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CHAPTER X

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

HE historic death of Christ was necessary for two reasons: (1) To make complete revelation of the character of God as holy love; (2) To reproduce that character in humanity.

It is clear that, if men are to be reconciled and saved, the character of God must be established beyond question. We must know what God is. In the words and life of Jesus we may see plainly the righteousness and the love of God, and God's design for human character. In the death of Jesus we see His absolute loyalty to that character. There is no other conceivable way by which God's absolute loyalty to righteousness could be fully made known, except to meet, as a man, the temptations of human life, and to resist them "even unto blood." Anything short of a most excruciating death could

not have revealed how invulnerable that loyalty

was.

us.

Neither is there any other conceivable way by which God could effectually reproduce His character of holy love in us except by dying for God's grand purpose is to win our love. The very substance of salvation is to love God with all our might, and our fellow-men as ourselves. How is this spiritual condition to be produced? By love. There is no other way. Like begets like. Only love begets love. God is powerful; and He rules the physical universe by power; but He can not rule by physical force in the moral sphere. In the very nature of the case He can not save a soul by overriding the soul by force. Nobody is ever conquered by force. A person can be imprisoned, or beaten, or killed, without being conquered. They killed Christ, but they did not conquer Him. You can kill a criminal without saving his soul. You can whip a child until he obeys you; but you have not conquered him until you secure his obedience by his love for the right and for you. Corporal punishment administered by the State,

by a teacher, or by a parent is not efficacious if given in hate, anger, or revenge. Love may sometimes use severe methods; but it is only love that can safely and profitably chastise. The Lord's punishments are all given in love. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth."

Neither can a soul be frightened into salvation; for a human spirit is not saved until it is made to love; and fear in itself does not create love. We may sometimes be scared out of certain sins, for prudential considerations; but we can not be scared into loving obedience. A good scare is sometimes helpful in bringing one to his moral senses, but salvation can not end in a scare.

God's chief appeal is not to the reason. It is hard to reason anybody out of his sins and into love. Reason has large place in religion; but no one's religion amounts to much if it begins and ends in the intellect. Reason can not produce love. Reason produces a creed.

Hezekiah expressed the whole philosophy of salvation when he sang, "Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption." (Isa. 38: 17.)

Wicked old John Newton, after he had become a saint, sang:

"In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

"I saw One hanging on a tree
In agonies and blood,

Who fixed His languid eyes on me
As near the cross I stood."

It was the vision of the crucified Savior that regenerated my own soul and won me to Him. I love because He first loved me. Nobody is ever conquered until he is conquered by love. That is why God's sun and rain are given alike to the good and to the evil. If it never rained on a bad man's field, he might be driven to keep the letter of the law through compulsion of force and fear; but it would not win his love, and he is not won until he is won to love.

Christ will win us by what He is in Himself or He will not win at all. He proposes to win by the surpassing excellence of His character

and His deep love for us. If the length and breadth and height of Christ's love for our souls can not draw us out of the pit of corruption, we are there to stay. Can one imagine what else more efficacious God could do to win our love than He has done? Can one suggest something more winsome than the character and the cross of Christ?

The cross is both light and power. It is revelation; but it is much more: it is "the power of God unto salvation.” If there is no reconciliation between God and man apart from a transformation of the character of man into the likeness of God, it is evident that God must furnish the spiritual energy by which that transformation can be effected. There must be a powerful incentive to repentance, and a "power not ourselves" to quicken and strengthen our latent spiritual resources. It is not enough that God make a seed endowed with latent life; He must also give the sun, rain, and soil to quicken and develop the life of the seed. Likewise it is not enough that God endow us with a spiritual nature; He must shine upon us by the