Glorying in the Cross

Christ is risen, let us sing,
Glory, honor, praises bring;
Law and justice magnified
By our Lord Who bled and died. 

 
Christ is risen, O what grace,
To our God alone we trace;
Peace with God and blessedness
Through imputed righteousness. 

 
Christ is risen, blessed hour,
In God's plan, by sovereign power;
For His sheep that they might live,
Them eternal life He gives.

  
Christ is risen, O what love;
Now He reigns and rules above;
Sin and death no victory,
Christ alone has set us free!  

-Gospel Hymn, "Take My Life" 

 

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14.) 

For his own part, the apostle was determined to glory in nothing save the cross of Christ. He had gone out to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, and like Moses, he counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. The cross is put here for the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross. This is the foundation which God hath laid in Sion for the hope of the guilty. His own self bare the sins of His people in His own body on the tree; they are justified by His blood, redeemed from the curse; and upon this, and this alone, believers rest their hope. 

They do not glory in any real or fancied superiority over others. They behold the glory of the LORD shining in the face of Jesus Christ. Through the rent vail of the Redeemer’s flesh, they draw near to their covenant God, seated on a throne of grace; and, beholding the perfection of the sacrifice offered on Calvary, and arrayed in their Redeemer’s everlasting righteousness, they challenge the universe to lay anything to their charge. 

 

—preacher James Haldane (1768-1851 A.D.)

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