THE CROSS OF JESUS

1 Corinthians 1:17,18,21-23 (to “Christ crucified”); Mark 15:15-38; John 19:25-35

It will be evident to all that I wish to speak with the Holy Spirit’s help in this gospel preaching about the cross: the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I make no apology for reading large sections of scripture that speak of the cross, because I think the Spirit’s desire would be that the very detail of what the Lord Jesus went through at the cross should touch our hearts, so that we should be affected by it. The passage I read in Corinthians speaks of “the word of the cross”. It is a word that speaks very powerfully. It says that “the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God’s power”. It has been said many times that there are two classes of persons: there are those that perish, and there are those that are saved. In the gospel, God desires that everyone that hears the gospel should be amongst the “us”, “to us that are saved it is God’s power”.

It is remarkable that the apostle speaks of the “foolishness of the preaching”. It is sorrowful that, in this world generally, the preaching of the gospel is increasingly considered to be foolish and pointless, and is rejected. That is a very sobering matter, because the gospel proclaims the only way of salvation. Peter says, “And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”, Acts 4:12. As it says here, “to us that are saved it is God’s power”. What does the preaching mean to you? Dear young heart, dear older person, when the preacher speaks about the Lord Jesus, when the preacher speaks about His cross and His sufferings there, when the preacher speaks about His precious blood, precious blood that was shed to wash sins away, what does it mean to you?

If there is nothing in what I am saying to you, if what I am saying to you is not the truth and of no point, then I am foolish to stand here and preach it. But if what I am saying is the truth; if the Lord Jesus is indeed a glorious Saviour; if indeed:

‘The love of God is boundless,

Perfect, causeless, full and free’ (Hymn 212)

toward you; if the precious blood of Jesus is available to take away your sins and to set you up before God in righteousness; if all that I am saying is true, then you are foolish not to believe it. I would say to every heart in this room today, with conviction, that the cross of Christ is indeed wondrous. As the same hymn-writer puts it:

‘O the cross of Christ is wondrous!

There I learn God's heart to me;

Midst the silent, deep’ning darkness,

“God is light” I also see.

Holy claims of justice finding

Full expression in that scene’

I trust that as we have read the scriptures in relation to the Lord Jesus on the cross, something of the meaning of the hymn we have sung will come home to each one of us.

The apostle says, “but we preach Christ crucified”. In verse 17 he speaks of the glad tidings, and if you are feeling the weight and the pressure of your sins; if you are feeling your distance from God; if what the preacher says as to God's word is stirring something in your heart; then I can tell you that these are indeed glad tidings. Paul says, “we preach Christ crucified, to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness; but to those that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ God's power and God's wisdom”. The gospel is God's power to effect salvation in the hearts of every one who believes.

Where we read in Mark’s gospel in relation to the Lord Jesus, the cross is brought before us. There was much leading up to this. The Lord Jesus came into this world as a little Babe. The children know the story of Jesus being born in the stable at Bethlehem and being laid in a manger. He was One who, in His Person – as the apostle tells us – “subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”, Phil.2:6-8. That is how He came into this world: as a little Babe in Bethlehem’s manger. He grew up amongst men, He was absolutely perfect, He never did anything wrong. We might wonder at that, but it is a measure of the wonder of the life of Jesus that at the age of twelve it is recorded that He was in the temple, and that He was occupied in His Father's business (see Luke 2:46-49). How precious, as we follow it through the gospels, is the life of Jesus, a life of infinite perfection!

It was a life that called out the blessing of the Father and the Father's pleasure. The voice was heard from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, Luke 3:22. He was here amongst men, never causing any offence, never causing any trouble, and yet they hated him. The psalmist says, “They that hate me without a cause”, Ps.69:4. Another writer records the words of Pilate, “Lo, I bring him out to you, that ye may know that I find in him no fault whatever”, John 19:4. And yet He was hated, and the story of the cross demonstrates that. Earlier in Mark 15, when Pilate was trying to have the Lord released (vv.9-14), the cry of the crowd was “Crucify him … they cried out the more urgently, Crucify him”. How they hated the Lord Jesus. And yet, in the will of God, in Christ’s love for His God and Father – and I say to everyone here, in His love for you – He continued on His way. Another scripture says of the Lord “that he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”, Luke 9:51. He knew that that meant the cross, and all that was involved for Him in it.

At the cross, we see the cruelty of men, what they inflicted on the Saviour, all that He had to go through. The hymn we sang, already quoted, says as to the cross:

‘There I learn God’s heart to me’.

What a heart of love, that God should be prepared to sacrifice His own Son so that you and I might be saved! What love shone in the Father’s heart, and then what love in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the One “who gave himself a ransom for all”, 1 Tim.2:6. The Lord Jesus gave Himself for all. The way that the Lord Jesus went, which we have read of here, was for all, that there might be a sacrifice available for every one. That sacrifice secured God’s righteousness, so that God, in all the holiness of His Person, can come out in the gospel and can righteously offer salvation, full and free, to those who put their faith and trust in the work of Jesus. I desire that our hearts might be affected by the cost to the Saviour of His giving Himself. Look at what He suffered at the hands of men: it does us good to go over these sections in all of the gospels. You will find that different points are brought out in the different gospel accounts. The section we read in Mark gives a particular impression of the way that men treated Him. Pilate scourged Him; men spat upon Him and ridiculed Him; men crucified Him, nailed Him to the cross at Calvary. There the hatred and rejection of man came out: it says, “they that passed by reviled him”. You think of that, the Saviour hanging there on the cross, having done no wrong, the One “who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth”, 1 Pet.2:22.

