The Cross: July 2009
Table of Contents
Mystery of Mysteries!
Oh solemn hour! Oh hour alone
In solitary might,
When God the Father’s only Son,
As man for sinners to atone,
Expires — amazing sight!
The Lord of glory crucified!
The Lord of life has bled and died!
Oh mystery of mysteries!
Of life and death the tree;
Center of two eternities,
Which look with rapt, adoring
eyes,
Onward and back to Thee —
Oh cross of Christ, where all His
pain
And death is our eternal gain.
Oh how our inmost hearts do
move,
While gazing on that cross;
The death of the Incarnate Love!
What shame, what grief, what joy
we prove,
That He should die for us!
Our hearts were broken by that cry,
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
J. G. Deck,
Little Flock Hymnbook, #215 r
r
The World, the Flesh,
the Devil
Mystery of Mysteries
July 2009
The Cross 3
Theme of the issue
God’s Blessing Through the Cross 4
E. P.
The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ 5
W. Brockmeier
The Offence of the Cross 8
W. W. Fereday
Glorying in the Cross 9
J. N. Darby
Words of Man’s Wisdom 12
T. B. Baines
Peace Through the Blood 15
of His Cross
J. A. Trench
Reconciliation by the Cross 16
From Words of Truth
The Offense of the Cross 18
J. W. Smith
The World, the Flesh, 19
the Devil
Theme of the next issue
Mystery of Mysteries 19
J. G. Deck
The Cross
There is nothing like the cross. There the awful sin of man met with the perfect love of God. At the cross sin rose up to the highest point of evil and was put away in its own worst act. God is above man, even in the height of his sin, not in allowing it, but in putting it away by Christ’s dying for sin in love. At the cross, sin was known for what it is, and to have a true heart, it must be known, and God was known, known in light. And the upright heart wants that. God is known in perfect love; we have no need to hide or screen our sin.
Satan’s power was fully manifested, and that over men in their passions. There we see the perfect Man as nowhere else, perfect love to the Father, perfect absolute obedience, and this in the very place of sin and the cup it had filled, and in human weakness, where Satan’s power was manifest, and the forsaking of God. At the cross God revealed His perfect righteousness against sin, and His sovereign, perfect, infinite love to the sinner — His majesty and truth were both made good. Such is the cross. In the history of eternity it stands alone. Man in God’s glory is its blessed result.
Selected from J. N. Darby r
Theme of the Issue
God’s Blessing Through the Cross
How divinely precious for the heart of the simplest saint of God, to be enabled through His Word to rise to know His mind! We learn that He who alone is the Blesser delights in blessing, not only refreshing us with His love, but bringing us by Christ’s blood without a spot and in perfect peace into His presence, the holiest of all. How wonderful to know the results of the cross, not only in the blotting out of all our sins, so hateful in the sight of God, but in the positive efficacy of the sacrifice which fits the believer for heaven as truly as it has glorified God about sin.
In Christ, God found His highest delight and expressed it over and over again. But sin was not judged till the scene of His own Son made sin on Calvary’s cross, at which the earth quaked and the rocks rent and the very sun shrouded itself in darkness. It was indeed the long-looked-for hour that stands alone in all time, yea, eternity, when the atoning work of Christ was accomplished, never again to be repeated.
God Glorified
God was herein glorified even as to sin, and He gave the immediate pledge of His entire satisfaction, in rending the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom. By the cross, any and every soul that believes His testimony to the work of His beloved Son is called to see the blood on and before the mercy-seat. By His blood, peace is made and we are fit to enter His holy presence, in the full rest of God’s estimate of eternal redemption. To faith, not only sin and death but His judgment were met in Christ’s death, and the glorious triumphs which crowned the ascended Lamb were given and made known to us. Thus, by grace we can now take up the language of the hymn and sing,
We triumph in Thy triumphs, Lord;
Thy joys our deepest joys afford;
They taste of love divine.
The Gospel Goes Out
The gospel goes out to every creature under heaven proclaiming God’s righteousness to all, and upon all that believe. But how unutterably solemn also is the cross for this Christ-rejecting world, already judged and only awaiting the day of its execution. Then will be the day of the Lord, when everything will give place to the One who alone is worthy, alone able to rule with equity and govern in righteousness to the glory of God the Father.
