THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Graham J Gaskin
1 Corinthians 1: 17, 18; 2: 5
Galatians 6: 14
Hebrews 11: 24-26
I thought, dear friends, to speak simply about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a wonderful thing that God has chosen to approach His creature in the way that He has - in the Person of a Man, and that Man being the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful Saviour we have to speak of! Think of the eternal God intervening in time. Of course, God Himself had created the time-scene, and He has intervened in it, and at the cross of Christ He put right once for all the matter of sin and sins, and the matter of good and evil. What wonderful things these are! Mr Darby says, ‘The cross of Christ lies at the centre of the history of eternity’, which we might do well to think about, Synopsis vol 3 p361. It all was part of God’s ways in bringing about what was going to be for His own pleasure and for His own satisfaction according to what He purposed in eternity past. While He principally had the Person of Christ in mind, His thoughts included His creature man, that man should be formed in the image of Christ and so should be for His glory - that is what God has in mind for eternity to come. Then God in His wisdom brought about the scene of creation, and Mr Coates said that he felt that creation was brought about as a theatre for the display of the glory of Christ, CAC vol 9, p375. God was glorified in that blessed One who came into manhood’s form.
We spoke about the Lord Jesus in the reading, and I found it very attractive that He could so show out the compassions of God in His dealings with men. We know that God is love in His own nature, and we can see in the gospels how that divine nature shone out in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ in His days here. It says where we were reading of those persons that the Lord “dismissed them” (Mark 6: 46), but I do not think anyone went away dissatisfied. Those persons had been recipients, they had been fed, and I think the Lord’s words would have come home to each one of them. I get the impression that nobody would have gone away wishing to have spoken to the Lord and not having had the opportunity; He would have satisfied more than just their hunger. What compassion the Lord Jesus had!
But His coming into manhood had in view that He should go to the cross; what a dreadful and ignominious death was involved in the cross. He committed Himself in matchless love to dealing with the matter of what stood out against us that would have prevented our coming into the presence of a holy and righteous God. The first thing, of course, is the matter of our sinful state. That lies upon each one of us and it is something that we can do nothing about. Sin itself is a matter that separates us from God, and yet He has addressed that at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in the Old Testament, in Numbers 21, of the “serpent of brass”, v 9. You will remember that fiery serpents came in and bit the people of Israel, which was a type of sin working in the flesh and bringing about death. The word of God to Moses was, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole” (v 8), which speaks prophetically of the Lord Jesus being lifted up. It has been said that that brazen serpent was made like the fiery serpents but there was no venom or anything of that sort in the brazen serpent. The Lord Jesus came in “in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin” (Rom 8: 3) but “in him sin is not” (1 John 3: 5), that perfect, holy sinless One, and yet He went in blessed obedience to the cross and suffered at the hand of God for the matter of sin. The order of man that had sinned was terminated at the cross.
Perhaps I do not think often enough about the cross of the Lord Jesus. It says of the children of Israel when Moses made the brazen serpent, that they had to look upon it, and the footnote to that verse shows that the sense is that they ‘looked intently’, note ‘e’. Perhaps I should spend more time considering the cross of Jesus, and what was carried out there. As the Israelites looked, those that had been bitten lived. I think that is a lovely type for us to understand the matter of sin has been borne, and borne to the satisfaction of a just and holy God.
We were reminded in a recent fellowship meeting in Fraserburgh of the sufferings that the Lord Jesus went through at the hands of man, and I found it very affecting. The Lord Jesus suffered such humiliation: every wickedness that man could think of, every insult that man could devise, was directed at Him. Mankind there was under the influence of Satan, and Satan used him as a tool to bring about those dreadful acts. Mr Coates says that Satan or his angels would not have dared to spit in His face or buffet him (vol 4 p279) - he would have been afraid to have assaulted the Lord, and yet he put such hatred into the hearts of men there to induce them to do these things. What a dreadful thing that the Saviour should have suffered so intensely at the hands of wicked men, and yet the Lord Jesus in His perfect meekness, and despite all that man under the power of Satan could do against Him, completed that work on the cross.
But sin is not the only thing that separates us from a just and holy God; there is also the solemn matter of our sins, the things that we have done wrong. God addressed that at the cross too. First of all the Lord Jesus suffered for the sake of righteousness at the hands of men, but then there was the awfulness of the judgment of God falling upon the head of the Saviour. We often refer to the three hours of darkness, when He suffered in the believer’s place. I remember reading a tract by a doctor who had known the grace of the Saviour. He was a doctor attached to the prison service many years ago, in the days when corporal and capital punishment were still carried out, and he had the task of medically examining prisoners who had to suffer punishment for what they had done wrong. He pointed out that no one offered to undergo the punishments due by taking the place of one of the prisoners. They were all manifestly guilty, and knew that the penalty that came upon them was justly theirs. The doctor then said that a time came when he himself was brought to realise that he was manifestly guilty before a just and holy God, but he found that Someone had already taken his place and had exhausted the judgment that he deserved.
