0918. The Cross and the World

The Cross and the World

"And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1Jn_2:2).

1. It means a mercy seat for the world. The word "propitiation" is a precious word. It really means "mercy seat," the ground whereupon the holy God and the unholy sinner meet. Jesus Christ is both the propitiation and the propitiator–Christ's death is the basis of propitiation, and Christ living is the propitiator.

It was not that Christ propitiated an angry God, but that Christ satisfied an offended law. He was made sin for us, He suffered the Just for the unjust: thus He made it possible for God to receive unto Himself those who believe.

Christians will never be willing to take Christ to the world, until first they have been to Calvary and seen the sin of the world laid on Christ. It is a wonderful experience when one gets the vision of the Cross of Christ in its relationship to the whole world.

2. It means the settling of the Adamic sin for the whole world. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (Joh_1:29). Upon Calvary's Cross Jesus Christ died for sin. There the question concerning the inherited sin-nature, was forever settled. Men are not lost because Adam sinned–because they were born in sin; men are lost because they are themselves sinners. This is the basis upon which infants, who have not yet reached years of responsibility, are saved.

3. It means that the free gift came upon the whole world. "For as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life" (Rom_5:18). Rotherham translates this verse: "Hence then, as through one fault the sentence was unto all men to condemnation; so also through One, the recovery of righteousness (the decree of favor) is unto all men for a righteous acquittal unto life." Conybeare and Howson translates it thus: "Therefore as the fruit of one offense, reached all men, and brought upon them condemnation (the source of death); so likewise the fruit of one acquittal shall reach unto all, and shall bring justification, the source of life."

This is a wonderful verse and it certainly places before every man, the opportunity of life, through the Blood of Jesus Christ.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR