THE Old Testament types, as well as the visions in the Revelation, most prominently set before us the death of the Son of God. In the tabernacle service, sacrifices were continually being offered; and blood was so frequently sprinkled, and in so many places, that a spectator could hardly fail of perceiving it at almost every turn. And in the visions of glory, beheld by the beloved disciple, how strikingly the blood of the Lamb seems to light up the eternal scene, and fill the hearts of all with a never-ending song of joy and praise!
When we think that the death of the Lord Jesus is the great manifestation of God’s love, the fountain that hath been opened for sin and for uncleanness, and that it is the ground of our access with confidence unto the Father, surely we cannot too often exhort one another to meditate upon Him, and His finished work.
To know forgiveness of sins, and peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus, is very blessed. Most gracious it is of God to bring any soul to rest in the all-prevailing efficacy of that blood which was shed for sinners; but it is only the first lesson of the Cross of Christ―the beginning of the knowledge of the grace of God. The Scriptures present to the spiritual eye other lessons of most important truth, in connection with the death of Christ, of a deeply practical kind. Those who have grown in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, find a remedy in the Cross for every soul-disease―a cordial for all soul-trouble―a continual admonition to walk in the Spirit, and enough to warrant their having the largest expectations from the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. They know there is virtue in one tree alone to sweeten all their bitter waters; and a savor in the agonies and groans of the slain Lamb to temper all their joys. They prove the “broken body” of Jesus to be “meat indeed,” and His blood to be “drink indeed”; to be substantial realities, to satisfy the daily craving of their hungry and thirsty souls. It was that Cross that was the first meeting-place between God and their souls; and they know that it is, and ever will be, the sole ground of their abiding in the presence of God. They know also, that in time of trial and temptation, that Cross speaks of unfathomable resources, and of an unfailing refuge in God, while it withers up fleshly expectations and confidences, and enables them most heartily to subscribe to the declaration of the Holy Ghost, “That no flesh should glory in His presence,” but that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord.
The Scriptures testify of Christ, and it is well to be diligently, earnestly, prayerfully occupied, in dependence on the Holy Ghost, who testifies of Christ, in searching for Him. “Search the Scriptures,” said Jesus, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me;” and I am persuaded that the death of Jesus is there presented to us in a great variety of ways, for reproof, correction, and instruction, as well as for comfort and practical separation unto God. Let us, as God may help, consider a few portions.
In the epistle to the saints at Colosse, we are taught, that it is through the death of Christ that the believer is presented without spot to God. “And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight.” (Col. 1:21, 2221And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:21‑22).) In the epistle to the Hebrews, the same doctrine is expressed. “By one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)); and in the fifth of Revelation, the song of the glorified saints expresses the same truth: “Thou art worthy ... . for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood.... and hast made us unto our God kings and priests,” &c.; and in the seventh chapter, when the question is asked, “What are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they?” the answer is, “They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, therefore are they before the throne of God,” &c. (See also 2 Corinthians 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21).)
In Ephesians 2 we have the double action of the Cross of Christ. First, reconciling to God; secondly, bringing the members, both Jews and Gentiles, nigh to one another. “But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished, in His flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby.”
In Hebrews 10 we find the death of Christ presented to us as our ground of access into God’s presence. “Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh,” &c.
In Galatians 6 the Cross of Christ is set before us as the power of separation from the world. How can a Christian love the world, when he sees all its elements, moral and intellectual, civil and religious, among great and small, bond and free, united in crucifying the Lord of glory? And will the world (for it is made up of the same elements as ever it was,) love any one whose single purpose is to honor and exalt the earth-rejected, crucified Son of God? “God forbid,” said Paul, “that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
In Galatians 3 the death of Jesus is used to show us that we have full deliverance from the law. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Romans 7 teaches us the same truth. “Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.... Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” (vss. 4, 6.) Eph. 2 also asserts, that Christ “abolished, in His flesh, the law of commandments contained in ordinances;” and in Gal. 5:1,1Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1) saints are exhorted to stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
In Rom. 6 the spiritual contemplation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is set before us, as the power of practical holiness, sheaving us the judgment, death, and putting out of sight of “our old man,” and that we have a new life as risen with Christ. When the question is asked, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” The answer is, “God forbid. How shall we that are dead [have died] to sin live any longer therein? .... Our old man is crucified with Him.... Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead [to have died] indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
In Rom. 8:32,32He 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) the wonderful grace of God, in delivering up His own Son to unsparing wrath for our offenses, is used by the apostle to show the willingness of His heart to freely give us all things; thus making the sufferings and death of Jesus the warrant for our having the largest expectations from God. “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?”