In answer to the cross, all things in heaven and in earth will be reconciled to God, and the universe will be suited to Him and the redeemed above and below. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” This and much more we, through grace, already know in Christ’s work for God’s glory and our souls. It is only as we keep this blessed hope and the appearing of the glory before our hearts in communion with Himself that we can rise above the seductions of this present evil age and the trying circumstances of the wilderness through which we pass, so as to bring glory to Christ’s peerless name. “If . . . we suffer with Him . . . we may be also glorified together.”
E. P., The Bible Treasury, 19:63 r
The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ
“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:18).
“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).
“That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph. 2:16).
“Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8).
“Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself” (Col. 1:20).
“Looking steadfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith; who, in view of the joy lying before Him, endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2 JND).
“Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
Not an Object of Veneration
For many years some have misused the symbol of the cross, but we will receive much blessing to our souls if we contemplate the great subject and teaching of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a parallel in Israel’s history to the abuse of a symbol of the death of Christ. “He [Hezekiah] . . . brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan [or, a piece of brass]” (2 Kings 18:4). The brazen serpent that once meant the salvation of the children of Israel had become an idolatrous object of worship. Today, some will also readily display the symbol of Christ’s suffering and death, while casually defaming the name of the Son of God. God has no pleasure in such a demonstration. He desires to see love for “our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (Eph. 6:24).
We do well to remember that God did not dispense with the value of the type of the brazen serpent even though man had corrupted its significance. The Lord Jesus personally referenced this account in speaking to Nicodemus: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Let us not, then, neglect the precious truth connected with the cross, while taking care not to make a symbol of it an object of veneration.
It is easy for us to have a limited view of the cross. We may presume that when the cross is mentioned, it speaks only of the place of suffering that our Saviour endured in order to tell out His heart of love and to save us from our sins. Admittedly, this is profound beyond wonder, yet there is more for our hearts and consciences to contemplate. The facts of the cross are set forth in the Gospels, but the doctrine of the cross, as unfolded in the epistles, takes us far beyond this.
This is not to deny that there are instructive distinctions to consider in the Gospels. For example, why is it in John’s Gospel that there is no mention of Simon the Cyrenian carrying the Lord’s cross? Instead, we read, “He [Jesus] bearing His cross went forth” (John 19:17). Is it not because, consistent with John’s Gospel, we have the Lord Jesus presented in all the dignity of the Son of God? All others must fade from view before the majesty of the eternal One. He bore the cross alone, or, “by Himself ” (Heb. 1:3). When Abraham was told to offer up his son Isaac, his young men are directed to stay back, as father and son “went both of them together” (Gen. 22:56). In keeping with that theme, in John’s Gospel the Father and the Son abide in precious communion; no mention is made of either the cry of abandonment or the hours of darkness. But we must pass on to consider something of the significance of the cross in the various epistles.
Man’s Wisdom
In Corinth, the assembly was being influenced by secular wisdom, and here the cross sweeps aside man and his wisdom. Paul shows it was this wisdom that led man to crucify the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:6,8). Calvary means “skull” (Luke 23:33). The wisdom of this world will never lead us to comprehend the mind of God, for the believer understands by the Spirit of God.
Occasionally we hear the verse, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), explained to mean that the only subject Paul spoke about was Christ dying for our sins, and therefore that is all we should talk about. While even a cursory reading of Paul’s letters would prove otherwise, we should note the expression, “among you” — that is, you Corinthians. (Compare “crucified among you,” Galatians 3:1, as it related to the assemblies in Galatia.) The force of this passage is that Paul did not come to those proud, educated people on a line that would appeal to their intellect. On the contrary, he rejected man’s methods and learning and an approach that would have appealed to man in the flesh. The cross set aside that entire approach (1 Cor. 2:35).