The work of the Lord Jesus is available for everyone. We read in Leviticus 16 of the great day of atonement when the blood was sprinkled once on, and seven times before, the mercy-seat, and by the value of that blood God’s rights were satisfied, and He was propitiated. We read in Romans that now the mercy-seat has been “set forth” (chap 3: 25) and is freely available to all who have need of cleansing. The Lord Jesus has borne the sins of all those that believe and because of the work of the cross, all that is required of you is to believe, and you will know the forgiveness of your sins because the Lord Jesus has borne them all there. The Scripture makes it plain to us, that the Lord Jesus bore the sins of many, and has exhausted the righteous judgment of God that would have otherwise been their portion. The gospel is preached today so that your sin and sins can be dealt with.
Now, what does the cross of Jesus mean to you? Some people perhaps think of the cross as just a Christian symbol. I know Christians who wear symbols of the cross on their clothing to signify their faith, and you would respect their readiness to accept the reproach. But, friends, the cross of Jesus means so much to the believer because no greater event has ever taken place in the history of this world than the cross of Christ: it is there that God settled every moral question once and for all. But for you to come into the blessing of it, and to know the forgiveness of your sins, requires you to believe, and to believe that the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ who came in from Godhead glory, humbled Himself to go that way. He submitted Himself in obedience to these dreadful things that took place, accepting from God the awfulness of the judgment due to our sins. I remember the time when I first realised that the judgment that was rightly mine because of what I had done had been borne by Another, blessed be His Name! What a wonderful Saviour we have!
We sang in our hymn that for the Lord, the cross was ‘shame’; but then to us it is ‘life and health’ (Hymn 397). May we be encouraged to consider what was carried out there at the cross of Christ!
I would like to call attention to the glory of the Person of the Lord Jesus, the One who has done such a wondrous work and done it to the complete satisfaction of a just and holy God. We need have no doubts. There is nothing now to hinder, or to cause us to stay away from this offer of mercy; God would welcome you to come into the good of the glorious provision that He has made. Is God really willing that anyone should simply believe and be brought into salvation? Of course, He is; that is why the gospel is being preached in many, many places. Thanks be to God we can take account of the word going out, and we know it is being preached today in so many places by faithful persons. Perhaps we only know a very few, but nevertheless God’s glad tidings are preached in many places throughout the world. “Whether in pretext or in truth” (Phil 1: 18), the gospel is being preached; may the Lord use such occasions to bring about salvation to His glory.
Then, is the Lord’s work sufficient? We know that God is completely satisfied with the work the Lord Jesus has done. His delight was in that One: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matt 3: 17. Then we know the Lord was “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom 6: 4. I believe that would convey to us the Father’s perfect acceptance of the value of Christ’s atoning work.
Perhaps you might think, ‘My faith is not quite strong enough; I feel confused about these things’. There is no need to doubt, because the matter of faith is a gift from God, and He will give sufficient faith to you freely if you simply wish to believe. I do not think that anybody who, in true repentance and desire, seeks salvation, is going to be turned away. I would like to give you the strongest assurance that if you call on the Lord Jesus in all your need, then He will save. “He is able to save completely those who approach by him to God”, Heb 7: 25.
We could hardly speak about the cross without speaking about the shed blood. I would like to speak about the blood because that is what, in the eye of God, has made the cleansing from sin. We have the account in John’s gospel of the Lord’s blood being shed, and the scripture there makes it plain that that blood was shed after His death. I think one point of that is that the Lord laid His life down of Himself; He could say, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”, John 10:18. Nobody took His life from Him, and it was after He had laid His life down, it says, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water”, John 19: 34. How many references to the blood there are in Scripture. We read that “we have redemption through his blood” (Eph 1: 7), and justification is “in the power of his blood” too, Rom 5: 9. And there is reconciliation in the blood. The holy God I know has dealt with anything that could possibly prevent my being before Him. Every hindrance has been thoroughly dealt with and now we have total freedom. God can now have men like Christ as worshippers.
