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The Message of the Cross

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The Message of the Cross

6 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Scripture's presentation of fallen man is vividly awful, shocking, but truthful. Read Romans 3:10-18. Also in context of this text, the Spirit uses four words which with increasing darkness describe fallen man: without strength, ungodly, sinners, and enemies. What a picture this is of you and me by nature! Is there any hope that such utterly spent, ungodly, hostile sinners could be loved? Having gone so far in rebellion, having continued so long in rejecting the riches of His goodness, having sinned against so much light and love, would there be any hope that such a one could be loved? Perhaps you struggle with this question, seeing who you have been, and remain, in the sight of God.

The message of the cross of Jesus Christ is a divine “yes” upon this question. That God loves those who have come to repentance and faith, we can in some measure understand. Yet that He should have loved His people before they became His children through faith—that surpasses knowledge. Yet He did so, as the words of Paul indicate, “But God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Compare Jeremiah 31:1.

The message of the cross is far more than a display of the righteousness of God. Indeed, if the demands of God's justice were to be satisfied, if the character of His holiness were to be upheld, if sin were to be put away, it could only be through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Son of man must be lifted up on the cross to satisfy the righteousness of God.

Yet, the message of the cross is primarily the display of the wondrous love of God. After Jesus spoke of the necessity for His atoning work, He proceeded to say, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17). The little word “for” takes us back to the very source of Golgotha. Therefore the cross ultimately is the revelation of God's holy love to utterly detestable sinners. It is this love God commends to us by calling us to consider it in the sufferings and death of His Son Jesus Christ. May God grant us a melting of our hardened hearts into repentance, as well as a beam of hope in despairing hearts, by this display of His sovereign and unspeakable love at Golgotha.

Consider how God commends His love as worthy of all our adoration. He sacrificed Himself in the death of His own Son. God could not give more in His love. His love was not just in word, but in very deed. He laid His own Son on the altar (Genesis 22) to redeem sinners. What an infinitely costly love did God manifest! As one wrote, “It did not cost God any effort to make the universe, but it cost the agony of Gethsemane and the awful scenes of Calvary to redeem sinners.” See also 1 Peter 1:18-19.

He did not commend His love reluctantly, nor was He forced. No, it pleased the Lord to bruise His Servant (Isaiah 53:10) outwardly and inwardly. As we meditate on that truth, let us not forget that the deepest sufferings were in Christ's soul. Thomas Goodwin said it well: “The sufferings of His soul were the soul of His suffering.” Who can fathom this love of God in finding delight in bruising His only begotten Son inwardly and outwardly to open the way for wayward and hostile sinners to be saved? Yet, that is what divine love is all about. It is to provide the ransom price to redeem guilty sinners.

He did not love conditionally, but freely, for He commended His love while “we were yet sinners.” Was there anything in fallen man that could stir up His love? No, there was absolutely nothing to stir His love. When looking at the terrible scene of man's rebellion against His Maker in Genesis 3, was there anything in Adam and Eve that would stir up His love? No, there was everything to stir up His righteous and all-consuming wrath. Yet, even before He pronounced His righteous curse upon sinful man, He commended His love first when He spoke of One whose heel would be bruised.

Again, in another way the apostle stressed the freeness of God's love. We read, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” A “righteous” man is one who lives a decent life but has not done anything great. One will respect such a person but scarcely (hardly) would die for such! A “good” man is one who is kind and loving, one who goes out of his way for others. Such a person commands affection and love in return. Perhaps one would dare to die for such a person, yet that is still a big “maybe.”

But God's love finds no parallel. He gave His Son to die for those who were not just ungodly sinners, but purely enemies. While His elect Bride was in her loathsome and hostile condition, Christ died for her. While there was no thought of Him in her heart, no room for Him in her life, God, however, displayed His sovereign, one-sided love in giving His Son to die the cursed death. The message of the cross is the message of unspeakable love, divine love.

Have we ever begun to learn to know and own those names: without strength (ability), ungodly, sinners, enemies? If so, then we will experience a mighty struggle to believe that the message of the cross is for us. If I feel myself so unlovable, how can God possibly love me to such a degree that He would give His only begotten Son to die the death of the cross? To explain how that is possible is, and remains, impossible. The more a child of grace is led into the knowledge of self and salvation, the more this impossibility is felt. Yet God does not ask us to understand it, but to believe it. Augustine once put it this way: “Understanding is the reward of faith; therefore, seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.”

May God grant us this gift of faith as we again hear His message of love.

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van zaterdag 1 april 2000

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's

The Message of the Cross

Bekijk de hele uitgave van zaterdag 1 april 2000

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's