If you had one son in whom you found unspeakable delight, would it not be normal as a father to want more like him? So it is with the Father who has purposed to have a vast family of human sons transformed to be like His only begotten Son. It is evident that the Father makes all His plans with His Son in view. The Father intends that in all things the Son shall have the pre-eminence.
The Son lives to reveal the Father, and in doing so brings glory to His Father. Likewise, the Spirit speaks not of Himself, but dedicates His activity to the revealing of the Son and to bring to fruition the work for the Father and Son.
It is the inner attitude and purpose of selfless giving, serving, and sharing the divine rule of action which has always been the expression of the Godhead. This is the principle revealed in the cross. It may come as a surprise to some when we suggest that the cross has been an eternal principle with God. This Cross-Principle of the Father is demonstrated by the Son, and interpreted by the Spirit. If the cross tells out the heart of God, then the story of the cross is the story of God’s eternal love and generosity.
God deals with the human race through two representative men, Adam and Christ. Our natural beginning can be traced to Adam; our new beginning is in Christ. So this is how God sees the two family trees–Adam’s family tree, and Christ’s. In Adam’s tree, we have death, sin, the law, and the flesh. In Christ’s tree (the Tree of Life) we have righteousness, love, life, and the ministry of the Spirit (Rom. 5:19, 21).
GOD’S REMEDY for MAN
At last we have arrived at the highway where man can begin to realize God’s magnificent plan. God uses the blood of Christ and His cross in a remedial way by which He intends to bring us into life. By means of the cross, He can cut us loose from our old natural resources that we might live by the life of Another. Naturally, from God’s standpoint, man had divine life from the moment he was born from above. But just as God revealed the value of the cross to reconcile and forgive, and the value of our union in death with Christ for our deliverance, even so it must come as a revelation that we are cut off from the old source of natural life and that we are to live and move by the life-resources of Another. Not only are we united with Him in the likeness of His death but also in the likeness of His resurrection: “Being reconciled to God by the death of His Son, how much more shall we be saved [daily delivered from sin’s dominion] through His resurrection.” The Christian life is not a “changed life,” it is an “exchanged life” (Gal. 2:20), “I live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.” This life is not something we ourselves can produce. It is actually living by the life of Another.
Now through union in death and resurrection, we also receive a new mind, His mind. Instead of being ruled by a carnal mind, which works death, we now have a spiritual mind, which means life and peace. We get to know and experience this living in “His resurrection Life” as we live in fellowship with the “Living Christ.” He is always abiding in us, putting forth His mighty resurrection-energy through us to fulfill the Father’s desire. Yet this life-union only works as we abide in Him.
One who embraces the Cross-Principle and allows it to accomplish its full work is constantly energized by divine power. Such a demonstration in the lives of believers is more than a moral influence. Paul says, “The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” Multitudes of God’s people are praying for power, but few realize God’s only reason for enduing His children with power is that they might give their life for Him. Many have missed the real meaning of Acts 1:8, “Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you shall be witness unto Me.” The word for witness is martus, meaning “martyr.” Too often our attention has been focused on power to do some bold exploit, to move multitudes, to become great deliverers. Yes, there will be exploits, and multitudes will be moved, but the deeper truth is that we have a divine energy to love not our own lives even unto death.The words “witness” and “martyr” were once interchangeable because witnesses allowed no circumstance to silence their testimony concerning their Lord Jesus.
Would we desire to know this divine energy in our lives? Observe Stephen who, “full of faith and power,” did “great wonders and signs” (Acts 6:8). He crowned his testimony by laying down his life for the One who had died for him. The power of the cross was manifested as much in the glowing face of Stephen as in the words of his message, which reached out and laid hold of Saul of Tarsus. This persecutor of the Church became the apostle who above all others demonstrated the glorious message of the cross, and the Christ of the cross.
The PLACE of GOD’S PLEASURE
The position of our Lord is always central. From the Tree of Life in Eden, to the Lamb upon the Throne of Glory, the positional emphasis is invariably “in the midst.” John saw Him in the midst of the lampstands in his apocalyptic vision. Even in death there was no exception, for on either side there was one, and Jesus was in the middle.
Jesus was ever cognizant of the end to which He would come. He thus informed His disciples when He began to teach them (Mk. 8:31):
1. The Son of man must suffer
2. The Son of man must be rejected
3. The Son of man must be killed
4. The Son of man must be raised
The cross was the beginning, not the end, of Christ’s teaching. His teaching continues with the freshness, beauty and force which it possessed coming from His lips when He spoke as no other man ever spoke.
The cross may be pondered with great profit. By the term “the cross” we mean not the physical instrument of death, but the work which was so gloriously accomplished thereon. Nowhere do the rays of divine light beam with more brilliance than when they focus on the cross of Calvary. If the cross with all its ignominy was the cost of our redemption, and since the Lord Jesus came to pay the ransom price then it was necessary that He should be impaled on that cross. As we stand at the foot of the cross by faith, we remind our hearts, That was the death I deserved to die. It really was that bad!
One who dies by crucifixion dies a thousand deaths; the agony is indescribable. His beard was plucked; His body was lashed; His head was bruised; His side was pierced; His heart was broken… How can anyone question the great love with which He loves us?
If the rigors of the cross defy adequate description, what shall we say concerning its rescue? The cross bridged the chasm between the Almighty Creator and His alienated creatures. It is the dividing point between life and death, between hope and despair, between heaven and hell. Through the cross we have sweet peace, complete pardon, joyful prospects and eternal provision.
Isaiah 53:10 tells us, “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.” How do we understand such words? Our soul is subdued, and our heart melts as the fact looms up in the horizon of divine revelation. The context at least begins to explain how the cross is the place of God’s pleasure:
And He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth…Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him…to put Him to grief… to make His soul an offering for sin…He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
All this was fulfilled with the Father’s full approval. And He who poured out His life amid the shame and sorrow of Calvary shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. At the cross it was grief; at the throne it will be glory. At the cross it was pain; at the throne it will be pleasure. At the cross it was redemption; at the throne it will be reception.
For us the new birth is an introduction into a new sphere. We experience the fullness of love, “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.” True love suffers long and is kind. It leaps to the opportunity of serving, and welcomes the privilege of suffering if need be, so that benefit for others may be obtained.
On that first day of the week, the cross was empty; the tomb was empty. Where is He now? “And behold… in heaven…in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb…” Satisfied and glorified, the Conqueror of Calvary awaits the full harvesting of the fruit that shall come from the one Corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died that He might not abide alone.