But, as in Abraham's case, it was death that broke the link by which nature bound him to Charran; so, in our case, it is death which breaks the link by which nature ties us down to this present world. We must realize the truth that we have died in Christ, our Head and Representative,--that our place in nature and in the world is amongst the things that were,--that the cross of Christ is to us what the Red Sea was to Israel, namely, that which separates us forever from the land of death and judgment. Thus only shall we be able to walk, in any measure, "worthy of the calling wherewith we are called,"--our high, our holy, our heavenly calling,--our "calling of God in Christ Jesus."
And here I would dwell for a little on the cross of Christ in its two grand, fundamental phases, or in other words, the cross as the basis of our worship and our discipleship, our peace and our testimony, our relation with God, and our relation with the world. If as a convicted sinner I look at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, I behold in it the everlasting foundation of my peace. I see my "sin" put away, as to the root or principle thereof, and I see my "sins" borne. I see God to be, in very deed, "for me," and that, moreover, in the very condition in which my convicted conscience tells me I am. The cross unfolds God as the _sinner's_ Friend. It reveals him in that most wondrous character as the righteous Justifier of the most ungodly sinner. Creation never could do this. Providence never could do this. Therein I may see God's power, his majesty, and his wisdom: but what if all these things should be ranged against me? Looked at in themselves abstractedly, they would be so, for I am a sinner; and power, majesty, and wisdom, could not put away my sin, nor justify God in receiving me.
The introduction of the cross, however, changes the aspect of things entirely. There I find God dealing with sin in such a manner as to glorify himself infinitely. There I see the magnificent display and perfect harmony of all the divine attributes. I see love, and such love as captivates and assures my heart, and weans it, in proportion as I realize it, from every other object. I see wisdom, and such wisdom as baffles devils and astonishes angels. I see power, and such power as bears down all opposition. I see holiness, and such holiness as repulses sin to the very farthest point of the moral universe, and gives the most intense expression of God's abhorrence thereof, that could possibly be given. I see grace, and such grace as sets the sinner in the very presence of God,--yea, puts him into his bosom. Where could I see all these things but in the cross? Nowhere else. Look where you please, and you cannot find aught that so blessedly combines those two great points, namely, "glory to God in the highest," and "on earth peace."
How precious, therefore, is the cross, in this its first phase, as the basis of the sinner's peace, the basis of his worship, and the basis of his eternal relationship with the God who is there so blessedly and so gloriously revealed! How precious to God, as furnishing him with a righteous ground on which to go in the full display of all his matchless perfections, and in his most gracious dealings with the sinner! So precious is it to God that, as a recent writer has well remarked, "All that he has said,--all that he has done, from the very beginning, indicates that it was ever uppermost in his heart. And no wonder! His dear and well-beloved Son was to hang there, between heaven and earth, the object of all the shame and suffering that men and devils could heap upon him, because he loved to do his Father's will, and redeem the children of his grace. It will be the grand centre of attraction, as the fullest expression of his love, throughout eternity."