and that stood in the way of our reconciliation to Him, was nailed to His Cross: that is, was identified with Him or reckoned His, who suffered and died upon that Cross. So that "now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were so far away, have been brought near through the death of Christ" (Eph_2:13). By His Cross righteousness and peace have been made to kiss each other. Now the message of the Cross is: "He is our peace, who has made Jews and Gentiles one, and in His own human nature has broken down the dividing wall, . . . to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself, so as to form one new man, thus effecting peace, and to reconcile Jews and Gentiles in one body to God by means of His Cross" (Eph_2:15-16). Christ knew no other means whereby we could be reconciled to God than the "means of His Cross." Who will dare to say that the means are not amply sufficient for this end? Have you proved them to be so?
IV. The Word of the Cross is God’s Word concerning salvation and power. Look at the verse with which we began (1Co_1:18). "The word of the Cross is… unto us which are being saved, the power of God." The Cross is God’s symbol of His almighty power to save. All who believe in it, and abide beneath its shadow, are conscious of being in touch with the saving "power of God." As the safety of the Israelite lay in not going out of the blood-sprinkled house till the morning (Exo_12:22), so we are safe dwelling under the blood-sprinkled Cross till the eternal day dawns, and the shadows of sin and death flee away. As at the Cross the Lord Jesus Christ lost His life that He might save it in resurrection glory, so here also we must lose our self-life that we might find it anew in Him, to the honour and glory of God the Father.
The Word of the Cross is the Word of the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. It is God’s unfailing, ever-active instrument, by which any one may instantly, through faith, be lifted out of darkness into light, and be made a new creation. The influence of the Cross is like an endless rope encircling the world and the throne of God. Men, in all their helplessness and need, may catch on anywhere by the hand of faith, and be immediately translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. Anywhere and everywhere the Cross is the Power of God. Flee to the Cross of Christ, and you take refuge in the power of God to save.
Romanes was brought to God by discovering that Christ, many centuries ago, said nothing which the growth of knowledge has disproved. The wisdom of men or of angels shall never outrun the wisdom of God, as revealed in the Cross of Christ. "Christ Jesus has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness, and sanctification, and deliverance" (1Co_1:30).
No. 2.-THE DEATH OF THE CROSS.
"He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross" (Php_2:8).
"Ah, my dear Lord! What couldst Thou spy
In this impure, rebellious clay
That made Thee thus resolve to die
For those who kill Thee every day."-Vaughan.
The death of Christ is directly mentioned in the New Testament 175 times. All the great doctrines of the Bible, like never-withering wreaths, are laid by the Holy Spirit at the foot of the Cross. The Cross and the Christ are represented as One, because they were nailed together. To preach the Cross is to preach Christ and Him crucified. To glory in the Cross is to glory in that grace which, through death, has put away sin and slain the enmity of the human heart (Eph_2:16). The death of the Cross is the death of sin as a barrier in man’s way to God, and the death of death as the wages of sin. Our very voice needs to be sanctified to speak of such a death as this. It was-
I. A Shameful Death. For robbery or murder, the Roman slave was stripped naked and crucified. The Holy One, who was numbered with transgressors, fared no better than an abject criminal (read Joh_19:23-24). "They took His garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part, . . . and for His vesture (under-garment) they cast lots." They stripped Him naked, putting Him to an open shame; but so deep and strong was His love for sinful men, and so great was His delight in the will of God, that He "endured the cross, despising the shame" (Heb_12:2). To be hanged on a tree was to be reckoned accursed by earth and Heaven. It was also written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." He bore the sin and suffered also the shame, for sin and shame cannot be separated. Are you so ashamed of your sins that you have ceased putting Him to an open shame? (Heb_6:6). Oh, the shame of being ashamed of Him who was not ashamed to suffer the painful and shameful death of the Cross for us, that we might be saved from the power and guilt of sin, and the agony of an eternal shame. It would put a deeper meaning into that little hymn, "I’m not ashamed to own my Lord," if we would think more deeply into His shameful death on the Cross.
II. A Voluntary Death. The will of God was written in His heart. In His daily and hourly obedience to that will, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. Hear His own words as recorded in Joh_10:17-18 : "For this reason my Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life in order to receive it back again. No man is taking it away from Me, but I Myself am laying it down. I am authorised to lay it down, and I am authorised to receive it back again. This is the command I received from my Father." Can this be the death of a martyr in the ordinary sense? The world has seen not a few who had the moral power to lay down their lives, but where is the other who had power to take it again. "Destroy this temple," said Jesus, referring to His body, "and in three days I will raise it up." Is that the language of a merely "good man" about to suffer death for the truth’s sake? The fact that He had power to take His life back again, gives infinite value to the "laying of it down." His death could have had no sweet savour unto God as an atonement for sin had it not been freely and thankfully offered for this very purpose. Herein lies "the condescending goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ-how for your sakes He became poor, though He was rich, in order that you, through His poverty, might grow rich" (2Co_8:9). His voluntary death should never be disassociated from His voluntary life. His obedience was unto death, so that His obedience and death were one offering-a sacrifice which will have a sweet-smelling savour unto God through the eternal ages. Is there any sweet savour in it to your soul?
III. A Predicted Death. Better, it was the predicted death. The most original thought that has ever entered the mind of man is connected with the Lamb of God: the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ-"the Lamb who has been offered in sacrifice ever since the creation of the world’ (Rev_13:8). It was no after-thought that led God to give His Son for the salvation of the world. At the world’s very inception-whenever or however that may have been-the Son of God was given and slain in the purpose of God. Peter tells us that Christ "was pre-destined indeed to this work, even before the creation of the world" (1Pe_1:20). His death was the purpose of His incarnation. He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. You have but to study "Moses and the prophets" to find how clearly those holy men, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, saw the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow (Gen_3:15; Gen_22:18; Isa_50:6; Isa_53:3-12; Dan_9:24-26; Zec_6:12-13; Zec_13:6-7; Mal_3:1-3).
In Peter’s defence at the temple he, as it were, challenges the Jews, who knew well the teaching of the prophets, to prove that those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, had not been perfectly fulfilled (Act_3:18). At that glorious gathering on the Mount of Transfiguration, the only subject worthy of their present attention was "the death to be accomplished at Jerusalem." All heaven, earth, and hell was to be affected by that death. "O dull-witted men," said our Lord to those troubled ones He met on the way to Emmaus, "with minds so slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was there not a necessity for the Christ thus to suffer, and then to enter into His glory?" (Luk_24:25-26). The death of Christ, with the glory that is to follow, is the most pre-eminent fact within the entire compass of revelation. To lose sight of this is to get into a false perspective, which may lead to error or confusion, but which will certainly mar the glory and beauty of the Word of God, and hinder its influence upon the heart and life.
IV. A Substitutionary Death. He laid down His life for the purpose of saving us from guilt and sin, that we might be brought nigh to God. What saith the Scriptures? Surely the Word of God is abundantly clear upon this most vital point. Listen to the words of Peter: "The burden of our sins He Himself brought in His own body to the Cross, and offered it there" (1Pe_2:24). Hear the statement of Paul: "Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to purchase our freedom from all iniquity, and purify for Himself a people who should be specially His own" (Tit_2:14). Isaiah says of Him: "He hath borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him." But the innermost heart of the subject is touched when he says: "Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, He hath put Him to grief. Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin" (Isa_53:4-10). "God made Him, who knew nothing of sin, to be sin for us, in order that in Him we may become the righteousness of God" (2Co_5:21). "He loved me, and gave Himself for me."
