W K Tweedie
Colossians 1:20. Having made peace through the blood of the cross.
There are more inscriptions on the cross of Jesus than the one which was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. One additional inscription read by the eye of faith is, Christ crucified is the wisdom of God. He is the wisdom of God, by making provision at once to punish sin and pardon it, at once to uphold justice in untarnished purity and to let mercy flow forth to man without restraint.
Another inscription which faith can read on the cross is, Christ crucified is the power of God. It is the power of God in bringing those nigh who before were afar off, in lifting souls from the verge of hell to the vestibule of heaven, and replacing enmity to what is holy, by love for what is pure.
Behold what sin is. That is another inscription on the cross that is legible to the eye of faith. Nothing but the blood of Him who was Jehovah’s fellow could atone for sin’s guilt, or wash away its pollution. How dark then the guilt, and how deep the malignity, of the abominable thing.
Behold, the love of God, is still another inscription. He so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for sinners.
Or finally, See how precious is the soul, is another. Not corruptible things like silver and gold, but the life of One who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, was the ransom paid. And who will gauge the preciousness of the soul, as it is thus valued by God?
Yet, my soul, I have been undervaluing you; I have been ruining you by sin and regarding you as of less value than some transient enjoyment, some fancied pleasure of an hour, or a breath. And how am I to escape from this
1Taken with editing from Tweedie’s Glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace.
condemnation? Just by clinging to the cross – not to the wooden emblem that superstition presents, or upon which it dotes, but to the crucified One, who made peace through the blood of the cross, who atoned for sin there. He has taught the believer to glory only in the Lord while he exclaims, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”