The Wondrous Cross



The hymn writer's words came drifting into my mind, "When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride." I thought, what a "wondrous cross" the cross of Christ really is! Not that wooden frame but the One who died on it and what He accomplished in His sufferings and death. Central to time and even more central to eternity is the cross death of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul tells us, "It is God that justifieth.... It is Christ that died." We cannot preach the gospel without our emphasis being on His death and substitutionary sacrifice because it is the gospel of "Christ crucified." All God's elect were redeemed "by His blood." Like the apostles, our message is "the preaching of the cross." Christ offered "one sacrifice for sins forever." His obedience was "unto death, even the death of the cross." Not only is His death central to time, eternity and the gospel but also to our worship of God. As we come before God privately and personally, we come through His justice-satisfying sacrifice by that way He opened by the shedding of His sinless blood.

That blood applied to our conscience by the Spirit of God gives us peace and rest, cleansing it from all thoughts of salvation by any other way. It is the same with our public worship. We come gathered around the preaching of salvation through Christ's cross death but we also remember His death in the two ordinances God has ordained for His blood-bought people. In water baptism we confess our union with our Savior in His death, burial and resurrection. In the Lord's table we remember His death as the full ransom price for our sins until He comes. Oh what wretched sinners we must be that it required God the Son to come into this sin-cursed world, take on a human body in order to do the one thing necessary to save His people! Oh cruel, God-appointed Tree that made the bitter waters of our sins sweet, how thankful we are for Your voluntary laying down of Your life in our place! As You hung there on that cross, appearing to be unable to do anything, You were satisfying the claim of Your own justice against us as the Surety of all Your children. "Amazing love, how can it be that Thou my God shouldst die for me?"


-Gospel report by preacher Gary Shepard

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