The death of Jesus Christ in the sinner’s stead is God’s final and irrevocable settlement with sin. The Old Testament sacrifices could never take away sins, in them there was a "remembrance made of sins every year" (Heb_10:3-4). But Christ, by the one offering of Himself, "has for ever completed the blessing for those whom He is setting free from sin" (Heb_10:14). That Sacrifice offered on the Cross is God’s last remembrance of the sins of His believing people. "Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more" (Jer_31:34). Sin must be an indescribably awful thing in the sight of God, when He could not, and will not, accept any other price for it than the holy, spotless Soul of His own eternally beloved Son. "He (God) made His Soul an offering for sin" (Isa_53:10). With this Sacrifice for our sins God is infinitely and everlastingly pleased. Why should not we be? Are you pleased with it?
No. 3.-THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS.
"God proposed through Him to reconcile the universe to Himself, making peace through His blood, which was shed upon the Cross" (Col_1:20).
"Thy love records That e’en for men like those Thy blood is spilt! So to all time, if priests of self and pride, And scribes-the worldly wise-possess the shrine Within thy soul, then Pilate’s doom is thine- The awful silence of the Crucified!"
One of the most wonderful statements in all the Bible concerning the unique character of our Lord Jesus Christ, is found in this first chapter of Colossians, in verses fourteen to twenty, and, if you examine them, you will see that they begin and close with a reference to the redeeming Blood of His Cross, as if this was the basis of His glorious pre-eminence.
Sin and death were linked together as cause and effect at the very beginning. "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." When Adam sinned, death at once appeared in his seeking to bury himself out of God’s sight. The sin of Cain also drove him "out from the presence of the Lord." The wages of sin is death to all true fitness for the fellowship and enjoyment of God. Those who have not been reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, are represented as dead while they live. There are two vitally important questions we wish to ask, and try to answer, in connection with this aspect of the Cross.
I. What Does the Blood of his Cross Mean? The Blood of His Cross must be distinguished from the blood of every other cross. The blood of those who were crucified with Christ availeth nothing. Although the blood of all humanity could be spilt upon a cross, it would not atone for one sin in the sight of God. The emphasis should not be put on the Cross so much as on the fact that it was His Cross, and that all that He was in His holy humanity, in His Divine dignity, glory, and honour, was sacrificed there. "The life is in the blood," and what a life this was! All the preciousness and immeasurable worth of the life of God is here represented in the Blood of Christ. The pouring out of that Blood on the Cross was the pouring out of His soul, with all its infinite wealth of purity, love, and power. He gave Himself for us. This is easily said. But how can finite minds grasp all that Himself means to the eye and heart of God. Only the Eternal Father can understand and fully appreciate the value of the soul of the Eternal Son. The Blood of Christ then, shed for our sins, is that which stands for all that Christ Himself is before God in our behalf. Who will dare to say the price was not enough? It is not a question of the value we may be able to set on the Blood of His Cross, but the value God sets on it. The next question we will ask is-
II. What has the Blood of His Cross Secured? It has laid the basis by which God can righteously justify the ungodly. It has opened a channel through which the saving mercy of God can joyfully flow out to the uttermost ends of the earth, and into the uttermost depths of human need. Through the Blood of His Cross there is-
1. Propitiation. "He, Himself, is an atoning Sacrifice or Covering for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1Jn_2:2). It was doubtless at the cost of the sacrifice of life that God at first clothed Adam and Eve with "coats of skin." Now, at the cost of the life of His Son, there is a suitable covering offered to every son of Adam. The covering provided by the Blood of Christ is long enough and broad enough to cover the sins of the whole world. He that covereth his own sins shall not prosper. No man-made covering is long enough or strong enough to hide an unforgiven sin from the eye of Him who, as Judge of all the earth, shall sit upon the Great White Throne.
2. Redemption. The Blood of Christ is not only a covering for sin, but it is also a ransom price paid for the sinner. See how Peter puts it: "Knowing as you do, that it was not with a ransom of perishable wealth, such as silver or gold, that you were set free,… but with the precious blood of Christ" (1Pe_1:18). "Our great God and Saviour," says Paul, in writing to Titus, "gave Himself for us to purchase our freedom from all iniquity" (chap. Joh_2:14). There is no Church of God, apart from the purchasing Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Act_20:28). To deny the ransoming power of Christ’s shed blood, is to deny the very existence of the Church as a people called out for Himself. "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price," is true of every one who is by grace a child of God. Sin is not a debt, it is a crime for which Christ was made a curse. His Blood was poured out, not to pay the debt of sin, but to put it away and to redeem the sinner out of all iniquity. The price was Himself, and it is all-sufficient in the estimation of God for the sins of the whole world. Friend, have you by faith claimed this freedom purchased for you by the Blood of His Cross?
3. Forgiveness. The Blood of Christ has not only provided a covering for sin (as the mercy-seat covered the tables of a broken law), and a price sufficient to ransom the sinner, but also the forgiveness of sin. "In Him, and through the shedding of His Blood, we have our deliverance-the forgiveness of our offences" (Eph_1:7). He was manifested-approved for the purpose of taking away our sins. He bore our sins in His own body to the tree, and on that cursed tree a death equivalent to sin was died. The wages of the sin of the world was the death of the Son of God. Now that the wages of sin has been paid, sin should have no more dominion over us. "All who believe are Justified freely from all things" (Act_13:38-39) The Blood of His Cross is the ground of God’s complete and eternal forgiveness. The freeness and fullness of this forgiveness is according to the freeness and fullness of the sacrifice of Christ; not according to any merit or works of our own, but according to His mercy He saves us.
4. Cleansing. So perfect is this wondrous work of grace on our behalf, that the very defilement, caused by the action of those sins now forgiven, is purged. The blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of an heifer-those foreshadowings of the Blood of Christ-could only bring about ceremonial purity, but "how much more certainly shall the Blood of Christ (who was strengthened by the Eternal Spirit to offer Himself to God) free from blemish, and purify your consciences from lifeless works" (Heb_9:13). This purging is needful, in order that you might "serve the ever-living God." The pure in heart shall see God, and shall so see. Him that they shall gladly serve Him all the days of their lives. We have been redeemed that we might be a purified people unto Himself, zealous of good works. But how are we to be kept clean that we might be continually meet for the Master’s use? The answer is given us in 1Jn_1:7 : "If we live in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." While we live in the light of His presence, the ever-effectual Blood of Christ keeps continually purging away everything that would mar our fellowship with one another, or hinder our fitness for His service.
5. Peace. This is not a peace made with God, but a God-made peace. "God hath made peace through His Blood, which was shed upon the Cross" (Col_1:20). The long struggle between the sin of man and the righteousness of God has come to an end at the Cross, as far as the redeemed are concerned. This is peace with honour. Eternal honour to the infinite wisdom and love of the Father, and to the infinite condescension and grace of the Son. The Cross of Christ is such an overpowering manifestation of the goodness of God that we have but to see it to have the enmity of the heart slain, and to fall in penitence and glad surrender before it, and so entering into peace-a peace which the world cannot give. "He is our peace."
6. Nearness. "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were so far away have been brought near through the death of Christ" (Eph_2:13). Sin is not only an "uncleanness" which unfits us for God’s presence, but it is "transgression" and "rebellion" which drives the soul "far away" from Him. What sin does, the Blood of Christ undoes. The love of sin leads away from God; love for the Lord Jesus Christ, as our sacrifice for sin, brings us near to God. Sin will not lead you afar off if you have nothing to do with it; neither will the Blood of Christ bring you nigh if you have nothing to do with it. To have fellowship with sin is to be afar off from God; to have fellowship with the death of Christ is to be made nigh. This is the nearness of a child born into the family of God, and finding its resting-place in the arms of His everlasting love. As light removes darkness, so the Blood of Christ removes distance.
