Feb 14
15
Christ and Him Crucified.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (I Corinthians 2:2)
The apostle Paul declared to a heathen world, and a church being led astray by foolish pride and worldly wisdom, that he preached Christ and Him crucified. The gospel is a person. He was a person in eternity, as the Son of God, the second person of the Godhead. He was appointed as a mediator and surety of an everlasting covenant and as such stood as a person. In every Old Testament prophecy He is set forth as a person. When He appeared on this earth in Bethlehem’s manger he was a person. He lived as a servant under the law of God and was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin as a person. His suffering was real. He hung on a cross and died a real death. He was raised the third day as a person who ate and drank. He had scars to prove himself to be the resurrected Christ. The disciples watched as He ascended into glory as our Great High Priest where He sits at the right hand of God.
Faith lays hold of the person who loved them and gave himself for him. Faith rests in Him as it is persuaded of the greatness of His person. Salvation is not a system or a plan or an offer: It is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45: 22)
Darvin Pruitt.
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CHRIST DIED FOR SINNERS
I pray that we never become so gospel hardened, that our hearts do not leap for joy every time we hear this glorious truth, Christ died for sinners. Let’s consider each word of this blessed statement and rejoice.
CHRIST died for sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is the promised Savior, the long awaited Messiah. And it is this One who gave Himself to die as a ransom for sin.
Christ DIED for sinners. It is a miracle that the Lord Jesus Christ, Life Himself, actually died, but an even greater miracle is why Christ died. He died because He agreed to be made sin for God’s elect. When the Father imputed the sin of His elect to Christ, the holy Son of God was made to be sin so He died under the justice of God’s holy law that demands death for sin (Ezekiel 18:4).
Christ died FOR sinners. Christ died as the sinner’s substitute. Christ suffered the penalty of sin that His people deserve. Christ died the death that His people deserve so that His people would have eternal life. What mercy, love and grace that Christ would die in the place of sinners! (Romans 5:8)
Christ died for SINNERS. The Lord Jesus Christ did not die for good people, for righteous people, or for people who needed a little bit of help in order to be saved. Christ died for real sinners, sinners who were dead in trespasses and sins and unable to do anything for themselves. Christ died to pay the entire sin debt of His elect. Jesus paid it ALL, all the debt I owe.
How thankful sinners are that Christ died for sinners! Frank Tate
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True mourning for sin has a distinct and constant reference to the Lord Jesus. If I hate sin because I am exposed, I have not repented; I merely regret that I have been found out. If I hate sin because of judgment and hell, I have not repented; I merely regret that God is just. But if I see sin as a hateful offense against my Lord, and I see my sin as crucifying Him, then I mourn with a truly broken and repentant heart (Psalm 51:3-4). True mourning is a great bitterness, as one mourns the death of his firstborn. Someone said…‘Lord, let me weep for naught but sin; And after none but Thee; Then I would (Oh, that I might!); A constant weeper be!’ A broken heart over sin is a work of the Spirit of God and will be healed (Psalm 51:17; 34:18). Henry Mahan
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WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED?
Holy Scriptures teach an effectual atonement based upon the fact of Who He was who died to atone. Such a blood shedding could never be in vain in any sense when we consider the infinite value of the person who shed His blood. Paul, to show the value of the atonement, first tells us who He is Who died; “Jesus Christ,” he said; and then, “and him crucified.” Well how much value do we put on Jesus Christ? Better yet, how much value does God the Father put on Him? The Father calls Him a Savior, a great one, a mighty one, and says of Him, “He shall deliver them.” (Is 19:20). The fact that it is Christ’s blood is what makes it effectual. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.” What else could the blood of such an infinite One do but accomplish the task for which it was shed? “He came to save His people from their sins.” (Matt 1:21). And how was He to accomplish such a great task? By giving His own blood! By pouring it out while hanging on a cross! The blood atoned for sins and cleanses from all sins because it is Christ’s blood. One man said it this way, “the words ‘the blood’ never stand alone; the One Who shed the blood is invariable specified, for it is the Person that gives value to the work; the saving efficacy of the Death depends entirely upon the fact that He Who died was the Son of God.” Let us first and foremost receive the testimony of the Holy Scriptures concerning the infinite and eternal value of the Son of God. Having received that testimony in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, then we will never undervalue that atonement which such an infinite person accomplished. I am convinced this is one reason some deny the effectual atonement of Christ; they place little value on Him. Let every man examine his own conscience. Can you, knowing who He is, say to Him with a clear conscience, “you failed?” “You, the Lord of glory, died in vain?” Can you say such a thing without your conscience smiting you” What think ye of Jesus crucified must be answered in the light of what think ye of Jesus Christ himself. —Bruce Crabtree
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Justice Satisfied
“When I see the blood, l will pass over you”
(Exodus 12:13).
