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The Acts of the Apostles
in the sacrifice of His only-begotten Son, and many were led to inquire,
What must I do to be saved?
This method of presenting the gospel characterized the labors of
the apostle throughout his ministry among the Gentiles. Always he
kept before them the cross of Calvary. “We preach not ourselves,” he
declared in the later years of his experience, “but Christ Jesus the Lord;
and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the
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light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 4:5, 6
.
The consecrated messengers who in the early days of Christianity
carried to a perishing world the glad tidings of salvation, allowed no
thought of self-exaltation to mar their presentation of Christ and Him
crucified. They coveted neither authority nor pre-eminence. Hiding
self in the Saviour, they exalted the great plan of salvation, and the
life of Christ, the Author and Finisher of this plan. Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever, was the burden of their teaching.
If those who today are teaching the word of God, would uplift the
cross of Christ higher and still higher, their ministry would be far more
successful. If sinners can be led to give one earnest look at the cross,
if they can obtain a full view of the crucified Saviour, they will realize
the depth of God’s compassion and the sinfulness of sin.
Christ’s death proves God’s great love for man. It is our pledge of
salvation. To remove the cross from the Christian would be like blot-
ting the sun from the sky. The cross brings us near to God, reconciling
us to Him. With the relenting compassion of a father’s love, Jehovah
looks upon the suffering that His Son endured in order to save the race
from eternal death, and accepts us in the Beloved.
Without the cross, man could have no union with the Father. On it
depends our every hope. From it shines the light of the Saviour’s love,
and when at the foot of the cross the sinner looks up to the One who
died to save him, he may rejoice with fullness of joy, for his sins are
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pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has reached the highest
place to which man can attain.
Through the cross we learn that the heavenly Father loves us with
a love that is infinite. Can we wonder that Paul exclaimed, “God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”?
Galatians 6:14
. It is our privilege also to glory in the cross, our