7. Liberty. "Since our sins and offences are remembered no more, we have free access to the holy place through the Blood of Jesus by the new and ever-living way which He opened up for us through the rending of the veil of His earthly nature" (Heb_10:17-20). Liberty to come with boldness into the Holiest is the greatest of our earthly privileges. It was the greatest act of which the high priest was capable on the great Day of Atonement. This liberty of access into the place of the Presence of Him who is the Holiest of all is the crowning victory of the Cross. By the Blood of Jesus the guilt of our sin has been taken away and the pollution of sin removed from the soul, so that we can draw near with confidence by faith in Him (Eph_3:12). This liberty of access is the secret and source of liberty in service. "Therefore, let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our times of need" (Heb_4:16). Those who come boldly to the Throne of Grace will go boldly to the work of the Lord. Are we taking full advantage of this Blood-bought freedom? In the days of slavery "a poor fellow found his way to Canada. As the train moved into Toronto, Harriet Tubman, herself an emancipated slave, found him crouching in a corner, mortally afraid that some slave catcher might be after him. ‘Joe, you fool,’ she said, ‘what are you cowering here for? You have shaken off the lion’s paw; you are a free man on free soil. Praise the Lord, Joe!’ " Take the liberty Christ has purchased for you. You are a free man on free soil. Praise the Lord?
No. 4.-THE PURPOSE OF THE CROSS.
"The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for oar sins, in order to rescue us from the present wicked age, in accordance with the will of our God and Father" (Gal_1:4).
"Seven times He spake, seven words of love,
And all three hours His silence cried
For mercy on the souls of men-
Jesus, our Lord, the Crucified."-Faber.
On that great day in Israel when the high priest made the annual atonement, he sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice all the vessels of the Tabernacle, signifying that the way was now opened up for the entering into the enjoyment of all the blessings which they represent. Thus, through the sprinkling of the blood of atonement, all the things typically set forth in the Tabernacle were freely offered to the people. So, we read, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom_8:32). How shall He not give them, since all those things needed for life and godliness have been purchased for us by the death of His Son? It was to His own disciples Jesus said, "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find." What then are those special privileges and blessings that have been bought by the Blood of His Cross, and left us as a legacy at His death?
I. Christ died for us to Purchase our Freedom from all Iniquity (Tit_2:14). "Iniquity" has two aspects- passive and active; as a state, and as an act. As a state it means inequality; as an act, injustice. Man’s natural attitude to God is not right; there is no equality or oneness of purpose, so his works are an injustice to Him. They are called "wicked works." Then, from these works of unrighteousness, and from that crooked and unequal nature that is the author of them, the precious Blood of Christ delivers. To be redeemed from "all iniquity" is to be delivered from everything that hinders the soul from becoming like Him who died for our sins. If we are not freed from all those motives and tempers that mar our equality with the Divine plan, then the purpose of the Cross has not been perfectly fulfilled in us.
II. He died for us, the Just for the unjust, that He might Bring us to God (1Pe_3:18). The purpose of the death of Christ was not only to deliver us from all guilt and iniquity, but to "bring us to God." "Ye are come," says the writer to the Hebrews, "to Jesus the Mediator, to the blood of sprinkling… and to the city of the living God" (Heb_12:22-24). To be brought to God, not as a criminal, but as a Blood-bought Son, is a great triumph for the Cross of Christ. But how can the death of Christ bring us to God. Well, in the first place, it brings us to a knowledge of God. We never could have known the infinite love and mercy of God had His Son not been sent to suffer and die for the ungodly. By the death of His Son, God has given us a new and fuller revelation of Himself. Secondly, the sufferings of Christ brings us into the favour of God. We are reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Thirdly, through this death we are brought by faith into the likeness of God, being made "partakers of the Divine nature." Fourthly, we are brought into the enjoyment of God; and, finally, we shall be brought into the home and immediate presence of God. The purpose of the Cross is not only to bring our souls to God at last, but to bring our daily life in thankful and blissful surrender to His will. Is the power of this Cross bringing you to God?
III. He died for us that we Might Receive the Adoption of Sons. "God sent forth His Son… in order to purchase the freedom of all… so that we might receive recognition as sons" (Gal_4:5). The privilege of sonship has been purchased by the Blood of His Cross. Before we can call God Father we must be freed from our guilt and from the power of the law. Before God can recognise us as sons we must bear His image, and all the righteous claims of His holy law be fully met. All men, like all creation, are the "offspring of God," but we can only be "the children of God" by faith. To be made a son is to be made an heir; to be made an heir is to be put into possession of all that has been purchased for us by that wondrous death on the Cross. Because we are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts to cry "Abba, our Father" (Gal_6:6), so that the Father may hear the cry, and answer in the fullness of His Fatherly wisdom and love.
IV. He died for us in Order to Rescue us from the Present Wicked Age (Gal_1:4). As long as we are in the body, we shall be exposed to the many influences and crosscurrents of this present evil world. Outside the influence of the Holy Spirit of God all the principles at work in this age are in perfect accord with those "wicked spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience" (Eph_2:2). One of the fruits of Christ’s death is to save us from all false principles and unclean motives, and to preserve our souls in health, even in the midst of the poisonous atmosphere of this wicked and perverse age. One of the petitions in our Lord’s great priestly prayer was, "I do not ask that Thou wilt remove them out of the world, but that Thou wilt protect them from the Evil One" (Joh_17:15). The three Hebrews were not saved from the furnace, but they were saved in it, which was more to the glory of God. The ever-present Cross is an ever-present protection from the evil of this world. We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb. By continually looking to Him, we shall be continually rescued.
V. He died for us in Order that we May no Longer Live to Ourselves, but to Him who Died for Us (2Co_5:15). He died for us that we might be rescued from the deadly condition of being self-centred, and that we might find a new life centre in Himself. To live to ourselves is to be, in the sight of God, dead while we live. The soul that has not been drawn by the power of His Cross to find its centre of life and work in Him, cannot be said to have found its true rest. The most subtle temptations with which we have to do are those which seek to lure us into "living to ourselves." All self-energy, in some form or another, seeks the glory of self. The waters that spring out of the selfish heart will not rise above the level of selfish honour. When the heart becomes the channel of divine energy, instead of the fountain of self-effort, the issues of life will rise above the human agent to Him who is the source of life and salvation. Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. "He pleased not Himself." Ye have been redeemed with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are His. The language of the redeemed soul is: "Not I, but Christ."
VI. He died for us in Order that we may Receive the Promised Spirit (Gal_3:13-14). He has purchased our freedom from the curse of the law, that we might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost was in Calvary. The power of the Spirit has been secured for us through the power of His death and resurrection. We are taught here that no one can receive the promise of the Spirit unless they have been redeemed from the curse by Him who was made a curse for us. The Blood of Christ must first cleanse the heart before the blessed Holy Spirit can take up His abode there. The blood of Christ provides every spiritual blessing for us: the Holy Spirit comes to help us into the experimental enjoyment of those blessings, and to work in and through us that which is pleasing in the sight of God. He died to save us from our sins, not only that we might escape the wrath to come, but that we might become temples of the Holy Ghost, and thereby witnesses for Him (Act_1:8). The Father’s promise of the Spirit, like the promise of salvation, is received by faith.