Man’s Religion
In Galatians the cross sets aside man and his religion. False brethren were promoting such things as circumcision and the keeping of holy days, to advance their cause and corrupt the purity of the gospel. Paul contrasts circumcision with the cross. The Judaizers were glorying in the ritual of what typically spoke of the cutting off of man in the flesh — while doing the very opposite of what the figure was intended to teach! Further, he contrasts the mark of circumcision with the marks, or brands, he suffered when persecuted for Christ. Paul was circumcised, but he suffered because he refused to make that a mark of spiritual standing. He gloried in the cross, that which separated him in heart and practice from the religious world that gloried in the flesh, and for which he was reproached by the religious world (“the offense of the cross,” Galatians 5:11). The cross not only symbolizes death, but the reproach connected with crucifixion.
The Wall of Partition
In Ephesians, the leading thought of the cross is the means by which the middle wall of partition was broken down and the enmity between Jew and Gentile removed. Christ is our peace, not here between God and man, but between man and man. Now we both have access to the Father (Eph. 2:11-22).
Service in Lowliness
Perhaps few verses are read among us as frequently as Philippians 2:5-11. The subject here is not the atoning sufferings, but rather we have the cross brought before us as the end of the path of lowly service of our blessed Lord and the pattern for us to follow as a remedy for matters of strife that arise among the saints. The cross was intended for criminals. The blessed Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors. Are we content to follow Him there? We could never have part in His atoning sufferings, but in the path of humble service, He permits us to know, in measure, the fellowship of His sufferings. Have we been maligned? misrepresented? mistreated? If so, may we consider Him and learn something of that character of suffering that He passed through in perfection.
Blessing and Reconciliation
In Colossians, the cross is brought before us in yet another aspect. It is the basis upon which the Godhead can bless and reconcile. God is not at war with this world. True, He will judge this world in righteousness (Acts 17:31), but at this present time God is reconciling man to Himself. He will reconcile all things in the heavens and earth. (Note it does not say “under the earth” as in Philippians 2:10, because there the subject is confession that Jesus is Lord — not reconciliation.) The Godhead has already reconciled believers. The “handwriting of ordinances that was against us” (the Jews’ obligation to the law —Exodus 24:3,68) was annulled at the cross; therefore, it was neither for the Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 2:14 JND).
Sacrifice and Devotion
The Jewish believers addressed in the Book of Hebrews were enduring many trials. After seeking to encourage these suffering saints in their unique trials, by outlining various examples of those who lived by faith, the writer directs their eyes away from all others, as noble as they were, to look steadfastly upon Jesus as the object of faith. He endured. While He despised the shame, He must endure the cross. Had they endured the contradiction of sinners against themselves? So had He. But they had not yet resisted unto blood (that is, given their lives as martyrs). They might be called to do so, but He had gone before. The cross is then seen as the ultimate measure of sacrifice and devotedness to God.
The Place of the Curse
Finally, in 1 Peter we have the cross referred to as “the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). As in Galatians 3:13, this expression connects the cross with what the Jews knew experimentally from Deuteronomy 21:22-23. (Crucifixion was Roman.) The tree brings before us death under the curse of a broken law, the horror of which we will never know. If in Exodus 15 the tree cast into the waters made them sweet, we must remember that there was no sweetness in the cross. The Lord Jesus must taste its bitterness that we might drink of the resulting sweetness. When the poet penned the expression “rugged cross,” perhaps it was intended to reference Acts 5:30. The KJV translates as “the tree”; the JND as “the cross,” but with a marginal note indicating that literally the word is “wood,” suggesting the roughness of that death.
In the midst of the Garden of Eden stood the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). Likewise, it stands in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7). In the place where our Lord was crucified there was also a garden (John 19:41). While we know from other Gospels that two others were crucified with Him, only in John do we read, “And Jesus in the midst” (John 19:18). To Him it was a tree of death, but to us a tree of life.
Oh cross of Christ! Oh glorious
tree!
What place can be compared with
thee?
W. Brockmeier r
The Offense of the Cross
Ordinances and legalism do not entail persecution and suffering. The natural man can enter into and appreciate them, and when those who bear the Lord’s name sink to this level, the world and themselves are agreed and can walk together. How sorrowfully and long has this been true in Christendom! Had the Apostle preached circumcision and blended Judaism generally with the Christianity he taught, he would have been spared much, as he himself says, “Then is the offence of the cross ceased.” But against all this he ever resolutely set his face, at all cost to himself, and other faithful men who stood with him.
