THE grandest of all subjects, the most magnificent of all themes, is the Cross of Christ. Eternity has its counsels, vast and grand; time has its histories and facts of exceeding interest. But is there a counsel of eternity nigh so morally grand as this,—" A Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world; but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God " (1 Peter 1:19)? Oh I in that divine silence of eternity, before ever men began to weep; before ever the sad records of our race were chronicled by a divine or human pen; before ever the trail of the serpent disfigured the walks of Paradise, or his hiss disturbed the harmony of Eden; before ever the sun poured down his golden beams of light and warmth, or the stars illuminated the heavens, or the pale and silvery moon beckoned a weary world to repose,—the Cross of Christ was God's grandest counsel.
Redemption was no after-thought on the part of God; and while it is true that our sin necessitated the remedy, if sinners were to be in love, and holily and righteously saved, yet it is profoundly important for the peace and strength of our souls, to see that the remedy Is not to be measured by the sin, as it was planned where and when there was no sin. Thus our blessing is not to be measured by our need, nor is the character and greatness of the remedy to be measured by the sin which called it forth. God's glory was the prime object in the Cross of Christ; that met, secures salvation to the sinner believing on Jesus.
The Cross is the basis of God's glory. Had the creation remained unfallen, were the crown yet resting on the brow of its Lord, would it have been proclaimed that God is love? It was man's need and wretchedness that drew so largely upon the heart of God. Had there been no sin, God in lowly grace would not have entered this world, nor would the angels have gazed in rapture over the wonders of redemption. God loved this wretched world as man He lived in it thirty-three and a half years. The Son of God has come in love. He has passed into glory as man in righteousness. Has not God, therefore, reaped for Himself a rich and eternal harvest of glory in the fields of redemption?
Among the numerous and interesting facts of time,—facts which stud the chart of history, and creation too, which all around teems with wonders, —there is no fact so holy, none so righteous, none so vital in its eternal consequences to every child of Adam, as the Cross of Christ. In that Cross, and there only, do we learn what man is. It is the moral end of "all flesh." Creature badness and utter vileness are here expressed. Is there any good in man? Is there as much as you could cover with the point of a needle? Do we believe in c. perfection in the flesh "? We do most fully believe in perfection in man, but is it in man in the flesh, or in the Man now in glory? Is it to be found here below, where the first man is and acts; or there above, where the second Man is in life, righteousness, and glory? In Christ there is perfect good, perfect love. In us there is perfect evil, perfect badness. There is only badness in man, there is only goodness in Christ.
The Cross of Christ is the measure of what man is. God in love and holiness entered this world. He came to inquire after the health of the sons of men. In lowliness and grace He passed through the scene of His own creation, — through that highly-favored part of it, Judea, —and He did so in silent, enduring love. But men hated God, —they hate Him still. They drew near to Jesus, —the Holy One of God. Infinite holiness was stamped upon His brow; infinite grace marked His every word and act; infinite love to the wretched was reflected in every touch of His hand, in every movement of His heart. Men, Israel, weighed His worth, —thirty pieces of silver, —the mere value of an ox in the marts of Judea, or of a slave in those of the Gentiles. Israel morally began her history by selling Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, and closed her history meantime by selling Christ—the true Joseph—for thirty pieces of silver. Nay, they even bartered away His life for that of Barabbas (significantly meaning "Son of the Father"). The Prince of Life, the King of Glory, was fairly exchanged for a law-breaker and murderer!! Such was, such is, the world's estimate of Christ. God must be got rid of at all costs. Is the heart of the nineteenth century better than the heart of the first century? Nay, the heart of man is ever the same; neither time, polish, education, improvement, or religion can change the heart. Man in his very nature hates God, while God in His very nature loves man. Were Christ in lowly grace once more to pass through our streets, — the streets of our cathedral towns, — the cry would again startle the heavens, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" and they would haste to accomplish it on the nearest tree, the religious leaders, as before, goading on to the deed.
But the true measure of what man is as a sinner, is measured by what God did to Christ. Man's only part was to push with guilty hands that Blessed One, and press Him on to His agony; that evidences human guilt, but does not Measure it. God's judgment of sin on the Cross, is the due of the sinner at the hands of infinite justice. The darkness gathers around the Cross, for God is judging sin; the tempest awoke, the storm rose, the throne of God becomes the source of those judgments; and necessarily so, for "God is light." The soul of Jesus was riven with agony unutterable and unparalleled, — an agony known only to God. O the terrific anguish of those hours of darkness He was forsaken of God. He bore during that “night season," what for the impenitent will be spread over endless ages in the lake of fire. There we witness the "Righteousness of God" against sin displayed in all its majesty, as even now that same "Righteousness" can freely justify the sinner believing on Jesus, and can even place the believer in Christ in glory before God.
The martyrs of old had their faces lit up with glory, Israel's fathers were heard and sustained— but Jesus cried, and was not heard. God's face was one frown to Him, that it might be light to thee, O sinner. Never was such agony expressed as by Him. Saint and sinner, the utterance of intensest distress of mental agony that ever dropped from human lips, was heard from the “horns of the unicorns,"—the agonies of death,—" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" In light of all this, dare you say, “I hope to get to heaven some way"? The "some way," the "only way," the exclusive way, is by the Cross.
But now that the wrath of God has been borne, the judgment of sin endured, Jesus cried,—" It is finished!" Hear it, thou throne of God, thy just claims are all settled! "It is finished!" hear it, ye opposing principalities and powers, your might is broken, and Jesus is the victor. "It is finished!” hear it, ye sacrificing priests and proud ritualists of past and present times. And now, eternal farewell to Judaism, and every religious system which binds man to the home and sphere where Christ is not. God had His blessed hand on the veil of the Temple, waiting for that supreme moment when He in love and righteousness could rend it,— from top to bottom,— from God to man. "It is finished!" and the veil is rent. Yes, God hears the cry of the victor Christ, and the tombs of the saints are cleft asunder, for Satan is eternally silenced. “It is finished!" and the sins of all who believe on Jesus are gone in that work,— forever and ever gone.
And Thou hast been raised from among the dead, Thou conquering One, and Thy brow is encircled with the Crown of Redemption; and we, poor sinners of the Gentiles, believing on Thine adorable name and resting on Thy finished work, are presented in Thee to Thy God, faultless and in glory! W. S.