VII. He died for us that He might be Lord both of the Dead and of the Living. "For this was the purpose of Christ’s dying and coming to life, namely, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living" (Rom_14:9). He humbled Himself to the lowest, and God exalted Him to the highest. He who made Himself of no reputation is now crowned Lord of all. He redeemed us by His Blood that He might be Lord of our lives. "Ye are not your own." He has bought us that we might be His own peculiar treasure, freely given, and wholly at His disposal. What a blissful privilege to belong to Him, who, through suffering and death, is exalted "far above all," having all power in Heaven and on earth, and who desires and claims the right to relieve us of all undue anxiety and carefulness, to protect and govern our lives for our own eternal good, and His own eternal glory. If Christ is your Redeemer, then He also is your Lord. Through death He has become Lord both of the dead and of the living. Only those alive unto God will own Him as their Lord; those who die in their sins will confess Him Lord when they meet Him at the throne of judgment. Let the government of your life be upon His shoulders now. Let the Lord, your Redeemer and God, take His rightful place upon the throne of the heart, and His kingdom will come in you, and His will be done in your earthly life, as it is done in Heaven. For this purpose "our Lord Jesus Christ died on our behalf, so that whether we are awake or are sleeping we may share His life" (1Th_5:10).
No. 5.-THE TRIUMPHS OP THE CROSS.
"The hostile princes and rulers He shook off from Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests, when by the Cross He triumphed over them" (Col_2:15).
"Through the shadow of an agony Cometh redemption."
Of all the lives that have suddenly closed on the face of the earth, no one seemed more like failure and defeat than did the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be "hanged on a tree" was, in the estimation of men, to have the memory of your name blotted out of earth and Heaven. But His Cross, the symbol of the curse, becomes the symbol of eternal triumph. Here His enemies, seen and unseen, put Him to an open shame; here, also, He made a show of them openly. The first trophy of the Cross was seen in that poor, penitent fellow-sufferer on the tree. The next man whose enmity was slain by the Cross was the centurion, who is compelled to confess that "Truly this was the Son of God." The death of Christ was the greatest achievement that ever was accomplished in this world. Its influence and results are as far-reaching as the uttermost parts of heaven, earth, and hell. As the climax of man’s sin and failure is seen at the Cross in the crucifying of the Lord of Glory, so Christ’s greatest triumph has come by His Cross. In what does this great victory consist? It is-
I. A Triumph Over the Law. "The bond, with its requirements, which was in force against us and was hostile to us, He cancelled, and cleared it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross" (Col_2:14). Whatever was nailed to His Cross was identified with Him in His death. The law, with its righteousness and incessant requirements, which was in full force against us because of our transgression and sin, He, by taking our sins in His own body, and nailing the law to His Cross, has made reconciliation by the sacrifice of Himself, clearing away both sin and the law, as obstacles in the way of our approach unto God. The moral law as a way of life has been cancelled by the death of Christ. There is now no road to Heaven that way, "for on the ground of obedience to law no man living will be declared righteous before Him" (Rom_3:20). "I am the way, no man can come unto the Father, but by Me." The death of Christ is His triumph for us over the broken law.
II. A Triumph Over Sin. "Christ has appeared once for all, at the Close of the Ages, in order to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb_9:26). Our sins, as well as the law, were nailed to His Cross, in order that they might be put away as dead things. "Now sin is the sting of death, and sin derives its power from the law; but God be thanked who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Co_15:56-57). We are not to think of that sin, for which Christ died, as something outside of, and far away from, ourselves. It is that abominable thing in your heart and mine that unfits us for the fellowship of God, and makes Christ Himself so far away and unreal to the soul. He died for our sins that we might daily triumph over sin’s power. If sin is in any form having dominion over us, it is proof positive that the Cross of Christ has not its due place in our lives, for the presence of this means the defeat of sin.
III. A Triumph Over Death. "He Himself took on Him a share of human nature, in order that… He might set at liberty all those who, through fear of death, had been subject to lifelong slavery" (Heb_2:15, Heb_2:15). Sin earns death, and the fear of death shackles a man’s liberty for life. Death always means separation. Spiritual death is spiritual separation from God, the Author and Giver of all spiritual life. The death of Christ is the death of the fear of death to all who are believing in Him. Paul, writing to Timothy, says: "Our Saviour, Christ Jesus, has put an end to death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the good news" of His death and resurrection (2Ti_1:10). Those who by faith have seen the Christ tasting death for them, have His promise that they shall never "taste death"-"never see death." They can shout triumphantly, "Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting? Sin is the sting of death, but God be thanked who gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Death was swallowed up in the victory of His Cross (Isa_25:8).
IV. A Triumph Over the Work of the Devil. We are distinctly told that "the Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the work of the devil" (1Jn_3:8). What is the work of the devil? He is a deceiver and liar from the beginning. His chief business is to deceive men by blinding their minds to the things of God and His Christ. The work of Christ is to undeceive men by giving them the true light and knowledge of the true God. The Cross of Christ is the undoing of that lie of the devil that "Ye shall not surely die." For the wages of sin is death, and Christ "must suffer" if sin is to be put away. If God will not punish sin, it is because He has punished it in the Person of His Son. All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in the efficacy of His redeeming Blood, have been delivered from the deluding spell and thraldom of the devil, and are now freed ones in the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. The work of the devil will be utterly abortive in the case of those who "glory in the Cross." It is the great weapon, against which neither the devil nor his works shall ever be able to stand.
V. A Triumph Over Satan Himself. John tells us that he heard "a loud voice in Heaven which said, The accuser of our brethren has been hurled down… they have gained the victory over Him, because of the Blood of the Lamb" (Rev_12:10-11). The Blood of the Lamb triumphs over all the accusations of the devil, and has power to hurl him down from his vantage ground to where he is utterly powerless to tempt. By the Blood of the Lamb the devil and all his accusations may be hurled out of that soul for which Christ did die. The bruising of Christ’s heel by Satan was the earnest of the bruising of Satan’s head by Christ (Gen_3:15). The bruising of Christ’s heel may seem to have cut short His walk on earth amongst men, but the bruising of Satan’s head was the crushing of the seat of his government and power Resist the devil with the Blood of the Cross, and he will flee from you.
"Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees."
Another couplet may be added:
"Satan rejoices when he sees
Lukewarm Christians all at ease."
VI. A Triumph Over All. All the representatives of the forces of evil were cast off and put to shame by His dying on the Cross. "The hostile princes and rulers He shook off from Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests, when by the Cross He triumphed over them" (Col_2:15). The strong and mighty Prince of Darkness held His goods in peace till Christ, the stronger than he, overcame him by the power of His Cross, and took from him every weapon wherein he trusted. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only the frustration of the purposes of those organised powers of evil, manifested in those priestly rulers and Roman princes, but it was also a triumph over all humanity. Hear Christ’s own solemn words in this matter. He had just been confessing that "Now is My soul full of trouble." The agony of that awful death upon the tree was already coming upon Him. "But," He says, "for this purpose I have come to this hour." Then, after the heavenly voice has spoken a word of comfort to Him, He said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the prince of this world be driven out, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, crucified upon a Cross-will draw all men to Me" (Joh_12:27-32). "This He said to indicate the kind of death He would die" (Joh_9:33). This "kind of death" was to be so wonderfully unique and powerful that it would affect, in one way or another, all men, as well as all devils and holy angels. All men must be drawn to Him, either for grace or judgment, because, by virtue of Christ’s dying for the sin of the world, and being raised again, God hath appointed Him as Judge of the world (Act_17:31). Because He was lifted up on the Cross, He is now lifted up on the Throne. All men must appear before Him, either at the Throne of Reward (2Co_5:10), or at the Great White Throne of Eternal Judgment (Rev_20:11-15): either as sinners saved by His blood, or as sinners who have deliberately rejected His sacrifice, or died in ignorance of it. The fact that all men will be drawn to Him can in no wise prove that all men will be saved; but it proves that because Christ died to make reconciliation for all, all are accountable to Him who is to "judge the quick and the dead." The ungodly will see the power of the Cross of Christ in a new light when they see the nail-pierced Saviour seated as Judge of all the earth upon His throne of whiteness. Surely the Judge of all the earth shall do right after having given Himself for the redemption of the world.