W. W. Fereday r
Glorying in the Cross
Nothing is so difficult as to take a man out of himself; it is impossible, except by giving him a new nature. Man glories in anything that will bring honor to himself — anything that distinguishes him from his neighbor. It does not matter what it is, as long as it gives him an advantage over others. Some may glory in their talents. There are differences in men’s minds; vanity is seen more in some, wishing for the good opinion of others; pride more in others, having a good opinion of themselves. Wealth, knowledge, anything that distinguishes a man, he will glory in and make a little world around himself by it. There is another thing, too, that men glory in, besides things such as talent, birth and wealth, and that is his religion. Man thus takes the very thing that God has given to take him out of himself and accredits himself with it.
Religion
The measure of truth, connected with the religion men hold, is the very occasion of their glorying. Thus one who owns God will glory in his religion over those who do not; the Jew glories in his religion — he has the truth, and “salvation is of the Jews”; even the Christian is thankful he has truth, but then he prides himself upon it, and this brings in the mischief. The subtlety of the enemy is seen in proportion as it is truth in which he makes a man glory. With Jonah there was just this pride at work: He was proud of being a Jew and would not go to Nineveh, as God told him, because he was afraid of losing his reputation. He would rather have seen all Nineveh destroyed than have his own credit as a prophet lost. Jonah was a true prophet, but, glorying in himself, he turned his religion into a ground of self-glorying. Whatever you are decking yourself out with — it may even be with a knowledge of Scripture—it is glorying in the flesh. Ever so little a thing is enough to make us pleased with ourselves.
Self
Glorying in religion is a deeper thing. Whatever comes from man must be worthless. A man cannot glory in being a sinner. Conscience can never glory, and there is no true religion without the conscience. What is it then in religion that man glories in? It always must have a legal character, because there must be something for him to do — hard penance, or anything, no matter at what cost, if only it glorifies self. “As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised. . . . They . . . desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh” (Gal. 6:12-13). Man could bind heavy burdens. Why should he? Because self wants something to do. When man glories in self, there may be the truth in a measure, but it is of the legal character always, because there must be something man can do for God. Glorying in the flesh is not glorying in sin, but, as in Philippians 3, religious glorying, glorying in something besides Christ. But in the cross man has nothing to say to it. It is not my cross, but “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and the only part I had in Christ’s cross was sin. My sin had to do with it, for it brought Him there. This puts man down altogether. The one single thing I have in the cross is my sin.
Sin
There is this further thought: We are utterly lost without it. Divine love treats me as an utterly lost sinner, and the more I see that perfect, divine love, the more I see how vile I am, utterly contemptible, defiled and lost. As a sinner, I have liked defiling myself; I am a wretched slave, dragged down to my defilement. The cross, when I see what it is, destroys my glorying in self and puts truth in the inward parts, too, for it not only shows me how bad I am, but it makes me glad to confess my sin, instead of making excuses for it. I am awakened to say, I am guilty of having loved all this. Love opens the heart and enables me to come and tell Him how bad I am. I thus delight to record all that He has done, all that I owe Him, and that is thankfulness. There is no delighting in the sin, but rejoicing in the remedy.
God’s Delight
Then we have, on the other side, God’s delight in the cross. “Having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20), God gives us to delight with Him in the value of it. And first we see in it God’s unutterable love — “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). It was love acting in its own proper energy from itself only, so properly divine that a soul expecting it, as a matter of course, could not be a fit object for it. God’s work and God’s way are shown in a manner that man could not and ought not to have thought of. I am a poor, miserable sinner, and there I see God’s love in giving His own Son. When He forgives, there is the positive, active energy of love in giving the best thing — the thing nearest to itself —for sin, which is the thing farthest from itself, giving it to be “made . . . sin.” When I look at the cross, I see perfect and infinite love, God giving His Son to be “made . . . sin”; I see perfect and infinite wisdom also.
