- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
Silence about the Cross.
Anon.
A serious lack of much of our present-day preaching is the ignoring of the finished work of Christ on Calvary in all its vast and wondrous meaning. The condition of the world, of society and of the Church is the strongest proof of the need of the re-discovery of the Cross as the power by which the forces of darkness can be driven back. The Cross is the Spirit-inspired revelation of the one source of victory for the believer, and the one hope for a lost and ruined world.
The mind blinded by Satan is made to reject the Cross, revolt against the Cross, tone down the meaning of the Cross and shrink from the language of the Cross. The ‘deceiver’ knows that the ‘Word of the Cross’, as the ‘power of God’, will destroy his lies and make all see that the ‘natural man’ cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually deceived.
What is the Message of the Cross? It is the most glorious message in its purpose as well as the most effective in its result ever delivered to be proclaimed. It has a three-fold truth to be made known: 1) That the substitutionary death of the Son of God is the one means by which a sinner can be saved and brought back to God, 2) that there is deliverance from the old Adam-life, and 3) that there is freedom from the power of sin.
If this Gospel, in all its length and breadth, its height and depth, was revealed to Paul directly by the Lord Jesus Christ, as he himself solemnly affirms (Gal. 1 v12), then it is an appalling thing that people, travelling to eternity, should be kept in ignorance of the one Message which can bring assurance to the heart and give power to fight successfully the daily battle. As the believer stands on the ground of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary he finds the secret of being more than conqueror in the struggle with evil.
The weapon by which Satan can be frustrated in his schemes is the Cross, first by bringing to death everything in the believer’s nature which the enemy can work upon, and causing him to know personal deliverance, then by the victory won by Christ being appropriated and used, in co-operation with the Holy Spirit, in aggressive resistance to the Evil One in all his ways.
What means the silence on such a matter of vital importance? Congregations have a right to the truth as it has been revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. The heart of the multitude is weary because the world cannot satisfy it. Has the Church lost her own way and must she confess that she cannot lead the longing soul to the Fountain of Living Waters?
The children of God are face to face with most difficult conditions in personal life and Christian service, and many of them do not know how to get through. Has the Church no guidance to give them in the work of resisting satanic assault and oppression? The hungry sheep look up and are not fed. Surely the Message of the Cross is everything we need in these days to break in upon the spiritual paralysis which afflicts so many, and to make clear the way of life, rest and victory.
The pressing requirement of this present day is to thrust into the vision of all the Cross of Calvary in its full meaning, and to placard before their eyes the fact that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”, and what is more, lives to make real the full measure of the victory won.
Oh that the passion of Christ over the lost, which flamed in the soul of the great Apostle, were burning in the heart of every preacher, and of each one of us.
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