The victory of the Cross is seen also in Heaven. While John was weeping because no one was found worthy to open the book, one said to him, "Do not weep: the Lion which belongs to the tribe of Judah… has triumphed, and will open the book." Then he heard this new song, "Thou shouldst be the One to take the book, and break its seals, because Thou hast been offered in sacrifice, and hast purchased for God with Thine own blood some out of every tribe… and nation" (Rev_5:4-10). The worthiness of the Lamb to open this book lay in the fact that "He had been slain." That book very fitly represents the human soul, taken by Him and opened up for the honour and glory of His Name. None but He is able to break those seals which hinder the souls of men from serving the living God, because He alone has died to purchase our freedom with His own blood. Yield thyself to Him, and His triumph will be yours. "We are more than conquerors through Him who has loved us." The forcible words of Dr. Forsyth may be added here. He says that "When he read, ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me,’ the Gospel of the Atonement leapt out of the Book and clasped him. ‘Who,’ he asked, ‘shall separate me, with all my wretched schism, from Christ’s love?’ ‘Who shall dislodge me from the security of God’s love in Christ?’ I am secure, not because it is written, but because the writing becomes luminous with the passage through it of the Holy Ghost. The wire glows with current. The whole soul of the Bible searches me, and settles and stills me with the grace of God." Has it so triumphed over you?
No. 6.-THE OFFENCE OF THE CROSS.
"The Jews demand miracles, and Greeks go in search of wisdom, while we proclaim a Christ who has been crucified-to Jews a stumbling-block, to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who have received the call,… Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1Co_1:22-24).
"As for me," says the Apostle in writing to the Galatians, "If I am still a preacher of circumcision"-as a condition of salvation, to please those Judaizing teachers-"how is it that I am still suffering persecution?" How is it that those who teach that we must obey the whole law of Moses to be saved still persecute me? "In that case the Cross has ceased to be a stumbling-block" (Gal_5:11). The inference is clearly this: that if we are faithful to the truth of God as revealed in the Cross of Christ, it will be an offence and a stumbling-block to those who are trying to be saved by their works. The Cross proclaims liberty, without the deeds of the law; the law is a task-master, whose service is the yoke of slavery (Gal_5:1). But the Cross of Christ can never be anything else than a stumbling-stone in the way of those who refuse to be saved by grace alone. It will be a fearful fall to stumble over His Cross into hell. In looking at this aspect of the Cross we shall try and answer two questions. The first is-
I. Why is the Cross of Christ a Stumbling-Block? Was it not meant to take the stumbling-block of sin out of our way? Then, why should the Cross itself become a, stumbling-block?
Death can seldom ever be said to be attractive, but the death of the Cross was the most ignominious of all. That the holiest of men should suffer the most shameful of deaths is in itself a staggering thought to those who believe in the over-ruling providence of a Personal God. The Cross was the death-blow to human pride and worldly honour and glory, and to be identified with one who suffered on a cross was also to suffer loss.
When the divine mystery of the Cross of Christ is not understood, it is looked upon as a shame, a misfortune, or a martyrdom-one who suffered because of his principles. The fact is, some can be very religious and see nothing attractive in the Cross of our Lord and Saviour. They rather shun it, its every shadow is offensive to them, because there is no place for it in their heart and life. The high priests, with the Scribes and elders of old, cried out, "Let Him come down from the Cross and we will believe on Him." Like many to-day, they would have a Christ without the Cross, but the Cross and the Christ, in the gracious purpose of God, have been eternally nailed together. There is now no Christ but the Christ who was crucified; even in Heaven He is known as "the Lamb that was slain." When the Lord Jesus came within sight of His Cross, some of His own disciples "forsook Him and fled." The Cross of Christ is a stumbling-block to those who are satisfied with a religious self-life, because if we would follow Him fully, we must be willing to be crucified with Him. Ah! this is the rock of offence. We do not wish these little self-governed barques of ours to make shipwreck by dashing themselves to pieces against the riven Rock of Ages. But he that loseth his life here shall save it. The next question is-
II. To whom is the Cross of Christ a Stumbling-Block? Paul preached Christ crucified-"to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." The Jews and Greeks may be looked upon as typical and representative classes. The first stands for religious works, the second for worldly wisdom. To the one the Cross of Christ is a stumbling-block, to the other a laughing-stock. Neither the proud religionist nor the worldly wise can possibly pass the Cross without being affected in some way by it. It knocks the feet from the legalist, and pricks the gaudy bubble of fleshly wisdom.
1. Who is the Jew? Whom does he represent? He is the man who has been brought up religiously he is quite in the habit of saying prayers; he regularly attends public worship; he gives of his means for the upkeep of the church; he is quite orthodox in his beliefs; he has no fellowship with drunkards or gamblers; he is a son of the church, and bears a blameless name among his fellows; he is a very righteous and religious man, but the Cross of Christ to him is of none effect: he may hear about it, and wonder at it, but he cannot see any need for it-to him it is a stumbling-block. He has no sense of sin, no felt need of atoning Blood. It is nothing to him. The Cross is a manifestation of the mercy of God, but he does not need mercy. It is a declaration of the righteousness of God, but he is righteous, and has no need of God’s righteousness. It is an offer of the riches of God, but he has need of nothing. When the meaning of the Cross is pressed upon Him, he is stumbled, for it makes his own righteousness as filthy rags, and sets no value at all upon his prayers and performances. For him to accept the Cross, would mean the crucifixion of his own goodness. There is no self that dies so hard as religious self. To the self-religious man the Cross of Christ is a stumbling-block.
2. Who is the Greek, to whom the Cross of Christ is foolishness? The Greek represents those who give themselves to art, philosophy, and physical culture. All good in themselves, but when these things become the objects of life and the hope of all future good, then the Cross of Christ is foolishness. In the days of Paul, Athens was the "City of Schools," even Roman youths, who sought to distinguish themselves, came here to study. "All the Athenians and their foreign visitors used to devote their whole leisure to felling or hearing about something new" (Act_17:21). But all human culture and philosophy are of themselves utterly incompetent to appreciate the Cross of Christ, because no flesh can glory in its presence. Every product and achievement of the unspiritual man withers and fails as soon as they come within reach of the power of the Cross. To all materialists and rationalists the Cross is foolishness, because to them it is incomprehensible. But this thing, which is foolishness in the eyes of the worldly wise, who walk in the light of the sparks of their own kindling, is, in deed and truth, "the wisdom of God," For the preaching of Christ crucified is to them who obey the call, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1Co_1:24). Think now of-
III. What the Cross Really Is. Not the Cross apart from Christ, but as representing Him who was crucified.
1. It is the Power of God. It is not the preaching that is the power of God, but the "Christ crucified" who is preached. The Cross of Christ is God’s dynamic (power) in operation for the salvation of the world. All the force that God can bring to bear upon the redemption of men from sin and death is here in the Cross of Christ.