The power of God is shown in the glad tidings. We read these words in Corinthians which speaks of “the foolishness of the preaching” and the “weakness” that is involved in it, and the ignominy and the shame. Men generally look on the history of the cross as foolishness: “and to nations foolishness”, “the foolishness of the preaching”. I can remember one of my colleagues saying to me that he considered religion to be just a matter of folly. Friends, do not be deceived by man’s reasoning! The word is faithful. God Himself has declared His love to us in the giving of His Son. But then, although the Lord Jesus was crucified in weakness, God’s power was there. Think of what was overcome at the cross - the fulness of the victory was there! All the powers of evil were gathered: the Lord Jesus dealt with Satan’s power there. We read of the Lord Jesus being tempted of Satan, and it says the devil “departed from him for a time”, Luke 4: 13. He came back to renew his attack at Gethsemane, I would suggest. There he brought the awfulness of the matter of being made sin to bear on the Lord, seeking to make it appear too great for Him to undertake. Yet the Lord Jesus was sustained through all, and His conquest over sin and the devil’s power was complete. Morally the enemy’s power was broken at the cross. In a coming day the enemy will be done away with in actuality; death will be done away with too. Morally all things have been dealt with now and, if you have that faith in Christ, you will find no accusation can stand against you. It says in Romans 8, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who against us? He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?”, v 31, 32. We contemplated that in the reading, that all the resources of heaven are now freely available to those that believe. Dear friend, I beseech you to come into the blessing and the fulness of it.
Then there is the matter of sonship. That is not part of the gospel exactly but God has in mind such wonderful blessings for those that are His. He has also brought us into sonship which gives us the power to respond to Him suitably. Should I not respond to One who is so loving that He has given His own Son for me? What a wondrous God He is!
I wanted to refer to this scripture in Hebrews because it goes on to speak about the recompense; perhaps we do not often consider it. We know that in the pathway - and it is suggested here - we may have to meet affliction. It says, “By faith Moses … choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin; esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”. I feel very measured when speaking about “the reproach of .the Christ”; each believer would know something of the reproach because if you accept the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, you will find that the world is against you. I read these words in Galatians really for the same reason. The cross of Christ is again brought before us there, and we find that “the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”. That means the world is no longer of any use to me. Perhaps I might take up things in this world and find that they are objectionable to me because they are contrary to the name of Christ; I’m sure that we often find things of the world distasteful to us. We have been reading John’s epistles in Aberdeen recently, and we find there that, “all that is in the world … is not of the Father, but is of the world”, 1 John 2: 16. I find that I cannot happily take my place in such things because they are contrary to Him. Then I am crucified to the world; the world has no use for me, if I am Christian. I will not partake in its pursuits and pleasures, and things in which man can glory. If I am faithful to Christ, then I will certainly come under reproach.
But then there is the recompense. I wanted to call attention to the fact that this is a way of great blessing. Perhaps I have to lay certain things down which are not suited, but then I find that God has far richer things in mind for me than anything that this scene has to offer. For example, we know we have the priestly support of Christ on high. The Lord Jesus is available to intercede for us, and His intercessory service goes on. What a wonderful thing that is! He could say to Peter, “I have besought for thee that thy faith fail not”, Luke 22: 32. When I come into difficulty, perhaps I will find that the Lord has already prayed for me that my faith should be sustained through it all.
Then there is the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is a further example of God’s disposition to give, and He has given the Holy Spirit that we should be sustained and helped in the testimony, that our affections for the Lord Jesus should be kept fresh. I feel the need for that keenly, and have been thinking about it recently. How quickly I turn aside and get occupied with worldly things, but how great my affection for Christ should be! May it be that, as we consider these things today, our affections for the Lord Jesus should be increased. He has shown His unbounded love in coming in and carrying out the will of His God and Father in such perfection! Should I not answer to Him who has been prepared to go to such lengths to bring about my redemption?
But then I think that the idea of the reward goes further; it speaks of that earlier in this chapter: “For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”, v 6. A brother in Aberdeen reminded me of God saying to Abraham, “I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward”, Gen 15: 1. I suggest that the knowledge of divine Persons is our greatest reward. Do you know the Lord Jesus personally, in addition to knowing Him as a Saviour? He becomes a confidante, and you can speak to Him about any matter that may trouble you. Is your faith in Christ, is your knowledge of the Lord Jesus real enough to let you speak to Him as a friend? The Lord could say to one, “thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”, Matt 19: 21. Perhaps we could think of the Lord Jesus being that treasure that is in heaven.
Then what about the knowledge of the Father? Dear friend, I believe the Lord Jesus would lead us on to the knowledge and the understanding of the Father and bring us into freedom before Him. We enjoyed something of that this morning, I believe; He would lead us into the presence of the Father. But then, if I am in communion with the Lord Jesus, I think that He would bring my heart into some understanding of the Father’s presence, and what a wonderful reward is involved in that! You wonder at the divine grace and the depth of divine love that lies behind it!
I just commend to you, that God has entirely dealt with anything that stood out against us that would prevent our access to Him, through the work of Christ on the cross.
May the Lord bless the word to us for His Name’s sake.
Dundee
20th October 2019