BY THE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART, CROMARTY.
(Continued from p. 347).
Every part of the work of creation displays skill and contrivance which manifest the Creator as the only wise God. But in the cross of Christ there is a hidden and mysterious wisdom which excelleth all. There are two ways in which a law can be honoured—one by rewarding the obedient, the other by punishing the disobedient. But through the sufferings of Christ the law of God is not only upheld simply in honour, it is actually more glorified by the salvation of the transgressor, who believes in Jesus, than it could possibly be by his condemnation (Rom. iii. 25). Sin is the greatest of all evils, the cause of all the suffering in the universe; but such is the wisdom of the cross that sin, the very essence of evil, is made the occasion of the greatest good. The apostle says the foolishness of God is wiser, that is greater, than the wisdom of man. Through the cross it turns even the deepest laid devices of Satan into folly. How did the seed of the woman bruise the serpent’s head? By power? No! but by weakness! By the aid of His friends? No! but by the machinations of enemies! He let them have their will He permitted them to seize, crucify, kill, bury Him; and it was in being thus defeated that He conquered. The ignominy of the accursed tree was His honour; His death was His victory. It was upon the very cross to which His enemies nailed Him in malicious triumph that he triumphed over principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly. “In the day ye eat of the tree,” said Satan to Eve, “ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” meaning, in his heart, that they should be such gods as he and his associates were, knowing good lost by the bitter experience of evil. But such is the wisdom of the cross, that the very lies of Satan are converted into truth, to his utter confusion. Holy angels know good only. Satan knows evil, and good only by its loss. But redeemed sinners knew, as their deceiver meant, good lost by the experience of evil; but now, through the bitterness of evil and the sweetness of good, they are made like the Son of God. Oh! how truly incomprehensible is that wisdom which devised a scheme by which seeming impossibilities are performed, and things seemingly incompatible are reconciled! A holy God reconciled with sinful man; the law more honoured in the salvation of sinners than it is either in the happiness of angels or the misery of devils; the greatest good extracted from the very essence of evil; Satan’s schemes frustrated by their very success; the cross of Christ the instrument of his triumph: and the world, where God had been most dishonoured, made such a theatre of His glory as attracts the very inhabitants of heaven! Well might the apostle exclaim, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
How astonishing is the power of that simple word which created the heavens and the earth out of absolute nothing! But how more wondrous far is the greatness of that strength in which the Redeemer travelled when He made bare His arm and came “mightily to save.” “Who knowefth the power of Thine anger!” said the Psalmist. Consider the manifestations of divine power which took place at the deluge, when the windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the abyss were broken up, and the earth reeled and staggered like a drunken man. Contemplate the still more awful display of divine anger which shall take place on that day when the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven, the elements melting with fervent heat, the heavens passing away like a scroll, the world in flames. Yet these are but the preludes of wrath. The flames of a burning world are but the glittering of the sword of divine justice when it is unsheathed. The devils are angels, and mighty angels, who excel in strength; but even they cannot endure the power of God’s anger; it would annihilate them. They must endure it by degrees, and compensate by length of duration for an intensity of suffering which no created being could support. But the Man Christ Jesus endured the wrath of God alone, and to the uttermost. Oh, what tremendous manifestation of power was there! The Prince of Life, sinking to the dust of death beneath his Almighty Father’s wrath! In other cases we contemplate God creating out of nothing, or doing His will with mere creatures which are supported by His hand. But here we almost tremble as we speak it, we see a divine person inflicting a degree of suffering which nothing but the omnipotence of another divine person could support. Well might angels contemplate with wonder the sufferings of Him who is “the power of God.” What an awful display of divine justice, of divine purity, and of divine hatred of sin was there! High in rank as angels are, they are still but creatures. Here, however, the Lord of angels suffers. In their case it was the personally guilty who suffered. In Christ’s, the personally innocent. He suffered for others, not for Himself. One might have imagined that His motive in suffering would disarm the hand of justice, that justice could not strike excellence so unparalleled. But such is the absolute inflexibility of this divine attribute, that when the Son of God Himself stood in the room of the guilty, He was not spared.
(To be continued.)
The stars which have least circuit are nearest the pole; and men whose hearts are least entangled with the world are always nearest to God, and to the assurance of His favour. Worldly Christians, remember this. You and the world must part, or else assurance and your souls will never meet.—Brooks.