2. It is "the Exceeding Greatness of His power to us-ward who believe" (Eph_1:19). It takes the power of God to save, and this almighty power can only work through the death of His Son. To believe in that death is to put yourself in touch with the power of God, that delivers from all iniquity and saves with an everlasting salvation.
3. It is also the Wisdom of God. It is only after we have experienced the saving power of God through the Cross that we can really see it to be "the wisdom of God"- the manifestation of infinite skill. The planning of man’s redemption by the gift of His Son and Blood of His Cross, was a revelation of the wisdom of God as well as the love of God. When we get a true vision of the Crucified One we are constrained to say, "O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God." To flee to that Cross is to put your helplessness and weakness into His power-your foolishness and ignorance into His wisdom. "Then shall you be strong, and wise, and safe in Christ Jesus your Lord."
"The Cross, it takes our guilt away,
It holds the fainting spirit up;
It cheers with hope the gloomy day,
And sweetens every bitter cup.
It makes the coward spirit brave,
And nerves the feeble arm for fight
It takes the terror from the grave.
And gilds the bed of death with light.
The balm of life, the cure of woe,
The measure and the pledge of love;
The sinner’s refuge here below,
The angels’ theme in Heaven above."
"God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal_6:14).
No. 7.-THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS.
"There are many whom I have often described to you, and I now with tears describe them, as being enemies of the Cross of Christ" (Php_3:18-19).
"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" (Lam_1:12).
Paul had such a clear vision of the grace and glory of the Cross of Christ, and such a sight of the guilt and danger of those who are its enemies, that he could not speak of them without the tears starting in his eyes. It is a fearful thing to be an enemy to that greatest of all manifestations of the love and wisdom of God. To be an enemy of the Cross of Christ is to be an enemy of God, a rebel against His merciful will to save men from their sins by the death of His Son. There are many who honour the Lord as a babe in the manger, who deny Him on the Cross. They love the songs of the nativity, but they don’t care for the songs of redemption. They may not be the pronounced enemies of the Cross, but they are ashamed of it. Why should anyone be an enemy of the death of Christ, who is not an enemy of His birth? He was born that He might die. He came for the very purpose of giving Himself a sacrifice for sin.
The enemies the apostle here refers to were those in Philippi, who had come under the power of the Antinomian heresy. They professed to believe in Christ, yet lived lives of sin and uncleanness. They loved sin and so proved themselves the enemies of the Cross, for the Cross of Christ is the enemy of sin. To love sin is to kiss the sword that pierced the soul of Jesus. "If I believed that the Blood of Christ put away sin," said one man to another, "then I would take my fill of sin." Then said the other, "And how much sin will it take to fill a Christian?" How much poison would it take to satisfy a man who hates it? We shall now look a little more closely at the object of this enmity. They are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. What does the Cross of Christ mean, and how can they be its enemies? The Cross of Christ stands for-
I. Divine Sacrifice. "God’s love for us has been manifested in that He has sent His only Son into the world so that we may have life through Him. This is love indeed. We did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1Jn_4:9-10). The coming, and the dying of Jesus Christ upon the tree, was God’s divinely expressive way of revealing His own heart- a heart moved to infinite sacrifice through the agony of love. Men, for the love of gain, will sometimes sink their all in a business speculation. God, through love to sinful men, has sunk His all in the transaction of the Cross. This was no mere speculation, but a merciful expenditure of almighty grace for a definite, infallible purpose. To be an enemy of the Cross of Christ is to be an enemy of the love and purpose of God as revealed in the Cross.
Those opposers of the Cross whom Paul refers to, showed their enmity by their self-indulgent lives, "Whose God is their belly," he says. Self-indulgence cannot but be opposed to the self-sacrificing spirit of the Cross. The Cross of Christ is the highest exhibition of self-denial-to live a mere sensual life is a denial of the Cross. The carnal mind-the mind that is set on earthly things-is enmity against the Mind and Spirit of God. The Mind of Christ as revealed in the Cross is that of self-abandonment for the glory of God and the salvation of men. Therefore those who live for themselves are living in rebellion against the spirit and purpose of the Cross. To be more concerned about the body than the spirit, is like being more concerned about the wood of the Cross than the Christ. A wealthy gentleman who had built a little chapel close to his house was showing it to a friend one day, when he remarked that it would make a good kitchen. The reply was, "Yes, I will make a kitchen of it when I make a god of my belly." Human selfishness is essentially opposed to the divine sacrifice offered upon the Cross. Such carnal-mindedness is an evidence of death (Rom_8:6). The Cross of Christ stands for-
II. Divine Holiness. The intensity of God’s hatred to sin could not be more emphatically expressed than by the death of His Son on the Cross. The greatness of the sacrifice God made, in giving His Son, shows the greatness of the need. The need was great on man’s side, because of sin; the need was great on God’s side, because of holiness. To come between the fires of human sinfulness and divine holiness required human sinlessness and divine fullness, qualifications that could only be found in the Man Christ Jesus. Think ye not, if it had been possible for a Holy God to save sinners without the death of the Cross, would He not have answered that agonizing prayer of His Son, accompanied with tears of blood, in the garden, when He cried, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me" (Mat_26:39). It was the love of God to a perishing world that offered Him this awful cup; it was the holiness of God that could not let it pass from Him if an end was to be made of sin; and even when that blessed One was hanging on the accursed tree He had to cry out, "My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Psa_22:1). The holy Father had to hide His face from His holy Son, because the curse of imputed sin was upon Him.
Now to be an enemy of the Cross of Christ is to be an enemy to that holiness which is the character of God Another characteristic of those enemies referred to by the Apostle was that they "gloried in their shame" (Phil 3 19). To glory in things that are shameful is devilish To glory in anything that the Cross of Christ was meant to put away is to be an enemy of the Cross. The drunkard, the glutton, and the gambler, glories in how much they can appropriate for their own selfish ends The prosperous "man of the world" and the self-righteous bigot, who glory in the portion which they have in this life, are the enemies of the Cross of Christ To love sin is to hate the Cross. Sin is of the devil, holiness is of God Ye cannot serve these two masters Choose this day whom ye will serve The Cross of Christ stands for-
III. Divine Riches. "He who did not withhold even His own Son but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also with Him freely give us all things" (Rom 8 32) The death of Christ is the divine pledge to all believers that every needful blessing is within their reach "The condescending goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ was seen in that though He was rich he became poor, in order that we through His poverty might grow rich" (2Co_8:9) The treasure house of the unsearchable riches of Christ has been opened for us by the Blood of His Cross When Christ gave Himself for us, He gave His all to us These spiritual and eternal riches consist not only of what God has, but of what He is He not only gives gifts unto men, but He makes Us, through faith, partakers of His own nature. These words of our Lord will surely have a deeper meaning for us when read in the light of His Cross. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall put on… your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things" (Luk_12:22-31) Make the kingdom of God the object of your pursuit, and these things shall be given you in addition. All is promised in the Cross, and all may be claimed there. Every temporal and spiritual blessing, every Pentecostal baptism, with all its joy and power and fruitfulness, was potentially in the Cross of Christ. Every conversion to God, every revival through the Spirit of God, every outburst of missionary zeal for the heathen, have all had their motive power from the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yet there are those who are the enemies of the Cross of Christ, although that Cross is the symbol and pledge of heavenly and eternal riches. The third characteristic Paul mentions of those who are its enemies is that "they mind earthly things." That is, their minds are wholly devoted to the things of earth, they reject, or ignore, those heavenly things provided for them by the death of Christ, and so become the enemies of His Cross. The man whose heart is set on earthly things has no portion in the Cross of Christ. He died for us that we might set our affections on things above. It may seem but a small offence to "mind earthly things," but it is an offence against the spirit and purpose of that Cross of which the Apostle Paul said, "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." If any man love the world, the love of the Father, as manifested at Calvary, is "not in him." The Cross of Christ also stands for-
IV. Divine Ultimatum. It is God’s final offer as to terms of peace. Regarding those enemies of the Cross, Paul tells us "Their end is destruction." In rejecting the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, they rejected God’s conditions of peace, and so went on to their doom. The wages of sin is death. To live in opposition to the message and claims of the Cross is to live in actual rebellion against the last and greatest proposals of infinite love. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? God’s terms cannot be altered; the treaty of the Cross shall never be broken. We axe shut up to faith in Christ, or die in our sins and suffer the eternal judgment. Acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace. As many as receive Christ, receive the right to become the children of God, even as many as believe on His Name (Joh_1:12).