Sins Judged
With a conscience, I cannot enjoy God’s love without seeing Him dealing about my sins. Can God accept me in my sins? Can He accept an imperfect offering? As Micah says, Can I give “the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Cain brought the fruit of his own work, without any sense of sin; the hardness of his heart was proved by it, and an utter forgetfulness about his sin. I see in the cross what my sin is. I cannot look at that as God sees it without learning God. Man has forgotten God enough to rise up against Him who was God’s remedy for his misery. Then judgment must be exercised; God’s authority must be vindicated. Are angels to see man flying in God’s face, and He take no notice of it? No! God is a righteous judge, and judgment must be executed. There is judgment as well as love seen in the cross; not only Christ, the Holy One, being made sin, but undergoing the judgment due to sin. There is the unsparing wrath of God against the sin, but God’s perfect love to the sinner. There His majesty, which we insulted, is vindicated; even the Son bows to that. If He is to keep up the brightness of the Father’s glory, He must vindicate His character in this way. God’s truth was proved at the cross. “The wages of sin is death.” Man had forgotten this, but Christ stands up, the witness of God in such a world, that what God has said is true. “The wages of sin is death.” The love with which God wins man to Him proves this very thing at the same time.
God’s Purpose Accomplished
There is more in the cross. God accomplishes all His purposes by it. He is bringing “many sons unto glory,” and how could He bring these defiled sinners into the same glory with His own Son? God has so fully accomplished the work that, when in the glory with Him, we shall be a part of the display of that glory. Therefore He says, “In the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace” — a Mary Magdalene, a thief upon the cross, trophies of that grace, through all eternity! And how could He set them in such a place with His own Son? His own glory and love rise over all our sin and put it all away; He Himself has done it.
Peace and Love
For us, then, the cross has done two things: It has given peace of conscience and made us the vessels of such love and grace. The conscience has certainty and peace, and more than that, a confidence that Adam in innocence could never have had. There is communion and peace in my own soul, and there is another thing also — I have clearness of understanding in the ways of God.
When you do not know the cross, you may use human efforts to quiet your conscience. When you know it, it leaves spiritual affections free. When I see the cross, I can love God. If I have offended Him, I can go to Him directly and tell Him, for I am a child, and my relationship is not thereby altered. My fellowship is with the Father and the Son — this is my happy privilege. When I can glory in the cross, there is an end of glorying in self, for I am nothing but a sinner. Are our souls glorying in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in self? If you are not glorying in the cross, it is your own loss, not to say your own sin, for you can never see God’s love, God’s holiness, God’s wisdom, God’s truth, as on the cross. The very nature which is connected with the world is what occasioned Christ’s death. Therefore, when I glory in the cross, I am crucified to the world.
J. N. Darby, adapted r
Words of Man’s Wisdom
It is often forgotten that the flesh in the believer is just the same as the flesh in the unbeliever. This was doubtless known, but certainly neglected, by the saints at Corinth, and as the evil which the flesh brings into the church always resembles that prevailing in the world around, so here we see the vices of Greek society penetrating into the Corinthian assembly. License of walk and license of speculation distinguished the world around them, and these evils soon appeared in the church. The license of walk showed itself in their tolerance of moral conduct such as was not even “named among the Gentiles,” in their drunkenness and indulgence at the Lord’s table, and in the disorderly and lawless character of their meetings. The license of speculation showed itself in their lax thoughts about identifying themselves with idol worship and in their readiness to divide into schools of doctrine according to their preference for certain teachers.
They did not, in fact, see man’s ruin. They believed in the fall as a fact, but they failed to grasp the consequences it involved. They would have allowed that it alienated man from God, but that it so utterly blinded his moral nature as to render him incapable of seeing the truth of God, they did not understand. This is just the error of our own times. Many think that the flesh needs improvement. Others admit its moral ruin and the need of a new nature, but few see the total incapacity of man’s natural wisdom to judge rightly in the things of God. The Corinthians, overlooking this truth, brought their own fleshly wisdom to divine things, and the inevitable result was confusion and division. They were splitting into schools of doctrine, like sects in our own day, and the Apostle declares that they were carnal and walked as men.
