The Cross of Christ is the life of all true communion with God,
and those who draw nearest to God best know the mystery of that
Cross.
If the sufferings of Christ, who humbled Himself and became obedient
unto death—the death of the Cross, be much in my heart, I
shall see my worst enemy to be pride, especially pride of wisdom,
and pride of righteousness. I shall charge my soul, as did the
king of Syria his captains: "Fight neither with small nor great,
save only with the king of Israel." In my soul's warfare let
pride be subdued, and every other sin is held in chains.
It is the secret of the prevention and cure of all evil to begin,
and go through, each day, with the Cross of Christ. (John 6:56.)
The precepts of Scripture are given to guide the life of a Christian,
and their claims are all founded on the Cross of Christ.
In the Cross of Christ is life; in the way of His precepts, liberty.
Let us take up every cross that lies in our way—cut off the
right hand and pluck out the right eye: the blessing must come
down.
By the Cross of Christ the world is crucified to us, and we are
crucified to the world; whilst we, through the Spirit, are mortifying
the deeds of the body, we are gaining by all our losses, and
have good success even by that which the flesh accounts bitter
disappointment.
There is virtue in the name of Christ to make this vale of tears
a fruitful, pleasant place.
He who most walks in fellowship with God has the deepest and
truest apprehension of Christ. Such a one will love to consider
how He who was in the form of God, emptied Himself of His state
of pure equality with God; how the Word made flesh, at every
step of His humiliation, above all on the cross, made manifest
His glory. Of all the works of God, redemption is the greatest.
It is only in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that the perfections
of God are fully manifested; and of that Cross we can have no
true understanding, save by the Holy Scriptures and by the Holy
Spirit of God.
When the Son of God had taken on Him the form of a servant, He
could say, "My Father is greater than I;" but His obedience showed
Him to be equal with God: obedience unto the death of the Cross
was such as only the Son of God could be called unto, and only
He could render.
From the sixth to the ninth hour there was darkness over the
land; darkness at noon-day. In the proper natural course of the
love of God the Father towards His Son, the Father's countenance
must have been ever lifted up on the Lord Jesus; but Christ was
the Surety of the better covenant, and God must deal as a sin-revenging
judge with His own Son on the cross as our surety and sin-bearer:
"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." The land is a type
of Christ; and while from the sixth to the ninth hour, the course
of the old creation was suffering, in regard to the land, strange
and awful interruption, even thick darkness at noon, thereby
was shown forth the greatest work, the greatest event of the
new creation; God not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him
up for us all; Christ who knew no sin made sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him; Christ made a
curse for us, to redeem us from the curse of the law. The mind
of the Lord Jesus was at every moment one with the mind of God
the Father; but the Lord's obedience grew with growing trial,
and according to demand upon Him: it was on the Cross that He
obeyed to the uttermost; on the Cross He made manifest to the
full His oneness of mind with the Father. Now He dieth no more;
as having once been crucified, and as having glorified the Father
on the earth, He dwells for ever in the bosom of the Father,
in the light of His countenance. By faith we dwell with Christ
the Lord, and learn a little of His Cross: at the resurrection
we shall learn indeed; yet evermore be learning—and evermore
be praising the Lamb that was slain. Be it then ever present
with us in our sojourn here, that Christ, through the eternal
Spirit, _offered Himself_ without spot to God. So shall our hearts
be full of the song, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Jehovah of hosts!"
(Isaiah 6:3.)
Christ's _work_ is the light, life, joy, glory, and perfume of
heaven.
There is no testimony to God's hatred of sin like the Cross of
Christ. There are testimonies thereto above, around, and beneath
us; but in the cross, and that only, we see to the full God's
hatred of sin.
Christ _descended_ lower and lower, even to the depths of the
Cross; but in God's sight it was a perpetual ascent to the throne
of glory.
If with godly sorrow we would grieve for sin, we must regard
it in fellowship with Christ in the light of the Cross.
The law of nature, the law of Moses, and a corrupted gospel,
are so many refuges of lies which men flee to for salvation,
instead of coming to the Cross of Christ.
The Cross of Christ is the meeting-place for God and the sinner.
It is the meeting-place of God with His people. It is also the
meeting-place of saints with one another: it is only as Jesus
crucified dwells in the midst of them that they can meet each
other to profit.
Mercy to Christ, my Surety, would have been death eternal to
me.
In the Cross of Christ the holiness of God is perfectly revealed:
such is His holiness that the heavens are not clean in His sight.
The Scriptures show us that it is by the Cross of Christ God
bears with the ungodly. The justice of God is so magnified by
that Cross, that it can delight in long-suffering towards the
unregenerate; one great end of this long-suffering is the calling
out of the church.
All the trials and all the sufferings of all creatures—were
they heaped together—must not be compared with Christ's sufferings
on the cross.
As the sin avenging God of holiness and justice, God forsook
Christ on the Cross; but He was infinitely well-pleased with
Christ and His death of atonement. God accepted the work of His
beloved Son, and in token of that acceptance, raised Him from
the dead.