No 8.-THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE CROSS
"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me and the life which I now live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf" (Gal_2:20)
"From pain to pain, from woe to woe,
With loving heart and footsteps slow
To Calvary with Christ we go
Was ever grief like His? Was ever sin like ours?"
"I have been crucified with Christ." The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, was potentially the crucifixion of humanity All are represented in Him. It is a great discovery to make, that I have been crucified for my sins on the Cross of Christ. This is the discovery faith makes when the Gospel of Christ is believed. Have you seen it and received it; how that God has accepted the death of His only Son as your death for your own sins, that you might no longer live in sin, but in that newness of life which is yours in Him? The Lord was crucified about twelve months before Paul was converted, yet he says, "I have been crucified with Christ". It was a thing done before he was born of God. He had found out that the Lord Jesus Christ had so identified Himself with him and his sins that he (Paul) had been put to death for them with Christ on the Cross Now, he says, "It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me." The old self-confident life is dead, and now "I live through faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf."
The Apostle does not speak of crucifying Himself. Self-crucifixion is impossible. No man could drive the nails into his own hands and feet. We are commanded to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, but who shall crucify that spirit that would exalt itself against God? that carnal mind which is enmity against God; who shall crucify it? "O wretched man that I am! Who shall rescue me from this death-burdened body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom_7:24-25). By the death which Christ died he became, once for all, dead in relation to sin. Likewise reckon or regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin (Rom_6:10-11). Not our sins only, but our sinful selves have been, in the great redeeming purpose of God, nailed to His Cross. It is now, "Not I, but Christ who lives in me." I have been crucified with Christ, therefore I must reckon my sinful self as judged by God in His own Son on the accursed tree, and put in the place of death. Ye are dead, and your life is now hid with Christ in God. Blessed paradox-dead, yet alive! Wonderful mystery-Christ living in me!
All who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their atoning sacrifice before God, have been by the Holy Spirit baptised into His death, that they might be sharers in His resurrection (Rom_6:3-5). There is no possibility of knowing the power of His resurrection in our souls, if we have not first been made conformable unto His death (Php_3:10).
When the mother of Jesus saw her Son dying upon the Cross, and when the soldier "pierced His side with a spear," then were the prophetic words of old Simeon to Mary fulfilled, "Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." She was pierced with Christ on the Cross. Had it not been for the faith and love that Mary had in and for her Lord and Saviour, the spear that cut the heart of Christ asunder would never have touched her soul. So it is with us. If we believe that that awful death of the Cross was voluntarily chosen and endured by Christ in love to our sin-ruined souls, with that belief their springs up within the soul a new affection for the suffering Son of God, a love so pure and tender that the pangs of Christ’s Cross pierce our own souls, then hard-hearted, cold-hearted, sinful self is crucified with Christ. We have never seen Christ pierced for us to any advantage, unless we have felt the spear-thrust of conviction in our own souls. Has the fact that Christ was wounded and bruised for your iniquities ever made any wound or bruise in your soul? If, through unbelief or hardness of heart we refuse to "die as He died," then we can have no "share in His sufferings," and so cannot "know the power which is in His resurrection." Seeing that the crucifixion of self is such a definite and painful experience, surely the effects of it will be marked and well-defined. We shall try and point out a few of them.
I. The Crucifixion of the World. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul says, "But as for me, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the world is crucified to me" (chap. Joh_6:14). To Paul the world had been stripped naked of all its glory and power, and nailed as a helpless, shameful thing on the Cross with Christ. To him it was a dead or a dying thing, without power to tempt or tantalise his soul. The glory of the grace of the crucified Christ had come between him and the world, and so blinded his eyes with the vision of heavenly things, that the things of this world became to him as so many corpses. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The workings of the principles of this world found, as it were, their climax in the crucifixion of the Son of God. The world by wisdom could not find out God, it could only crucify Him, therefore its ungodly spirit should be as a crucified thing to us.
II. The Crucifixion of Self. Not only is the world crucified to me, but "I am crucified to the world," adds the Apostle. The death of Christ has not only separated the world from me, but it has also separated me from the world. The Cross of Christ has come between me and the world, and has crucified it to me, and me to it. That "old self," which loved the world, and sought a share of its honour and glory, "was nailed to the Cross with Him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin" (Rom_6:6). He who has paid the penalty of death stands free from his sin (v. 7). The first act of self in Adam was to long for a forbidden thing. This is the self that was crucified with Christ-the self that would long for anything outside the good will of God. Although the self in Christ was perfectly human and perfectly sinless, yet "He pleased not Himself." He delighted to do the will of His Father. The demands of self are many and urgent, and usually put in the most plausible way, but every time self is pleased and honoured, the Cross of Christ is denied. One of the messages that comes through the Crucified One to us is, "I have died for you, in order that that self-life of yours might die in Me." "Except a corn of wheat die, it abideth alone." That self-life of yours will abide alone in barrenness and fruitlessness, unless it die, and is buried in the grave of Christ. But if it die-comes to an utter end of itself-it will bring forth the fruits of a new life in Christ Jesus. To be dead to the world is to be alive unto God, and abundantly fruitful in the world. To be crucified with Christ implies further-
III. A New Life for Service. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me" (Gal_2:20). "Having become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection" (Rom_6:5). If I reckon my self-life crucified with Christ, then I may reckon on Him living in me in the power of His resurrection. If self has died, then there is no hindrance to the life of Jesus being manifested in our mortal bodies (2Co_4:10) One of the clearest proofs that we have died to self and sin is that we are wholly "alive unto God." The measure of our life and liberty for God is the measure of our freedom from the power of self and sin. Self spells bondage in the service of the Lord. There is no room for it if Christ is to be glorified in us. If Christ lives in me, then He has taken this me that He might sanctify it, fill it, and use it for the glory of His own Name. To seek our own praise and honour is to deny Him who lives within. If Christ lives in me, then all the wealth of His unsearchable riches is within my reach for His service among men. "The Cross, as a moral event, belongs to all time," said Dr Gordon, therefore its power to crucify self, and prepare the way for resurrection life, is ever present with us. The life of the unregenerate man is, "I, not Christ;" the life of the regenerate man is, "Not I, but Christ." The Cross of Christ is a dreadful place, but is the gate of Heaven.
No. 9.-GLORYING IN THE CROSS.
"But as for me, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal_6:14).
"On the Mount of Crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide,
Through the flood-gates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love."
