A. B. Simpson - The Cross of Christ: His Sufferings and Their Impact on the Believer

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The Cross of Christ
ISBN: 978-1-60066-055-9
LOC Control Number: 2011923391
1994 by Moody Bible Institute

Previously published by Christian Publications, Inc.
First Christian Publications Edition 1994
First WingSpread Publishers Edition 2011
Originally preached as sermons and published in 1910

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Printed in the United States of America

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan.
All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

The people stood watching. (Luke 23:35)

W hat varied thoughts and feelings moved the hearts of those who stood that day beholding the cross of Calvary! We can perceive the cruel heartlessness with which the Roman soldiers drove the nails and reared the cross, interested only in getting their share of the petty spoil for which they cast lots. We can conceive of the fiendish ferocity with which the rulers and chief priests gloated over the agony of their victim and felt themselves at last avenged. We can comprehend the heartbreak with which those loving women looked upon the helpless anguish of the One in whom they had so much believed. We can realize something of that mothers grief as she recalled the words of Simeon thirty years before: and a sword will pierce your own soul too (Luke 2:35). We can imagine that Peter, gazing from afar upon the tragedy, would have given worlds to have taken back that last dart with which he had pierced his Masters heart, but realized that now he would see Him no more. And we know something from the narrative of the awe and veneration with which the Roman centurion gazed upon the extraordinary signs which accompanied His death and exclaimed, Surely this man was the Son of God! (Mark 15:39).

And so they stood beholding. And all through the ages generations after generations have turned their eyes to that central cross as it has loomed larger and loftier above all other spectacles in the vision of the human race. Once more Christ is set forth before us, crucified among us, and faith and love once more stand beholding. As we gaze upon that scene so old and yet so ever new, it seems as if that cross appears like some vision in a kaleidoscope. With every turn the holy Scriptures show some new light and some different aspect of its many-sided glory and significance. Let us follow the holy Scriptures as they present to us some of these varied phases of the cross of Jesus.

Death is always an impressive spectacle, but this was no ordinary death. Here was a Man who did not need to die, but One who chose to die, One who came to die, One whose supreme mission was to die, One over whose cross each of us can write, He died for me.

This is more than an ordinary death scene, for He became obedient to deatheven death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). Crucifixion was adopted by the Romans as the severest form of capital punishment. It was the most agonizing and it was the most shameful of all deaths. What agony was endured as every muscle was strained to its utmost tension, as the helpless body hung by its own weight from lacerated flesh and bones, slowly dying from sheer anguish with no vital organ wounded, as the crucible of pain burned up by slow degrees lifes last powers of endurance! How pitiful was the cry of the crucified Savior as it was foreshadowed in the prophetic Psalm:

I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;

it has melted away within me.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death. (Psalm 22:1415)

And what shame was suffered as He hung there, crucified between two thieves. He was treated not only as one of them, but worse than either. His very name was blotted out of the family records at Bethlehem, and He was looked upon by men and even treated by His own Father as if He were the worst and vilest criminal that ever lived or died.

You, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross (Acts 2:23). You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go (3:13). It was a judicial assassination. He was Gods martyred Lamb, and our martyred Master.

Jesus said of His own death, The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). I lay down my life for the sheep . I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again (10:15, 18). He gave Himself for us. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord (10:18). As He hung upon that cross, even death could not come till He said, It is finished (19:30), and bowed His head, as if beckoning death to come, and gave up his spirit (19:30). Was there ever a death like this? Human nature flees from death as the worst of all evils. But here was a Man who from the beginning to the end of His life had one supreme objectto lay down His own life for the sake of others.

I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! (Luke 12:50). It was ever present to His thoughts. It was ever calling Him to the cross. It was ever coloring every act and object of His life. It was ever casting its shadow over His consciousness so that He died a thousand deaths before He even approached the cross.

After his suffering, he showed himself to these men (Acts 1:3). Literally, the word passion means suffering. But it conveys the idea of intense suffering, suffering that involved His inner as well as His outer being, His soul and spirit as well as His rent body. It is true that His soul [was] overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death (Matthew 26:38).

Travail is considered the severest form of human agony, and thus represents in the most emphatic light the excruciating anguish of the Saviors death. But it speaks of more than agony. It has in it the silver lining of hope and life and promise. It is the birth pang of a new creation. When her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world (John 16:21). And so there was a joy even in the Saviors agony, and already the promise came to Him. He will see his offspring and will prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied (Isaiah 53:1011).

They spoke about his departure [decease, KJV], which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). Decease is more than death. It means an outgoing, a departure, and carries with it the idea of a future life and a continued activity. So He changed the sphere of His existence and passed through the gates of death in a higher and more glorious ministry.