Philosophy
The Apostle Paul addresses this tendency to exalt man’s wisdom in his first epistle to the Corinthians. Paul says that Christ sent him “to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” In how much of the preaching of the day is human wisdom not only allowed, but demanded? Preachers are sought after for their eloquence, their logic, their talents, rather than for the fidelity with which they present the truth of God. But God’s Word is clear. The cross of Christ and the wisdom of man cannot go together. If the cross of Christ is to be exalted, man’s wisdom must be brought low. If man’s wisdom is to be magnified, the cross of Christ must “be made of none effect.”
The reason is simple—“the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). So widely do man’s thoughts diverge from God’s that even in the most marvelous display of God’s saving power, man can discern nothing but foolishness. No wonder, for if God is to be known at all, He must be known morally. But men’s consciences shrink from looking at God in His moral character. Therefore, long ago, “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:28). The very wisest became fools in the things of God. The most learned and philosophical people in the world owned their ignorance by raising an altar “to the unknown God.” Others groped in idle speculations, but all were equally blind as to what God was. This was according to God’s wisdom, for as He is holy and righteous, these are the first things that a sinner must learn, and these are just the truths to which natural wisdom can never attain. God must be known, not as fallen man can understand Him, but as He has revealed Himself, and this only the soul taught by the Spirit can comprehend. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
The Foolishness of Preaching
But when “in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” God’s salvation must address itself to man’s moral ruin, and this is just the fact which the pride of human wisdom will not and cannot recognize. Hence the cross becomes the scoff of the wise, the stumbling block of the worldly-minded. Man admires power and wisdom, but only when suited to his own thoughts. The Jews looked for a messiah arrayed in worldly majesty and glory; the Greeks sought after a god suited to their own philosophical speculations. How could either, then, recognize or receive a Saviour who came clothed with humility and weakness? “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22-24).
The Power and Wisdom of God
It was impossible for the Jew, with no sense of the moral ruin of his people, to recognize the power of God in the One whom he had seen scorned and spit upon, scourged and crucified. It was impossible for the Greek, with no consciousness of sin or need, and seeking only for the gratification of his intellect, to discern the wisdom of God in the death of an obscure Galilean who had been crucified between two thieves. To perceive the wisdom and power of God in such a scene, there must be the complete giving up of all human pretension, the submission of heart to God’s righteousness, and the consciousness of need as a lost, ruined sinner. It is only “unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,” that the power and wisdom of God can shine out from such a background.
But to them that are called, what marvels of power and wisdom are here disclosed! Where was victory so complete as that which was achieved when this Man of sorrows bowed His head and gave up the spirit? The iron bondage of sin and Satan, of the grave and death, was forever broken; the veil which hid God from man and kept man from God was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; the righteous judgment of God was borne by the spotless sacrifice, and the fountain of His grace and love set free to flow out in streams of richest blessing to a ruined world. Such was the display of God’s power in Christ crucified, nor was His wisdom less conspicuous or less adorable. If it is in the church that God now displays His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, where would that church have been but for the hours of darkness passed by the Holy One upon the cross? There it was that the cunning and craft of Satan were turned to his own confusion, his seeming victory changed to defeat, and Christ’s seeming overthrow converted into triumph. From that lowest depth He ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, for truly “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
That No Flesh Glory
And this is always God’s way, that “no flesh should glory in His presence.” So it was when Jesus was in this world, for then the things of God were hid from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes. So it was of old. It was by the foolishness of blowing rams’ horns around a powerful fortress that “the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.” It was by the weakness of Shamgar’s ox goad, Gideon’s three hundred, and Samson’s jawbone that Israel was delivered and the armies of the aliens were turned to flight. Everywhere we see God choosing “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,” and “the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”
Man’s Wisdom
Such is, and ever has been, God’s way. That man’s natural wisdom is corrupted and useless in the things of God and that God has chosen to work by that which the world’s wisdom despises as foolish is plain wherever we look. He would strip fallen man of all glory in order that He may make Christ Jesus to be to the believer “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” How worse than useless, then, to bring in the thing which God has thus discredited, to the preaching of the gospel, the teaching of God’s truth, or the ordering of His church. When brought into the preaching of the gospel, its effect is to make the cross of Christ of none effect; when brought into the teaching of God’s truth, its effect is to cause strife and sectarianism, to substitute “philosophy and vain deceit” for that mystery in which “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”; when brought into the ordering of the church, its effect is to displace the directions of Scripture for rules and forms of man’s devising. Whether it takes the form of wisdom or ceremonial, of rationalism or ritualism, it is, as we see in the epistle to the Colossians, an intruder and disturber, from which those who are dead with Christ should know their deliverance.
