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Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : The Love of the Cross

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MaryJane
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Joined: 2006/7/31
Posts: 3057


 The Love of the Cross

Greetings brothers and sister
Thought I would pass this along as it was shared with me. Some good things to reflect upon this morning.

God Bless
MJ


The Love of the Cross

We must now fix our attention on this, if we are to learn the full glory of the blood of the cross.

We have spoken of the inner nature of which the cross is the expression and of the powerful influence that inner nature exercises in and through us if we allow the blood of the cross to have its full power over us. The fear, however, often arises in the mind of the Christian that it is too much of a burden always to preserve and manifest that inner quality. And even the assurance that the cross is “the power of God” which produces that quality does not entirely remove the fear. This is because the exercise of that power depends to some extent on our surrender and faith, and these are far from being what they ought to be. Can we find in the cross a deliverance from this infirmity, the healing of this disease? Cannot “the blood of the cross” make us partakers always, without ceasing, not only of the blotting out of guilt, but also of victory over the power of sin?

It can. Draw near to hear once more what the cross proclaims to you. It is only when we understand aright and receive into our hearts the love of which the cross speaks that we can experience its full power and blessing. Paul indeed bears witness to this: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20

Faith in the love of Him “who gave Himself for me” on the cross enables me to live as one who has been crucified with Him.

The cross is the revelation of love. He saw that there was no other way by which His love could redeem those whom He so loved, except by shedding His blood for them on the cross. It is because of this that He would not allow Himself to be turned aside by the terror of the cross, not even when it caused His soul to tremble and shudder. The cross tells us that He loved us so truly that His love surmounted every difficulty – the curse of sin and the hostility of man – that His love has conquered and has won us for Himself. The cross is the triumphant symbol of eternal love. By the cross love is seated on the throne, so that from the place of omnipotence it can now do for the beloved ones all that they desire.

What a new and glorious light is thus shed on the demand the cross makes on me, on what it offers to do for me, on the meaning and glory and life of the cross to which I have been called by the Word. I, whose flesh is so disposed to go astray that even the promise of the Spirit and the power of heaven seem insufficient to bestow on me the courage I need. But lo! Here is something that is better still than the promise of power. The cross points out to me the Living Jesus in His eternal, all-conquering love. Out of love to us He gave Himself up to the cross, to redeem a people for Himself. In this love, He accepts everyone who comes to Him in the fellowship of His cross, to bestow upon them all the blessings that He had obtained on that cross. And now He receives us in the power of His eternal love, which ceases not for one moment to work out in us what He obtained for us on the cross.

I see it! What we need is a right view of Jesus Himself, and of His all-conquering, eternal love. The blood is the earthly token of the heavenly glory of that love; the blood points to that love. What we need is to behold Jesus Himself in the light of the cross. All the love manifested by the cross is the measure of the love He bears to us today. The love which was not terrified by any power or opposition of sin will now conquer everything in us that would be a hindrance. The love which triumphed on the accursed tree is strong enough to obtain and maintain a complete victory over us. The love manifested by “a Lamb as it had been slain” in the midst of the throne, bearing always the marks of the cross, lives solely to bestow on us the inner nature and power and the blessing of that cross. To know Jesus in His love, to live in that love, and to have the heart filled with that love is the greatest blessing that the cross can bring to us. It is the way to the enjoyment of all the blessings of the cross. Glorious Cross! Glorious Cross which brings to us and makes known to us the eternal love. The blood is the fruit and power of the cross; the blood is the gift and bestowal of that love. In what a full enjoyment of love those may now live who have been brought into such wonderful contact with the blood, who live every moment under its cleansing. How wondrously that blood unites us to Jesus and His love. He is the High Priest, out of whose heart that blood unites us to Jesus and His love. He is the High Priest, out of whose heart that blood streamed, to whose heart that blood returns, who is Himself the end of the sprinkling of the blood. He Himself perfects the sprinkling of the blood in order that by it He may take possession of the heart that He on the cross had won. He is the High Priest who in the tenderness of love now lives to perfect everything in us, so that the nature which the cross has established as the law of our lives, and the victory which the cross offers us as the power our lives, may be realized by us.

Beloved Christian, whose hope is in the blood of the cross, give yourself up to experience its full blessing. Each drop of that blood points to the surrender and death of self-will, of the “I” life, as the way to God and life in Him. Each drop of that blood assures you of the power obtained by Jesus on the cross to maintain that inner nature, that crucified life, in you. Each drop of that blood brings Jesus and His eternal love to you, to work out all the blessing of the cross in you, and to keep you in that love.

May each thought of the cross and the blood bring you nearer to your Savior and into deeper union with Him to whom they point you.

 2007/8/20 12:55Profile





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