REFORMED WITNESS
March 1991
The Word of the Cross
by Herman Hoeksema
From When I Survey, pp. 283, 284See more articles by this author
Also in this issue:
History of Redemption - by Jonathan Edwards
Christ's Predetermined Death - by Robert C. Harbach
...as we continue to listen to the word of the cross, we realize that it is not His, but our sin that is brought into judgment on Calvary. We have sinned, and are worthy of death. We are corrupt, darkened in our understanding, perverse of will, alienated from God, His enemies, hating Him, and hating one another. We are guilty. And we have nothing to pay. And the word of the cross to us is that God demands the last farthing. He demands that we love Him, and we hate Him. He brings upon us death and desolation, and still He demands that we love Him, even in the revelation of His justice and wrath; and we can only hate Him the more, and increase our guilt daily. And so the word of the cross, as a revelation of God's righteous wrath against our sin, loudly proclaims that, if our wisdom and power must provide a way out, the case is hopeless. We can only perish everlastingly. Things have become utterly impossible. All our power and wisdom have been brought to nought.
That is the word of the cross.
But wait! Do not flee in terror from Calvary as you hear the word of God's unchangeable righteousness and holy wrath. Do not depart from the scene, and do not cease to listen to the word of the cross, as soon as you have become convinced that, as for you, all the power and all the wisdom of the world cannot save you. For what is impossible with man is possible with God. And it pleases Him to reveal His great power of salvation exactly then and there when and where it has become completely impossible for us to find a way out.
For the Word of the cross proclaims that the death of Jesus of Nazareth is the death of the Son of God in the flesh, freely giving His life for us, in our stead, and in our behalf. It is the revelation of God's eternal, unfathomable, boundless, and unchangeable love to His people. As you survey the cross of Calvary, in the light of the Holy Scriptures, and by faith, you there behold the God of your salvation. Therein, indeed, lies the mystery, the most amazing paradox of the cross: the offended God is come down into our flesh, is descended into the nethermost parts of the earth, to bear our offenses! God, O mystery of mysteries! In His only begotten Son come in the flesh, bears our sins, dies our death, bears God's wrath, blots out all our iniquities. Paradox of paradoxes, God in the flesh is forsaken of God: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That is the paradox, yet that is exactly the power of the cross. Deny it, and you have nothing left but a word of man. Deny that there, on the cross, is suspended, not mere man, but "the only begotten Son, our Lord," God of God, Light of Light, coequal with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and you have made the cross of Christ vain. But that He is the Son, who is eternally in the bosom of the Father, voluntarily taking our place in judgment, that we might nevermore be condemned -- that is the very heart of the word of the cross.
The cross is the centre of world's history.
The incarnation of Christ
and the crucifixion of our Lord
are the pivot round which
all the events of the ages revolve.Alexander MacLaren
History of Redemption
The Works of Jonathan Edwards, pp. 580, 581
See more articles by this author
Is it not a common thing with men to take it upon themselves to do that great work which Christ came into the world to do? to trust in their prayers, their good conversations, the pains they take in religion, the reformation of their lives, and their self-denial, in order to recommend them to God, to make some atonement for their past sins? Let such consider three things:
1.) How great a thing that is which you take upon you. It is to do the work of the great Saviour of the world. Though you are poor, worthless, vile, and polluted, yet you arrogantly take upon you that very work for which the only-begotten Son of God became man; and in order to which God employed four thousand years in all the great dispensations of his providence, aiming chiefly to make way for Christ's coming to do this work. This is the work that you foolishly think yourself sufficient for; as though your prayers, and other performances, were excellent enough for this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of yourself. How must such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it cost so much. It was not to be obtained even by him , so great and glorious a person, at a cheaper rate than his going through a sea of blood, and passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath. And how vain must your arrogance appear in the sight of God, when he sees you imagining yourself sufficient, and your worthless, polluted performance excellent enough, for the accomplishing of that work of his own Son, to prepare the way for which he was employed in ordering all the great affairs of the world for so many ages!