God’s Wisdom
There is but one rule for the new man, and that is the Word of God —but one interpreter of Scripture, and that is the Holy Spirit. Here we have God’s wisdom, and not man’s, and if we would rightly understand it, we must do so by discarding man’s wisdom altogether and taking the place of learners in God’s school. If any man “seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.” In an age when man’s wisdom and science are exalting themselves against God, and even true believers are beguiled by their pretensions, it is well to see clearly the utter worthlessness of these things in helping us to understand the mind of God and to grasp with firmer hand the truth of the all-sufficiency and sovereign authority of that Word, which “is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:1617).
T. B. Baines r
Peace Through the Blood of the Cross
The effect of Christ’s presence here, in the full revelation of His goodness, was that it became a signal for the wild outbreak of all that man was against God. Thus all our state came fully out. Instead of reconciliation, His presence only drew out all the irreconcilableness of the natural heart. And “having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself” (Col. 1:20). Having begun with the center of the enmity, reconciliation will go out to all creation, but He begins with man. Man only was opposed to God’s heart and will. His full state comes out now with all the added light of the cross upon that condition.
“One Died for All”
“If one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14). Up to the cross, God had been dealing with man as alive in the flesh. Then He sent His own Son into the world, the only result being the outbreak of all the enmity of man’s heart. Now God looks upon man as dead in sins; how blessed to have bowed to it, that we are absolutely dead in sins by the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now when we give ourselves up for what we are before God, reconciliation begins to shine out before us —not to do with sins, but with the state of enmity of man’s heart. God has identified Himself with our condition; “He hath made Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). All our state, having come fully out, has been judged in the cross of Christ. That was the end, not merely of all that I have done, but of all that I am.
New Creation
We know Christ no more after the flesh (2 Cor. 5:16). We know Him now as risen from the dead, a new creation, having entered that place as Man. It is a wholly new creation, where all things are of God. Thus we see a Man gone up in divine righteousness before God, and all that wonderful place into which He has gone opening up before us, as the home of our hearts. No disturbance can come there between your souls and God. The word reconciliation is a difficult one to explain. We find an illustration of it in Joseph and his brethren. After enjoying the fruit of his love for fifteen years, when their father died, they said, “Joseph will peradventure hate us” (Gen. 50:15). They were not reconciled. With how many is it thus now, often not known until a deathbed by one who has been enjoying the fruits of His work for years. There has been a lurking suspicion all the time, because they have never seen how God has closed the history of the first man. What rest of heart when that is known!
J. A. Trench r
Reconciliation by the Cross
Christ in His death on the cross is the means by which, through Him alone, all things are reconcilable to God, whether things in heaven or things on earth; all in me that is contrary to God is judged there, and through this only am I reconcilable to God. He bore all the wrath that I deserved. He bore death for everything, for judgment was on everything. It is not my sins merely, but everything under judgment from which the cross frees me. People will admit that nothing but the cross could free them from their sins and reconcile them with God, but everything here is under judgment, and there is no other way for everything else to be reconciled but in the same way as I, a sinner, have been. If everything here is reconcilable only through the cross, it is evident that everything needed reconciliation, and no reconciliation could be effected but through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which you and I ought to say, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). Nay, make it our boast, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is evident that the Apostle is not here speaking of his sins. He is speaking of all the things under judgment, and he is glorying before God in his own position through it — not grieving that he has to give up the world, or trying to keep as much of it as he can without losing the peace of his conscience, but that he is absolutely severed from it all through the cross of Christ, the world crucified to him and he unto the world.
