A Look at the Cross — Rolfe Barnard

My friends, I trust that many of you will take a second now and turn to the book of 2 Corinthians at chapter 5. And I want to read a passage of scripture that we read last Lord's Day. And the scripture begins at verse 14, and I want to read through verse 21 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

The Cross and the Three Realities It Reveals

I want to speak to you today on the subject, a look at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Last Lord's Day we studied how that the early church preached the death of Christ. And we saw that as the early preachers, preaching in the name of the early congregation of the saints, that as they saw the death of Christ, they saw in it three things.

They saw first of all, man's greatest crime. They saw second, God's eternal purpose. And they saw third, in the death of Christ, the relation of the death of Christ to the forgiveness of the sins of men and women.

Now this morning, just before I read the scripture, let me say that I want us today to look with the Apostle Paul at the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on a cross and see there three great realities. Now with the subject before us and the review of Last Lord's Day, let us read together 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 14.

For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we just thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he, that's God, hath made him, that's the Lord, to be sin for us, hallelujah, whom you know sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Let's look at that passage of scripture as it paints again the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me call to your attention three great realities that men have to look in the face if they will not evade but will look at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Cross Reveals God’s Judgment Against Sin

And the first of these great realities is that the cross shows crystal clear whatever men shall say about it, the cross shows what God thinks of S-I-N, sin. Now, we live in a day when sin is sort of relative and people sort of scout the idea that it matters very much.

But I want you to think with me just a little while on what the cross shows about how God thinks about sin. For the cross not only shows what God thinks of sin, but it shows what sin is. And it shows that God is absolutely forever set against S-I-N, sin.

Just one short look at Jesus Christ hanging on the cross will convince anybody if they look at it that according to God, from the standpoint of God, that as God looks upon it, S-I-N, sin, cannot be tolerated.

The cross shows that God will not come to terms with it. At the cross, whatever else one may say about it, there is no trifling with sin. Ladies and gentlemen, every drop of the blood flowing from the wounds of Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross, says and says in eternal proclamation that sin matters to God.

Oh, the most blasphemous thought that ever ran through the evil hearts of sinners as you and me, is that God owes salvation to anybody. For the Bible is crystal clear. Whatever God may have done, we are confined to what the Bible says he did do.

And according to the Bible, without the shedding of blood is no remission. And according to the Bible, God Almighty, listen to me, God Almighty took the only way whereby sin could be forgiven. That way was to hang his own son on a cross.

And if that's the only way that salvation can be procured for sinful men, and according to the Bible it is, then if God owes salvation to anybody, then he owed the death of Christ to sinners. And that would make God a monster.

But oh, my friends, as I see God's in Christ acting on the cross, laying my sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not see a God paying a debt to sinful men, but I see a God in eternal grace moving in the direction of the salvation of sinners.

Oh, the cross says that sin matters to God. And when we look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, when sin had been laid upon him, not mine, not his, but mine, we find in the book of Hebrews that Christ resisted under blood, striving against sin.

For had he sinned, he could not have been my sin-bearer and my substitute. And so we see in the life of Christ here on the earth, we see God's attitude to sin. It must not be tolerated. God will not come to terms with it.

It must not go unpunished. The mystery and the marvel and the grace and the miracle of the cross of Jesus Christ is explained in the Bible by the terms there is where justice and mercy, righteousness and peace kissed each other and where God found a way, for he found it, we didn't, to be just, that is, to punish sin and the justifier of the ungodly.

That's the miracle of grace. That's the message of the gospel. That's the good news that God has found a way, not to wink at sin, not to overlook sin, not to let sin go unpunished, not to violate himself by overlooking sin, but the scriptures tell us that mattering as it did, sin matters to God, that God found a way.

Man couldn't have found it. God found it, and God moved in that direction. And so those marvelous words, that God was in Christ doing something, reconciling the world to himself, how? By ignoring sin?

No, sir. By overlooking sin? No, sir. By coming to terms with sin? No, sir. By letting sin go unpunished? No, sir. But by laying sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ, he who knew no sin was made sin for us.

Isn't that marvelous? You understand that, Brother Barnet? No, sir. Bless God, I believe it, and I rejoice in it. Oh, my friend, this morning, living in a day when we take things for granted, look again at the cross of Christ and see him hanging there.