We thus see how the Spirit of God uses the Cross of Christ to give liberty and happiness of soul, to enable us to rise above the flesh, to live in practical separation unto God, and to trust in Him at all times. Now, let us look at the first epistle to the Corinthians for a few examples of the deep practical value of the Cross of Christ.
In ch. 1:11, when a spirit of contention and division was so working as to induce some to say, “I am of Paul;” the apostle proposed this most touching and searching question, “Was Paul crucified for you?” How is it possible that there can be contentions and divisions among the Lord’s people, so long as each knows and realizes Christ to be the great object of the soul, and touchstone of the conscience and affections? “Only by pride cometh contention.” (Prov. 13:1010Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. (Proverbs 13:10).)
In vs. 17 of the same chapter, the folly of “wisdom of words” is exposed, as calculated to make “the Cross of Christ of none effect.” A true knowledge of the Cross would keep from confidence in man’s wisdom: for “the world by wisdom knew not God.” (vs. 21.)
In ch. 2, determining not to know anything among men, but “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” is connected with preaching in “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” although with felt “weakness, and fear, and much trembling.” This is used to show the evil of preaching with “enticing words of man’s wisdom,” which might only lead the hearers to glory in men, and cause their faith to “stand in the wisdom of men,” instead of in “the power of God.”
In ch. 5. the death of Christ is presented to the saints as the great motive for purging out evil from the church of God. Leading their minds back to the celebration of the Passover in Egypt, Paul shows them that God is a sin-hating God, as well as a sin-pardoning God, and that then, as well as now, eating the Passover was connected with putting away leaven out of their houses. The Cross of Christ shows God’s holiness as well as grace. “Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
In ch. 6, when the matter of saints going to law with one another, and brother defrauding brother are noticed, the work of Christ is again remarkably introduced. The apostle reminded them that they were once unrighteous; but now, said he, “Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
In the latter part of the same chapter, when fornication is treated of, the saints are again instructed by the Cross of Christ; they are reminded that they are the purchase of Christ’s blood, that the members of their body are not their own, but that they belong to God; and that therefore they cannot justly use that which legitimately belongs to another without His permission. “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? ... .Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
In chs. 7:20-23, the Cross of Christ is again introduced in reference to calling and position in things concerning the present life. The Christian servant is the Lord’s freeman; the freeman is Christ’s servant. Both are alike redeemed with the precious blood or Christ. They are not their own. There is no room for the dominion of another master. They are put; chased by the blood of the Son of God. Hence, says the apostle, “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.”
In charter 10 idolatry also is met by the Cross of Christ. The crucified Son of God being an object worthy of all the heart’s affection and confidence, those who have partaken of Him should have no fellowship with devils. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.”
In chs. 11, when we again find contentions, and the Lord’s Supper so abused, that the apostle could only write to them as coming together “for the worse,” and that it was not really the “Lord’s Supper” they came together to eat, the Cross of Christ is again set before them as the great substantial of the Lord’s Supper. Do this in remembrance of ME is the great point. It was not the Lord’s Supper, unless they discerned the Lord’s body, and then it should be with self-examination. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.”
Lastly, in ch. 15. of this epistle, when the apostle meets the grievous error that had been introduced among them touching the resurrection, he commences his argument by planting afresh before them the Cross of the Son of God. “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.”
These are only a few of the many examples that might be given of the variety of ways in which the Holy Ghost presents the Cross of Christ to us in the Scriptures, with a practical bearing on the conscience. All the parts of the Christian’s armor, whether it be the’ girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes, the shield of faith, helmet of salvation, or sword of the Spirit, are all connected, more or less, with the Cross of the Son of God. And, if brotherly love is enjoined, it is still in keeping with the same; for, said Jesus, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; AS I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” And if the Apostle, by the Holy Ghost, refers to the same subject, in exhorting saints to minister to each other’s necessities, it is, “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” (2 Cor. 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9).) In short, the subject is summed up, in principle, in the closing book of the New Testament by the emphatic statement, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 12:1111And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (Revelation 12:11).)
May we know more, beloved, of the power and value of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!