C.H. Spurgeon said, "The heart of the Gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ. I have found by long experience that nothing touches the heart like the Cross of Christ." As it took the eyes of a Michael Angelo to see an angel in a rough slab of marble, so it takes the eyes of a Spirit-inspired man to see the glory of the Cross of Christ. What is a stumbling-stone to some is the wisdom of God to others.
There were several things in which the Apostle might have gloried, if the glory of the Cross had not blinded his eyes to the glory of everything else. Even as a Christian he might have gloried in his unique conversion, although he greatly rejoiced in it, and did not fail to speak of it as opportunity occurred. Yet he did not glory in being saved so much as in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ had so loved him that He gave Himself to the death of the Cross on his behalf. "Hallelujah! I am saved," is not quite the same as "Hallelujah! Jesus Christ has saved me." It is better to be taken up with the glories of the Saviour than the comforts of salvation. He might have gloried in his unique position as an apostle to the Gentiles. But even the glory of his high calling was overshadowed with the glory of the Cross. Or, he might have gloried in his success as a minister of the Gospel and a servant of Jesus Christ. But no; he would glory in nothing else, because that "Christ and Him crucified" was the Source and Giver of all. The glory of His Cross can never be left behind as a "beggarly element" or a "first principle." It is everlastingly present in its eternal efficacy. Even in the heaven of glory, Jesus Christ is known as "the Lamb that was slain."
The preacher who has ceased glorying in the Cross of Christ has ceased preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. The whole Counsel of God finds its centre in the Crucified One, therefore to glory in the Cross of Christ is to glory in the wisdom and power of God. "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me" (Jer_9:23-24). To know the meaning of the Cross of Jesus Christ is to understand and know God, and to glory in Him. To glory in any earthly thing is to deny the Cross of Christ, and to rob God of His glory. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." In these days few seem to have the determination that Paul had: "Not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (1Co_2:2). Here are some good reasons why we should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. By It the Love of the Father is Seen. "God’s love for us has been manifested, in that He sent His only Son into the world, so that we may have life through Him" (1Jn_4:9). "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." His love for the world must have been great to send His only Son even into a world like this; but the depth and intensity of that love can only be realised when we think of the infinite humiliation of the death of the Cross. "This is love indeed; we did not love God, but He loved us, and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1Jn_4:10). By giving His Son up to the world for us is God’s way of commending His love to us (Rom_5:8). Even the wisdom of God could devise no more impressive and powerful a way of manifesting His love than this. We glory in the Cross, because herein is the glory of His love.
II. By It the Love of the Son is Declared. "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." "The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep" (Joh_10:11). The greatest manifestation of human love is "that a man should lay down his life for his friend; but, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The many deep waters of human indifference, ingratitude, mockery, and hate did not quench or check the outflow of His love, for His was a love that was stronger than death. Those nail-prints in the hands and feet, even of the glorified body of Jesus Christ, are the everlasting monuments of that love that led Him to the sacrifice of Himself upon Calvary’s tree, as a ransom for the sinful souls of men. The warmth of Christ’s love is only equalled by the preciousness of His Blood. Do we not hear those searching words spoken to Peter coming home to our own hearts, as from His dying lips on the Cross: "Lovest thou Me?" Think of all He has done for thee.
III. By It Sinners are Reconciled to God. "While we were hostile to God we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son" (Rom_5:10). The only way to the enjoyment of the presence of God is through reconciliation; the only way to reconciliation is through the death of His Son. The moment that the soul, which has hitherto been hostile to God, takes hold by faith on that atoning Sacrifice on the Cross, that moment the hand of God’s power takes hold of that soul, and instantly there is reconciliation and salvation. The Cross of Christ, like Jacob’s ladder, was set up on the earth as the way to God. Here the angels of grace, mercy, and peace ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. This is a dreadful place, but this the gate of Heaven. "Dreadful," as the place of judgment; "beautiful," as the gate of Heaven. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace. We glory in the Cross, because that-
IV. By It Believers are Separated from the World. This is the chief reason, given by the Apostle in Gal_6:14, why he gloried in nothing save the Cross of Christ, "for," he says, "by it, or upon it, the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world." To many this appears more like a calamity than a victory. To have the agonies of Christ’s Cross come between them and the pleasures and false principles of this world is to them like being disinherited. They wish to honour Jesus Christ as a teacher come from God, but they don’t wish His Cross to come in and mar their fellowship with the world. Such cannot glory in the Cross, because they are glorying in those things which the Cross of Christ was meant to put away Paul counted deliverance from this present evil world such a great blessing that he gloried in that Cross by which this marvellous achievement had been accomplished. A complete and final separation had been made, for, by the Cross, both He and the world were crucified, the one to the other. The sinful pleasures of the world are so subtle, powerful, and treacherous that only by the power of His Cross can the soul escape from their snares and illusions. Christ came not to condemn the world, and the world in condemning Christ, by casting Him out, has condemned itself, but out of this condemnation, we who believe in Jesus have been delivered. "Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord." We glory in the Cross because that-
V. By It Every Needful Blessing is Pledged. "He who did not withhold even His own Son, but gave Him up for all of us, will He not also with Him freely give us all things" (Rom_8:32). He who delights to give golden gifts will not grudge copper ones. God, in giving us the sunshine has also with it freely given us all the colours with which the eye is familiar. In giving us the sea, God has freely given us all that is in it. In giving us His Son, all that Christ was and has is, as it were, made over to us for life and godliness. "Everything belongs to you, since you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God" (1Co_3:21-23). Having overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, we are made heirs of all things (Rev_21:7; Rom_8:17). All the promises of God are in Christ, yea, and amen! Being in Him, we become sharers with Him. To receive Jesus Christ-the gift of God-as our Sacrifice, our Saviour, and our Lord, is to receive with Him God’s unfailing promise that all things needful for time and eternity will be given freely. Surely this is a good reason for glorying in the Cross, but there is another-
VI. In It Lies God’s Remedy for all the Woes of the World. "For so greatly did God love the world that He gave His only son" (Joh_3:16). God so loved the world, that He gave to the world One who was abundantly able and willing to save it from all its sins, and to heal all its diseases. God’s plaster is big enough to cover the worldwide sore of sin. God has no other remedy for the world’s diseases than the Blood of His Son. Man-made mixtures are often substituted for the gift of God, and so often do they end in failure and disappointment. The health of the people is not recovered. There is no power like the Cross of Christ for healing the moral, social, and political plagues of the world. Every spiritual revival is a proof of this. Fresh, wholesome blood is infused into the man or the nation that bows believingly to the Son of God. As many as so touch Him are made whole. The world is an hospital, full of incurables, apart from the Divine remedy. There is none other Name under Heaven, given among men, whereby we can be saved. Over the portals of this world-wide gate the hand of inspiration has written: "Jehovah-ropheca" (The Lord that healeth thee). He, in His infinite wisdom, has made a special study of every individual case. His healing word never fails when it is trusted. God is able to save them to the uttermost that come to Him through His Son. "By His stripes we are healed."
Have you realized this vital fact, that God’s provision for the sins and sorrows of your own soul is here for you in the death of His own Son! The hand that lays hold on it may be feeble, but the blessing grasped is the all-sufficient mercy and power of God All the virtue that is in Jesus Christ is yours for a touch (Mat_11:21).
"She only touched the hem of His garment,
As to His side she stole
Amid the crowd that gathered around Him,
And straightway she was whole.
Oh, touch the hem of His garment!
And thou, too, shalt be free.
His saving power this very hour
Shall give new life to thee."
Can you now say "As for me, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ?" (Gal_6:14).
Autor: James Smith