Something amazing happened at the Cross of Calvary and what was visible to us was merely superficial. The Tree had roots back into the past eternity and its branches stretched upward into eternities to come. It was a real event in the realm of reality - infinitely more real to God, to the dimension of all angels and spirits, in heaven and hell, than what we saw. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)
Only God can save us. If He had not bothered, we would perish. He is the only One with whom we have to reckon in the end. What He thinks about us is all that matters. If He condemns, what does any other opinion matter? If He does not forgive, it doesn’t matter who else forgives. The Supreme Court may acquit us or the offended party may say ‘I forgive you’, but there is still God to face.
Sinners will stand eventually before the Judge, as naked as Adam and Eve taking to their heels in Eden. How will they cover themselves? With the fig leaves of printed tributes, obituary notices or testimonials? The approval of the whole world, applause, honours, and medals is nothing.
Thank God for ‘so great salvation’. The garments of salvation, the most expensive ever made, loomed at Calvary. What God did to save us is fathomless. “Behold the man…”. “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” What love and what opportunity.
Calvary's Cross seemed to sum up all the negative forces that depress the human race. But this was no defeat; it was omnipotence in action, omnipotence turning every negative into a positive, a supreme act with a supreme outcome. Jesus wept for the weeping; He became helpless for the helpless, unwanted for the unwanted, and unclean for the unclean; He faced death for the dying, and horror for the terrified.
He suffered injustice for all who were oppressed, and He surrendered His reputation for all the nobodies in the world. Beyond all miracles, Christ’s death on the Cross at Calvary was an act of such greatness that the world will never be able to get over it.
CREATION WITHOUT A CROSS
To think of creation without the Cross is to get a distorted view of things. We read about secrets hidden from before the foundation of the earth. The Cross in creation is the secret of God, now made known to us. The Cross is the inner core of truth. The Cross strengthens the fabric of existence - in Christ all things are held together. It means His arms stretched out at Calvary. Without that the world would fall apart.
Evil would break it up. God did not toss this round globe into space and forgot it. He left the Spirit of God brooding over it and the Cross of Christ standing at its heart, holding it together. The Cross of Jesus is the strength of all life and existence, including you and me.
Salvation is not a mystic force plucked out of the air. It rests on history. It is not psychic awareness, or "tapping the reservoir of the super-conscious". It began at the Cross and nothing is more touchable than that. The Cross was salvation's cost to God and fixes its value to us. Salvation has to be gauged by the massive effort behind it, namely the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. Creation cost God nothing. Salvation cost Him His Son.
We are entitled to expect a tremendous outcome for that outlay. The Calvary-event tore heaven open, darkened the sun, and made Jesus Christ sweat blood bringing angels to help Him. Why all that? Nothing, but nothing could justify it except world redemption, and the guarantee of salvation for every individual who put their trust in Him.
The Cross of Calvary is the scale by which to measure salvation. Creation cost God nothing. Salvation cost Him all He had. "He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3,16)
Long ago, drop by drop, the Blood of Christ’s life ebbed out of His heart. It stained Calvary’s hill, spelling out in crimson letters the story of the love that surpasses all love.
Today, more than a billion around the whole world – the simple and the wise, those who live in jungles and those who live in concrete apartment blocks, factory workers and academics – take that message as the truth above all truths. It shows us the concerns of God’s heart and a wisdom, which soars far above our cloud-hopping minds. Great intellects have bowed to it. Saul of Tarsus, once full of biting hatred, came to see the Cross as the logic of God. He said it was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks but the power of God to all that believe (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).
Christ’s death was His greatest achievement and God’s greatest act. The power of love conquered the love of power. It was no mistake, no misfortune, and no accident. Christ was not a martyred victim, but a mighty victor, our champion and God’s hero. The Father in heaven sent Him to hunt out and destroy the devil and evil. A greater David faced a greater Goliath. The Son of God overthrew our greatest enemy, sin, and our final foe, death.
The words, "Jesus saves", embrace everything that defeats us. Every life has a thousand needs. Salvation touches all weaknesses, reaches into the past and future, and is for body, soul and mind, for earth and for heaven. Jesus saves us from our sins, from folly, failure and fear, pride and illusion, the devil’s deceit and every threatening circumstance.
Christ is the Master of it all. Jesus saves! Christ's hell-shattering work has opened heaven's fountain of resources for all struggling souls. "He that believes in Me, has life." Being saved means being "born again". "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to be the sons of God." As I write these words, my heart rejoices and affirms every word. Yes! Yes! Yes! Jesus is wonderful.
We need Gods’ power. God needs manpower. Salvation is a joint effort, the Spirit of God waiting on our not waiting but getting on with it. We are “co-workers together with Christ” – what glorious partnership. God does not need us to run the universe, but he depends on our trust in and our obedience to Him. Let’s preach the Gospel and thus fulfil the Great Commission.
Have you ever won anybody for Christ? If you have, you have done something no prophet in the Old Testament ever did! Noah never won one person to join his family to go into the ark. Elijah never won souls, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah. The prophets before Christ were mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit, but they never had the joy and privilege you have if you have brought somebody to know the Lord.
THE CROSS AFFECTED THE THRONE
An indication of Christ’s glorious sacrifice is given us in the Book of Revelation. It describes the whole universe being swept with His praise. Every creature in heaven and earth know that none of them is worthy, only Jesus. (Rev. 5) They multiply accolades and exhaust language to match His unparalleled work. The cause of such worthiness was observable only in a measure even by those who watched Him in His dying hours. But it was not the total cost, because the Cross affected the Throne!
Another tremendous fact is: Christ was one with the Father. Infinity shared with the sin-bearer. The black hurricanes surging around the Cross swept also around the Throne above. Christ accepted our judgement but ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself’. (2 Cor 5,19) The vastness of the heart of God found a place for the sorrows of mankind. The music of heaven developed a minor key.
We can sympathise and empathise with other human beings, but not with God, especially in the passion of His redeeming work. We can relate to God, but never in that dimension. God is the indescribable, and in this work we can only stand aside in ignorance and awe. It can’t be explained. It is unutterable, and if uttered it would be incomprehensible. Only God can appreciate what God experiences.
We are like the disciples Jesus took into Gethsemane. They went with Him so far only. Then ‘He went a little further.’ A few yards away from where Peter, James and John sat waiting, drowsing under the old olive trees, the world’s Redeemer was fighting a cosmic battle totally outside their conception- and ours. Our theology of salvation is the scaffolding only to the temple of our wonderful and glorious God.