Yet what was required was a perfect offering, and He hung there, nailed there by the hands of cruel and hateful men; and those that passed by, it says, “reviled him”; they mocked Him. They said, “save thyself, and descend from the cross”. There is a hymn that refers to this passage. It says:

‘Himself He could not save,

Love’s stream too deeply flowed’      

(Hymn 240)

I can say to you, dear young heart, dear older one, that the Lord Jesus hung there because He loves you, and because He desired your salvation. It was because He desired your salvation that He hung there. He could not save Himself: they said, “Let the Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and may believe”.

Think of the reproaches that fell upon the Lord Jesus, adding to these terrible sufferings at men’s hands on the cross. Yet all the hatred and cruelty of man that He endured could not settle one sin of ours: it required that that blessed One Himself should be made sin. It says here, “And when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour”. We are not told in this passage what went on in those three hours of awful darkness, but we do know from this section that the Lord Jesus was forsaken there; and from other scriptures we know that He was made sin in those three hours of terrible darkness. The judgment of God upon sin and sins was meted out upon His blessed head, and there “Him who knew not sin” was “made sin for us”, 2 Cor.5:21. If your faith and trust is in Jesus, you can say that “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet.2:24. Through God’s grace and His mercy, I can say that with conviction. He bore my sins in His body on the tree.

It touches my heart every time I read this section in relation to the three hours of darkness, that at the ninth hour, He “cried with a loud voice … My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” There was no answer at that point to that cry. This One was made sin, and He bore the judgment. He exhausted God’s judgment on sin and sins, and in that lone, dark period the whole question of sin and sins before the eye of a holy God was settled. The work of Christ has satisfied God’s righteous claims in relation to sin and thus He is able to come out in full and free forgiveness to the sinner who relies on the work of Jesus.

Then it says, “Jesus, having uttered a loud cry, expired. And the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom”. That is so that God can come out now, and the gospel can be preached – because of the work of Jesus, all that He accomplished on the cross. You find as you read on that that work and all that it secured was ratified in Him being raised from among the dead: having spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt.12:40), He was raised by the glory of the Father (Rom.6:4). It was impossible that the Lord Jesus should be held by the power of death (Acts 2:24), and we are rightly taught that He conquered the power of death as He entered into it. The witness to that is that He was raised the third day, and He is now exalted at the Father’s right hand above.

Our hymn spoke of that too:

‘O the sight in heav’n is glorious!

Man in righteousness is there’

God has been propitiated in relation to sin and sins. The apostle John tells us that “he is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2:2. It is said often in the gospel preaching, that if every one on the face of this earth put their faith and trust in Jesus and His precious blood today, that work of His is available and sufficient for all. That is the extent of “the field” (Matt.13:44). Christ’s work is available to every one: how wonderful that is. God wants these glad tiding to be proclaimed throughout the whole world. When Jesus uttered that loud cry and expired, when the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom, that was so that God could come out now in full and free forgiveness. If you read Luke’s account, you will find that “the veil of the temple rent in the midst”, Luke 23:45. That is, that there is an entrance now as we put our faith and trust in the work of Jesus, so we can enter into the very presence of God with no thought or sign of sin upon us at all. That shows the effect of what has been secured by the work of Jesus: He has satisfied God completely in relation to sin and sins.

In John 19, although it is such a hostile scene that is presented, John says that there are those who stood by the cross of Jesus. I wonder if everyone here is sympathetic and supportive in relation to the presentation of “the word of the cross”. To many, it is foolishness, as we read in Corinthians, but “to us that are saved it is God’s power”; and these persons were here and they witnessed what went on, and in particular they witnessed the shedding of His precious blood. They witnessed the continued cruelty of men towards Him, even though He was already dead. The hymn says:

‘Though man in hatred pierced Thy side,

Thy blood love’s answer gave’ (Hymn 230)

That is what we read about here, and those persons witnessed it: “but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water”. That precious blood is available now. If you have not yet put your faith and trust in the blood of Jesus, do so now! Do so now, before it is too late. That blood is available in God’s goodness; the love of God in the gospel is reaching out to you today. You might say, ‘well, what you are saying sounds very foolish’. But I can tell you, it is powerful. If you put your faith and trust in the blood of Jesus, you will experience the power of it; you will experience salvation. You will experience the blessing and the peace that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.

And further, I can tell you that for those who trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is available. How precious that is: much could be said and much is brought out in John’s gospel in relation to the Holy Spirit. God loves to give the Holy Spirit. Are you conscious of the gift of the Holy Spirit? He will keep alive in your heart the joy of your salvation, the joy of all that God has secured through the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. The Spirit would give you joy in your heart when the Lord Jesus is presented as the real, living Saviour at God’s right hand. The Holy Spirit is available: ask the Father, and He will give you the Holy Spirit, and He will cause your heart to delight in the glad tidings, and to appreciate the power of the preaching, the power available to you in the precious blood of Jesus.

May our hearts be touched as we speak of the “word of the cross”. I say again to you, with a challenge: is what I am saying foolish, or is it God’s power to salvation? I say that it is God’s power to salvation. God’s power is towards us in the blood of Jesus, and His power is available in the gift of the blessed Holy Spirit: may we know what it is until the Lord Jesus comes. What a wonderful prospect to those who have their faith and trust in Christ. The Lord is soon coming to take all those that love Him to be with Himself. In the meantime, be one of those who are standing by the cross, having full faith in the complete provision that has been made; and find your peace and your joy in having a link with the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit.

May this be the portion of all, for His name’s sake and for God’s glory.

 

Preaching of the gospel, Linlithgow

27 April 2025

 

Jim Walkinshaw