My dear young Brother, Any question you are led to ask, on such subjects as “the cross and the throne,” will give me unfeigned pleasure to answer, so far as I am enabled. And if we are truly subject to the Word of God, and simply depending on the teaching of His Spirit, we shall assuredly be instructed. “He shall glorify me,” says Jesus, “for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Thus, light will flow in. “The entrance of thy words giveth light.” (John 16:14; Psalm 119:130.) This is a point of much practical value in the study of the Word. I mean the state of our own souls. The disciple’s place is at the feet of Jesus. Simplicity, humility, dependence, should characterize him.
Much precious truth may be read, or listened to, with little profit if our own hearts are not in a proper state to receive it. The husbandman prepares the ground before he casts the seed.
To profit by the study of the Word, the soul must be in the presence of God, and in a spirit of child-like dependence on Him. It is to be feared that many go to the Bible merely to find passages, in order to support their own views or break down those of others. By so doing, an acquaintance with the Word may be attained, but a knowledge of it never can.
There is a wonderful difference between familiarity with the letter of Scripture, and a knowledge of its true and spiritual meaning. The former may be acquired by the human intellect, but the latter can only be learned at the Master’s feet.
When I sit down and open my Bible, I should distinctly realize the presence of the Lord and the authority of His Word; and acknowledge Him as the only source of blessing. This will give true subjection of heart to the holy Scriptures, and check the natural tendency of our own minds to reason and speculate thereon. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11.)
But this is away from our subject, and yet not away, for it is always important to see that the first step we take in any matter should be a right one.
Your question, dear brother, as to “the cross and the throne” presents a wide and an all-important theme, especially that of the cross. It has many aspects, both Godward and man ward. It has a bright and blessed aspect to the believer, but a dark and gloomy one to the unbeliever. And there God was perfectly revealed in all the moral glory of His character.
But, at present, I will confine myself, chiefly, to what was in my own mind when I used the expression, “To see Christ on the cross for us, and Christ on the throne for us, is perfect peace to the conscience, and eternal rest to the heart.” My thought was of Him as our representative on the cross and of His place on the throne as the triumphant proof of the completeness of His work, as such. The one proves the other; but I will first show you the type.
On the great day of Atonement in Israel, (see Lev. 16) Aaron, the high priest, laid his hands on the head of the scape-goat, and there confessed the sins of the whole congregation. Now, in this part of the service, he acted more as the representative of the people than as their priest. Doubtless he was their priest, and acted as such all through the work of that most interesting day. But in this special act, he stood before the Lord as the representative of the congregation. “ And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit person into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.” (Verses 21, 22.)
In this deeply significant action, Aaron stands before us as a most expressive type of Christ, on the cross, as the representative of His people: of all who, in every land, and in every age, believe in His name. But mark the striking contrast, notwithstanding the resemblance.
Aaron, as the representative of the congregation, confesses the sins of all Israel, over the head of the live goat. Typically, their sins are transferred to the head of the goat. The blessed Lord Jesus, as the apostle tells us, “offered himself without spot to God.” It was an entirely voluntary act. “And the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all.” These iniquities He confessed as His own. “Mine iniquities,” He says, “ have taken hold upon me.” He was both the REPRESENTATIVE and the VICTIM. He takes our sins upon Himself, and in perfect love to us, becomes our sin-bearer. Himself, the holy, spotless, sinless Lamb; He is made sin for us.
This is grace, my child, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is boundless! An ocean without a shore! Listen to His own mournful and pathetic language at this moment, “Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.” (Comp. Isa. 53; Psalm 40) Thus, He became on the cross, our sin-bearer, and made Himself responsible to God for all our liabilities. The precious blood of that cross was a perfect answer to all the demands of Heaven—and a perfect atonement for the whole condition and character of the sinner. By the shedding of His own blood He put away forever ALL our sins.
“Jesus put all my sins away
When bruised to make me whole;
Who shall accuse or who condemn
My blameless, ransomed soul?”
In the Epistle to the Hebrews we learn, that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering. He reached the throne through suffering. He is perfect there,—on the throne—in glory. Of course, you are bearing in mind, that I now speak of Him as the sinner’s substitute, for He ever was, in Himself, intrinsically perfect. We are contrasting the throne with the cross, as set forth in the first chapter of this epistle, which speaks of Him as God, and in the second, which treats of Him as man.
