Our blessed Lord the Faithful and True Witness, found no rest here, had not where to lay His head, and His path of perfect obedience to the will of God led only to death, even the death of the cross; is it, then, strange that the faithful now so constantly prove this to be a region of disappointment to natural expectations, and that those who are obedient to the word of God should find the path so frequently one of death and resurrection? Has it not been the case all through this sin-stricken time? Did not God promise Abram a son? And did not year after year pass, till all human hope of its fulfillment had gone? But Abram proved the faithfulness of Him who raiseth the dead. Again, when the great apostle of the Gentiles had sure guidance for taking the gospel into Europe, did he find the path smooth and easy, according to human calculation? Far from it. He and Silas soon found the cruel thongs scourging their backs, and the hours of midnight passing while their feet were made fast in the stocks of an inner prison; but, with aching limbs, they prayed and sang praises to God, because they knew that the divinely-ordered path in a world of evil must be one of death and resurrection. We know what abundant streams of blessing afterward accompanied their ministry. Is it, then, to be wondered at that we find the inspired apostle saying, "We which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh"? (2 Cor. 4:1111For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:11).)
The death of the cross is also set before us in scripture to encourage our confidence in God in faith and prayer. "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. 8:3232He 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? (Romans 8:32).) Again, while contemplating Him who trod the path of faith perfectly, and resisted unto blood, striving against sin—the Beginner and Finisher of faith—we are directed to Him who is now on the throne for sustainment, and are assured that His grace is sufficient for us. We may also learn the secret of turning the bitter we find in the wilderness into sweet, by associating it with the death of the cross in all its perfectness and grace; and, compared with His sorrows, we learn to speak of our heaviest trials as a light afflictions."
It is not to be wondered at that efforts have, every now and then, been put forth by our adversaries, to undermine the doctrine of the cross, seeing how infinitely He there glorified God, and that all our blessings are founded on it. This has sometimes been done by going back to principles of Judaism, or by the Galatian error of appending something supplemental to the work of Christ for security; or, at other times, by attacking the personal glory of the Savior, and thereby invalidating the infinite and eternal value of His finished work. Well has it been said long ago, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
With the spiritually-minded, the true doctrine of the cross is never lost sight of, and that, not only because all our blessings are founded on it, but because of the full outflow of divine love to us there manifested, even when we were yet sinners, and the infinite perfections which there so wondrously culminated. In the apostles' writings, we cannot fail to notice how frequently their inspired thoughts recur to the death of the cross, and this sometimes again and again within the compass of a few verses. And, in days of old, when God was speaking by types and shadows, how constantly the many sacrifices remind us of the one sacrifice of the death of Christ; and so in the last writer of holy scripture, when the Apocalyptic visions arc brought before us, the Lamb is most conspicuously set forth every here and there.
While nothing is more clearly taught in scripture than the secret of our strength, blessing, and growth in grace being connected with our having personally to do with Christ in glory, in contrast with the mistaken doctrine of being always at the foot of the cross, yet is it possible to be beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, and be thus changed into the same image from glory to glory, without remembering the death of the cross as the way by which He reached the throne of glory?
The death of the cross is therefore never to be forgotten by us, but to be had in constant remembrance till Jesus comes. The Lord's supper tells us this. In it, it is Himself we remember; His death we announce. Not, as we sometimes hear, that in it we "remember his death," but we remember Him. He said, "Do this in remembrance of me." We see Him by faith now crowned with glory and honor, but we remember Him in death for us on the cross. It is Himself we remember, the One who loved us, and gave Himself for us; and this is to be continued "till he come." Oh, the unspeakable wonders and blessedness of "the death of the cross!"