That's God in Christ. That's God acting. That's God punishing sin. That's God laying the lash of the demands of his holy law on my sin bearer. Is he yours or my substitute? Is he yours? Can you say he's mine and I'm his?

Ladies and gentlemen, on the cross and at the cross, if you look at it, you'll see what God thinks about sin. It must be punished. You'll see that God's absolutely against it. You'll see that he cannot overlook it.

You'll see that he could not save men by just forgetting about sin, but that the very nature and the holy character of God demanded that the violated law should be vindicated. And so praise God for the substitute who came and lived under the law and kept it, not for his own sake, but in the stead of sinners.

The Cross as the Supreme Revelation of God’s Love

And so he went to the cross and God could lay my sin upon him because he had no sin of his own. Looking at the cross, we see a second great reality. Do you see it? Here it is. In the cross, we see the supreme revelation of the love of Almighty God, the supreme revelation, unveiling, manifesting of the love of God.

I wonder if we could pause here. You got time? Just to rejoice in the love of God. Just to think of it. Just to weed around in it. Just to drink some of it. Oh, the marvel of it that the sinless one should have been ready and glad for the sake of miserable sinners to endure such shame and agony.

And yet he did. The marvel of it. The marvelous, marvelous grace of our loving Lord. You know, my dear friends, words are too poor and inadequate to even try to describe a love so glorious and so subduing.

The Apostle Paul tries it once in a while. He says it passes knowledge. He says, I am controlled by the love of Christ. He says he loved me and gave himself for me. He says Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

Marvel, don't scoff at it. Don't take it for granted. Marvel at the love of God in Christ. Oh, the wonder of it. We sing a song sometime in my meetings. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus found me out in the darkness, no light could I see.

Oh, what a wonder he put his great arms under. And wonder of wonders he saved even me. The marvel of the love of God as we see it revealed in the cross of Christ. And there is the marvel of the sacrifice of himself.

In Romans 12 and 1 we see these words. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Now that's for every child of God. Oh, by the mercies of God we are to present our bodies living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And that's just our reasonable service. But oh my, more than for us that found perfect expression, it just reached perfection in Christ.

For bless God, he did present his body a sacrifice. It was holy. And praise God, the scriptures say, that he gave a sacrifice that was acceptable unto God. Praise the Lord for the sacrifice of himself.

And in Ephesians 5 and 2 the Apostle Paul begs his readers, and he begs you if you hear it, to make Christ's spirit of sacrifice theirs. In Ephesians 5 and 2 we're enjoined to walk in love as Christ also both loved us and had given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

And Paul says, you do that way, you walk in love because Christ loved us. You do like he did. He gave himself, you give yourself, as an offering and as a sacrifice to say thank you to God so that the poison of this old world of sin may be perfumed by the sweetness of your devotion to Christ.

God's love hanging there on a cross. I see God's love manifested. I see God's love revealed. Oh, the book says in Romans 5 and 8 that God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

And in Romans 8 verse 32 I read those marvelous words. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things. Praise the Lord. You know, beloved ones, it was God who made the offering.

Those majestic words, God was in Christ. God was in Christ. God was the offerer and God was the offering. Oh, it was God who made the offering. It was God who paid the price. It was God who having loved his own which were in the world, loved them unto the end.

The love of God. The love of God. Do you just take it for granted? God help you not to. Oh, if we could recover in your day and mine the wonder and the marvel of the grace of God in dying in Christ on a cross.

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell the love of God. And looking at the cross I see the cost of man's redemption to God. It cost God something to come down here in Christ and go into the marketplace and provide by his own precious blood a ransom so that sinners might have the shackles and bondage of sin set or cut off.

They might be set free. Might be restored to the good favor of a holy God. It cost God something. The scriptures say he bought with a price and it was God was in Christ reconciling. Then God paid the price.

You didn't have to pay it. God paid it. Miracle of miracles. I can't explain this. I couldn't explain it in a million years. How could God do this? But the scriptures say God was in Christ. You bought with a price.

You bought. You bought. You bought with a price. What price? The price of the cost of his well-begotten, only begotten Son. God was in Christ. You know man's redemption wasn't purchased by some decree published or some fight or by God getting on a microphone and announcing that he's ready to pardon sinners.

But the redemption of men cost God himself in Christ. Himself in Christ. It was God who was in Christ. It was God who was in Christ. If that's so then he's got a claim on us. He's got a claim on us. He bought with a price.