2) If there be ground for you to trust, as you do, in your own righteousness, then all that Christ did to purchase salvation, and all that God did from the fall of man to prepare the way for it, is in vain. Your self-righteousness charges God with the greatest folly, as though he has done all things in vain, to bring about an accomplishment of what you alone, with your poor polluted prayers, and the little pains you take in religion, are sufficient to accomplish for yourself. For if you can appease God's anger, and commend yourself to him by these means, then you have no need of Christ; Gal. 2:21. "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain."
If you can do this by your prayers and good works, Christ might have spared his pains; he might have spared his blood; he might have kept within the bosom of his Father, without coming down into this evil world to be despised, reproached, and persecuted to death. God needed not to have busied himself, as he did for four thousand years, causing so many changes in the state of the world all that while, in order to bring about that which you can accomplish in a few days, only with the trouble of a few religious performances. Consider, what greater folly could you have devised to charge upon God than this, that all these things were done so needlessly; when, instead of all this, he might only have called you forth, and committed the business to you, which you think you can do so easily. Alas! how blind are natural men! and especially how vain are the thoughts which they have of themselves! How ignorant of their own littleness and pollution! What great things do they assume to themselves!
...Let persons hence be warned against a self-righteous spirit. You that are seeking salvation, and taking pains in religion, take heed to yourselves that you do not trust in what you do. Harbour no such thoughts, that God now, seeing how much you are reformed, how you are sometimes affected, will be pacified towards you, and will not be so angry for your former sins; that you shall gain on him by such things, and draw his heart to show you mercy. If you entertain the thought, that God is obliged to do it, and does not act justly if he refuse to regard your prayers and pains; if you quarrel with God, and complain of him for not doing it, this shows what your opinion is of your own righteousness, viz. that it is a valuable price of salvation, and ought to be accepted of God as such. Such complaining of God, and quarreling with him, for not taking more notice of your righteousness, plainly shows that you are guilty of arrogance, thinking yourself sufficient to offer the price of your own salvation.
Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but He died for all God's elect, that they should believe.
John Owen
Christ 's Predetermined Death
Robert C. Harbach
See more articles by this author
We insist, therefore, that the death of our Lord Jesus Christ was definite and certain in every respect, historically. naturally, spiritually, and effectually. There was nothing accidental, nothing precarious about it. His foreknowledge rendered it certain, for God's foreknowledge is based on His settled counsel and purpose. God foreknows only what He has foreordained. He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. So Jesus went to the cross with absolute determination, with His face set like a flint to go to Jerusalem and Calvary. He went, not merely to make possible the salvation of mankind, but to make certain and actual the salvation of believers, "the elect of God, holy and beloved" (Col. 3:12). He died on the cross, not simply to make sins pardonable, but to "take away" sin (John 1:29). Therefore, His death was not a mere "conditional" redemption purely incidental to the mood and inclination of man. It was an actual redemption; He truly, in fact and reality, redeems. "He hath visited and redeemed His people" (Luke 1:68). Thus the Lord Jesus carried out into perfect execution the counsel and will of God. He reveals, sets in motion, and brings to its conclusion the whole plan of God. We know that all things cooperate for good for them that love God and are called according to His eternal purpose. Back in eternity there was in the mind and plan of God His people whom He foreknew and predestinated called, predestinated justified, and predestinated glorified (Rom. 8:28-30). Now, in time, these people shall be called by Christ through His preached Word, justified by His blood, and, ultimately, glorified at the return of Christ in His glorious Second Advent. Thus the Cross of Jesus is the central link in the chain that connects the entire plan of the salvation of his Church Latent, Militant, Triumphant, and Universal, from everlasting to everlasting. The Lord Jesus died according to the counsel of God, and we are saved according to the counsel of God. So the child of God is led to sing, "Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory" (Ps. 73:24). The believer by God's grace is destined to glorification. Christ Jesus has merited glory for us on His cross. Through the power of His cross the glory of heaven can alone be realized. Through the power of His cross He will draw His people from the depth of sin, death, and hell to the very height of everlasting glory. This He is able to do, since He arose from the dead, "ever liveth," and death hath no more dominion over Him. The living Christ has power to save. That gracious power is always in operation, saving men through faith, which is itself the gift of God, calling them, justifying them, sanctifying them, and ultimately glorifying them both in soul and in body. With a true faith, believe and trust the Christ of Calvary, and you will dwell for ever in the house of the Christ of glory.
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