My own sight of the precious blood is for my comfort; but it is the LORD’s sight of it which secures my safety. Even when I am unable to behold it, the LORD looks at it and passes over me because of it. If I am not so much at ease as I ought to be, because my faith is dim, yet I am equally safe because the LORD’s eye is not dim, and He sees the blood of the great Sacrifice with steady gaze. What a joy is this!
The LORD sees the deep inner meaning, the infinite fullness of all that is meant by the death of His dear Son. He sees it with restful memory of justice satisfied and all His matchless attributes glorified. He beheld creation in its progress and said, “It is very good”; but what does He say of redemption in its completeness? What does He say of the obedience even unto death of His well-beloved Son? None can tell His delight in Jesus, His rest in the sweet savor which Jesus presented when He offered Himself without spot unto God.
Now rest we in calm security. We have God’s sacrifice and God’s Word to create in us a sense of perfect security. He will, He must, pass over us, because He spared not our glorious Substitute. Justice joins hands with love to provide everlasting salvation for all the blood-besprinkled. Charles Spurgeon.
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The cross of Christ
From Octavius Winslow’s “The Believer Crucified”
Jesus could accomplish man’s redemption
in no other way than by crucifixion. He must
die, and die the death of the cross.
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14
What light and glory beam around the cross!
Of what prodigies of grace is it the instrument,
of what glorious truths is it the symbol, of what
mighty, magic power is it the source!
Around it gathers all the light of the Old Testament
economy. It explains every symbol, it substantiates
every shadow, it solves every mystery, it fulfills every
type, it confirms every prophecy of that dispensation
which had eternally remained unmeaning and inexplicable
but for the death of the Son of God upon the cross.
Not the past only, but all future splendor, gathers
around the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It assures
us of the ultimate reign of the Savior, tells of the
reward which shall spring from His sufferings; and
while its one arm points to the divine counsels of
eternity past, with the other it points to the future
triumph and glory of Christ’s kingdom in the eternity
to come. Such is the lowly yet sublime, the weak yet
mighty instrument by which the sinner is saved and
God eternally glorified.
The cross of Christ was in Paul’s view
the grand consummation of all preceding
dispensations of God to men.
The cross of Christ was the meritorious
procuring cause of all spiritual blessings
to our fallen race.
The cross of Christ was the scene of Christ’s
splendid victories over all His enemies and ours.
The cross of Christ was the most powerful
incentive to all evangelical holiness.
The cross of Christ was the instrument which was
to subjugate the world to the supremacy of Jesus.
The cross of Christ was the source
of all true peace, joy, and hope.
The cross of Christ is the tree beneath
whose shadow all sin expired, all grace lived.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a
holy thrill these words produce in the heart
of those who love the Savior! How significant
their meaning, how precious their influence!
Marvelous and irresistible is the power of the cross!
The cross of Christ has subdued many a rebellious will.
The cross of Christ has broken many a marble heart.
The cross of Christ has laid low many a vaunting foe.
The cross of Christ has overcome and triumphed
when all other instruments have failed.
The cross of Christ has transformed the lion like
heart of man, into the lamb like heart of Christ.
And when lifted up in its own naked simplicity and
inimitable grandeur, the cross of Christ has won and
attracted millions to its faith, admiration, and love!
What a marvelous power does this cross of Jesus
possess! It changes the Christian’s entire judgment
of the world. Looking at the world through the cross,
his opinion is totally revolutionized. He sees it as it
really is; a sinful, empty, vain thing.
He learns its iniquity, in that it crucified the Lord of life and glory.
His expectations from the world, his love to the
world, are changed. He has found another object
of love, the Savior whom the world cast out and
slew. And his love to the world is destroyed by
that power which alone could destroy it, the
crucifying power of the cross.
It is the cross which eclipses, in the view of the true
believer, the glory and attraction of every other object.
What is the weapon by which faith combats with and
overcomes the world? What but the cross of Jesus?
Just as the natural eye, gazing for a while upon the sun,
is blinded for the moment, by its overpowering effulgence,
to all other objects; so to the believer, wont to concentrate
his mind upon the glory of the crucified Savior, studying
closely the wonders of grace and love and truth meeting
in the cross, the world with all its attraction fades into
the full darkness of an eclipse.
Are not Christ and His cross infinitely
better than the world and its love?
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14