Not by an announcement. Not by a radio message. Not by flashing some wonder in the sky. But you bought with a price of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me that I'll not recognize his claim on me.

You're wrong, brother. You're wrong. 2 Corinthians 5 .15 I read these words. And that he died for A. L. O. That they which live should henceforth live not live under themselves but under him which died for them and rose again has the purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ as far as you're concerned gone by the board.

Do you live a selfish life? Are you just concerned about yourself? Did you just live to yourself? No, sir. But you live under him. You live under him. That's why I died. So you live under him. And in 1 Thessalonians 5 -10 I read these words.

Who, that's talking about Christ, died for us. Are you one of those us's? That whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him. Can one refuse him? He died for us. He gave himself for us. That we should live to ourselves.

That whether we be sleeping or waking we should live with him and together with him and not under ourselves. The love of God is manifested and revealed at the cross. It's the supreme revelation of the love of God for sinful men.

Salvation as God’s Gift Through Christ’s Substitution

Not only as you look at the cross do you see what God thinks about sin. It must be punished. Not only as you look at the cross would you see the supreme revelation of God's love for sinful men. But there, bless God, you see the gift of God is salvation for sinners.

It's a gift. Oh, the Bible says sinner you can't earn it but you can receive it when every avenue of you making it yourself has been closed. If you just stop right there where you are and throw up your hands and quit trying to make it yourself and quit parading a few little good deeds you think you've done to God and trying to swap it to him for his pardon.

If you just admit that your very best righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of a holy God well that's when God's ready to save you. For God gives his gift to people who are paupers and beggars and hungry and thirsty and who are guilty, hell-deserving hell-bound sinners and who sing only my only hope, my only plea Christ Jesus died and he died for me.

You know, on the cross we see that he took that's my Lord, took the sinner's place. I rejoice in that. That's too good to be true but it is true. That is the gospel, my friends. Have you ever heard it as good news?

Have you ever believed that somebody needed to take your place? If it didn't, you'd have to take your place in hell. On the cross, my Lord Jesus Christ did something for me that I could never have done for myself.

And I believe that's the gospel. He took my place. He died in my stead. He died as my sin-bearer. He died as my substitute. He died, thank God, in my place. He did something for me on my behalf that I couldn't do for myself.

And if it is true as the Bible says it is that God was in Christ bearing my sin and yours on the cross then bless God, that is the gospel. That tells me of God sacrificing himself and making himself my substitute.

Glory, hallelujah. There, he united himself with me. And by faith, I've been joined to him. And growing out of that, bless God, shall I not say that God's attitude to sin shall be mine? That the love that Christ had for the Father shall be our love.

That his passion for holiness shall be ours. For bless God, my Lord Jesus Christ hung there as a representative for sinners. And the wondrous phrase in Christ, God was in Christ, in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That blessed expression in Christ or an equivalent of it occurs exactly 243 times in the New Testament. That means that God puts me in Christ.

That he takes me out of Adam and he puts me in Christ. And your position now is either in old Adam, guilty, defiled, or in Christ, cleansed and forgiven. Are you in Christ? Have you been accepted by God for his sake?

Can you say, I've been accepted in the beloved one, James Denny, one of the great writers of a bygone generation, said, as I look at Charles Westcott's words, Mr. Westcott said, it is the voice of God, no less than the sinner, which says, Thou, O Christ, art all I want.

More than all I find in thee. Oh, God, the father looks at his son and he says, You're all I want. More than all I find in thee. And the old sinner, thank God, can do that. Say, God, that's the way I look at it.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want. More than all I find in thee. For in Christ means to be right with God. I close this message with the text, Romans 8, 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it is God that justifies.

Salvation is the gift of God brought out in the blood of his son for believing sinners. Are you a believer? May God bless you. And now, our father, we brought this message and we know many people just sort of laughed at it because it's the gospel.

And nobody seems to need a savior now. But out there on radio land, somebody's heard. And somebody's saying right now, that's the one for me. I'm a sinner. I'm ruined and defiled. And I need him. Oh, thank God.

The only thing that'll recommend you to the mercy and grace of God is N-E-E-D, need. All, all that he requires is to feel your need of him. Would you turn yourself over to him now for Christ's sake.

Amen. Would you do it? This is Evangelist Ralph Barnett.