Everything Under Judgment
If you felt that judgment was on everything, you would like to be relieved from it. You know what a relief it is to you to put the cross between you and your sins, or rather to know that God has done so. Now, you would not revert to your sins —you would not neutralize the efficacy of the cross and return to the responsibility of your sins. You rejoice that it has forever, in God’s sight, severed you from your sins. Now, if you could feel about everything in the world as you do about your sins, you would rejoice that by His same cross you are crucified to the world, and the world to you. It determines the question at once between what is of man and what is divine.
Everything connected with the first Adam, or with which he was connected, is judged in the death of Christ. All the judged things stand on one side of His death, and the unjudged things on the other side. I rejoice when I find that I am freed, not only from my sins, but from all around me which is not of God. Everything not reconciled through the cross is under judgment. How cheering to my heart to realize that I am, through the cross of Christ, entirely out of it, “and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). It is important to see all that the cross embraces, and that the death of Christ separates me from everything here, unto Himself. His death alone connects me with anything here. I remember Him in His death and announce it till He comes.
Death Required
Reconciliation required His death. It was necessary for me and for everything that I see. Could this very earth be reconciled without His death? We know it could not! Can I look at it or admire it without recalling the price of reconciliation — or, rather, is not every article on earth labelled with it? His death is the only agreeable association, solemn and momentous as it is, that you can have on earth. Everything else that you see, and even yourself, required it. You ought to be thankful that it has secured you in God’s sight absolutely, as a new man, entirely apart from the scene, though while in it, this is your only association—your only admissible contact with it. His death becomes the true and most grateful remembrance of your heart towards Him, while you are on the earth. You do not like to remember Him in any other place here; you like to remember Him where He ended everything against God —everything of the old man — and brought in everything according to the heart of God.
Adapted from
Words of Truth, 8:217 r
The Offence of the Cross
Jesus, when asked of John if he was the Messiah, said, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me” (Matt. 11:6). Offense was quite as much a part of His mission as the giving of life or health to the needy. Was John offended by his imprisonment? He had now to learn that his truest honor as his Lord’s forerunner lay in suffering for Him. A special blessing attaches to his sharing the sufferings of Christ — “Blessed is he”! Oh, how this word must have calmed the troubled mind of John! How it would explain his situation as a prisoner and add luster to his chain. In it the Lord predicted His own cross and stamped the nature of all true Christian testimony.
It were an easy service had we only to preach the gospel to the poor and witness the benevolent acts of a gracious Saviour, but while this is our privilege, we are connected with One who was crucified. He esteems the cross His highest glory, and He values the heart that follows in the same path.
Paul broke in upon luxurious Corinth with the gospel, but his motto was that he should know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This steadied his soul and kept him clear of Corinthian folly. He sought to know a crucified Christ.
And in the luxury — the religious luxury — of the day, how this searching truth is needed! The day of glory will come, but meanwhile we are called on to learn the offense of the cross. That offense has not yet ceased, and the cross is, on the one hand, as ever, the badge of man’s enmity to God, as it is, on the other hand, at once the proof of God’s love and of His judgment. God tests everything by the cross of Christ. What savors most of it is dearest to Him, and the religion that refuses it is held in abomination by Him.
Popularized Christianity
How much of this “offense” is to be found in the popularized Christianity of the day? Nay, the one effort seems to be to avoid the cross, both in its atoning and world-condemning characters. It is despised as of old, and therefore this popularization of the truth has brought about the most fearful anomaly possible. What could be a greater travesty of the Christianity of the apostles than the sad counterfeit we see around us? There is no resemblance between that which is presented to us in the Book of the Acts and the money-loving, pleasure-seeking, world-hunting Christianity of today. It is, as a system, the negation of Christianity, and for the general decay we have to bear the shame. If then one testimony can be made brighter than another, it consists in not being offended in Jesus.
Outward success in His work is deprived of the greater part of its glory if the offense be lacking. “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me” had its deep and significant meaning to the imprisoned John, just as much as the fact that the blind, the lame, the deaf and the leper were cured or the dead raised. The offense of the cross was, and is, an integral and essential part of the one divine testimony.
J. W. Smith r