Seeing then, that Christ is on the throne, where are my sins? They are not on Him now. Oh, No! No! They were all put away on the cross, and buried in the grave of everlasting forgetfulness. Not one of them will ever be found. They have even gone from the very recollection of God: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Heb. 10:17.) And faith’s judgment always agrees with God’s.
But suppose, for a moment, that they are not all put away. What then? Where would they be? They could only be on the head of Jesus still. Because He was my sin-bearer. This, you will see at a glance, is utterly impossible, and altogether out of the question. The believer is not his own sin-bearer. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” (Rom. 8:33.) It is not, observe, who shall prove them guilty? But who shall lay anything to their charge?
The cross answers every charge, not the believer. One glance, my child, at Jesus on the throne in glory, is rest to the heart forever. Faith’s triumphant answer to every accuser is, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.” (Heb. 2:9.)
Now, you will here see two things of immense value.
1. That the believer is not his own sin-bearer. Christ is the sin-bearer, “who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Pet. 2:24.)
2. That by blood shedding they were all put away. And “without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Heb. 9:22.)
It is not said, observe, without sprinkling of blood is no remission, but without shedding of blood: this is all-important. The victim’s blood can only be shed ONCE. Oh, how conclusive this passage is as to WHEN our sins were, put away. “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” With the Jew, it was a sin and a sacrifice,—a sin and a sacrifice continually, simply because he never had a perfect sacrifice. But we are perfected forever, “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE.” (Heb. 10:10, 14.)
You may sometimes hear Christians speaking about “coming afresh to the blood of sprinkling,” and “that we daily need a fresh application of the blood to put away our daily sins.” Now, although they mean a right thing, they express it in a wrong way. The blood of Jesus can never lose its efficacy. If a second application were necessary, that would prove that the first had lost its value. True, Scripture speaks of various uses and applications of the blood, such as cleansing the leper, consecrating the priests, “and almost all things are by the law purged with blood;” but when the apostle speaks of REMISSION, he uses the word SHEDDING: “and without shedding of blood is no remission.” There must be suffering and death to put away sin; but the soul that has been ONCE washed in that precious blood is clean every whit, clean forever. Its efficacy is eternal. But the soul needs to have this precious truth constantly applied by the Holy Spirit, and that is called “the washing of water by the word.” There is a needful daily application of water. The brazen laver in Exod. 30, and the basin and towel in John 13 clearly teach us this. As Jesus says to Peter, “he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”
Thus are we cleansed from the defilements of the way, and have our hearts assured that all our sins were forever put away by the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross. There He bore our sins. There the victim’s blood was shed. There a full, a perfect, and eternal atonement was made. And the moment I see Him on the THRONE, my conscience is at perfect rest as to sin, and my heart finds perfect joy in Himself. For I know He has brought me into the same position as Himself. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” (1 Pet. 3:18.)
With these eternally precious truths, simple faith will have no difficulty, as may be seen in the following sweet testimony:
A neighbor stepped in to see Miss—only a few hours before she fell asleep in Jesus. And when asked, how she felt this morning?
“I am going,” she faintly replied.
“I trust,” said the neighbor, “you have a good hope.”
“O, no!” she distinctly answered, “I am not hoping—I am certain. MY SALVATION WAS FINISHED ON THE CROSS. I am going to Jesus—He is my hope.”
Oh! my dear young brother, this is testimony—the testimony of simple faith, from one who was so weak, that she could hardly speak.
May we ever live in the enjoyment of this blessed truth, and be its faithful witnesses, until the Saviour come.
So prays, yours, most affectionately,
THE CROSS.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God,
On the cross!
For us He shed His precious blood
On the cross.
Oh! hear that strange expiring cry—
“Eli lama sabacthani.”
Draw near and see the Saviour die
On the cross.
See, see His arms extended wide
On the cross;
Behold His bleeding hands and side
On the cross.
The sun withholds his rays of light,
The heavens are clothed in shades of night,
While Jesus wins the glorious fight
On the cross.
Come, sinners, see Him lifted up
On the cross.
He drinks for us the bitter cup
On the cross.
The rocks do rend, the mountains quake,
The earth doth to its center shake,
While Jesus doth atonement make
On the cross.
And now the mighty deed is done
On the cross.
The battle’s fought, the victory won
On the cross.
To heaven He turns His languid eyes,
“Tis finished,” now the Conqueror cries,
Then bows His sacred head, and dies
On the cross.
Where’er I go I’ll tell the story
Of the cross;
In nothing else my soul shall glory,
Save the cross,
Yes, this my constant theme shall be,
Through time, and in eternity,
That Jesus conquered death for me
On the cross.