The “Must” of Sacrifice
Chapter 2
“The Son of man must be lifted up” (John 3:14).
The most wonderful thing that we know of God is not His omnipotence, omniscience, or omnipresence but that He was willing, in the person of Jesus Christ, to undergo the infinite sacrifice of Calvary. He is described as the Blessed or Happy God; and He is that, not because of His resources, but because, though He was rich, yet in the person of Christ, He became poor, that through His poverty, we might become rich. This is acknowledged by the heavenly hosts as they cry: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
Self-sacrifice is rightly recognized as the supreme trait of a noble character. Take, for instance, the spirit of Abraham Lincoln’s address to his friends and neighbors, as he left home to become the president of the United States:
“My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate the feelings of sadness that come over me at this parting. To you and to the kindness of this people I owe everything. Here I have lived for a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. I now leave you – not knowing when or whether I shall ever return – with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the aid of that divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With His assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me and remain with you, let us confidently hope ‘that all may yet be well.’ To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.”
As he was about to choose his cabinet, he said: “We have a great task on our hands, and it seems the heaviest load has fallen or my poor shoulders. We must save this Union, not only for ourselves and our children, but for the world. I must get the best men that I can to help me. If .... can help to save this Union, it does not matter how he treats me.”
Nobler words than those have seldom been uttered; and when he had finished the task that was allotted to him, he was cut down by the assassin; and yet even this heroic life pales in glory, when we see Jesus facing Calvary.
He knew He would tread the Wine-press alone!
He knew that though He loved the race, and desired to save every item of it, that the majority would repudiate Him.
He knew that he would stand before unfallen worlds and ranks of beings, as identified with a world’s sin.
He knew that His Father’s face would be hidden, as by an eclipse.
He knew that the conflict would break His heart and force the sweat of blood out on His forehead.
He knew that the Serpent of hell would bruise His heel, and that He would appear as a Lamb that had been slain.
He knew that those whom He had chosen out of the world would deny Him and flee.
Yet – He slackened not His pace, but laying aside the insignia of His glory, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross!
Looking at this stupendous act, shall we not catch the infection of His self-giving? Shall we not follow Him so far as we can? “Christ,” says the apostle, “has left us an example that we should follow His steps.” It is not what we get, but what we give; not our own pleasure, but the uplift of the fallen, and the extrication of those who are slipping into the pit; not ridding ourselves of burdens but bearing the burden of others. This is the path of true blessedness, the path trodden by all saints, the path which led Christ to Gethsemane and Calvary, but has ended in the throne! Follow that path, and life will become transcendently useful and blessed!
But there is an infinite chasm between our highest attainments and the divine self-giving of our Saviour to redeem and save us. He trode that Wine-press alone, and of all the people there were none with Him! So far as we know, Gethsemane and Calvary have no equivalents throughout God’s universe. They are the wonder into which angels desire to look, and the theme of the untiring song of the redeemed.
The Wonder of the Cross!
How can mortal man tell out all the height and depth, the length and breadth – of the infinite self-giving of our Lord!
(a) The Lord Jesus died for the sin of the race. “Behold,” said the Baptist, “the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” He, the sinless One, who lived in the eternal sphere of holiness and peace, moved by love, voluntarily assumed connection with the fallen race of man, and undertook by identification with us to bear our just penalty and doom. Here was His greatest greatness. Not that He had ever dwelt in the bosom of the Father. Not that He had ever been the channel and organ through which the will of the Creator flowed and worlds came into being. Not that He was the heir of all things. But that He stooped to take our fallen nature upon Himself. George Herbert said that when He laid down His crown it became the Milky Way, that when He laid aside His robes, they became the sunset clouds. Finally, as the sinless second Adam, He gathered to Himself the sin of the race, and bore it to Calvary. He became the propitiatory sacrifice for us all. He voluntarily laid down His life to become our ransom-price. He had power to lay it down and power to take it up again, and He laid it down to obtain our full salvation. He, who knew no sin, by His own act, was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. Do not neglect this great act of love for thee and the world! Trust thyself with the all-loving One!
Before us all, lies the possibility and peril of contracting out from our share in the finished work of Calvary. The man in the parable who had been entrusted with ten thousand talents, and who put his poor debtor into prison till he paid a hundred pence, was rightly punished for that act. He had forfeited his Lord’s forgiveness and was himself recommitted to the torment of the prison! But the man “who married a wife” was equally excluded from the great supper. Do not be content to hear or read about the mystery of the divine self-giving. Accept your share in it and be thankful; and then unite yourself with the love of God and become a channel through which He may pour it forth upon the world. When once a man understands the meaning of Calvary and not only accepts it for himself, but unites himself with it, he enters upon an absolutely new zone, or sphere, of living. Old things pass away! All things become new! The love of Christ constrains him, no longer to live to himself, but to Him, who loved him and gave Himself for him.
Stand once more before the Cross! Forget all else, except that thou and Christ are there alone! Say aloud, “He bore my sins in His own body on the Tree” and add “I also am crucified with Him. I have no other aim in life than to unite myself with His death, that I may share His life. Henceforth I desire to live by daily, hourly, faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me!”
(b) When He died, the Lord Jesus bruised the Serpent’s head and broke his power forever. Probably, there are hosts of demons, but there is only one devil. He is the prince of the power of the air. It is absurd and wrong to speak lightly of him. By those who are out of Christ, he is greatly to be feared. Our Lord spoke of him as “the Prince of this world,” and Paul refers to him as “the god of this world.” The Saviour encountered him on the threshold of His public ministry, and in the wilderness it was settled that He would hold His supremacy, not as the vicegerent of Satan, but by the victory of the Cross. In the garden, He stood for the race as its second Adam; and we dare not imagine what would have been the fate of humanity, or of the universe, if our Saviour had collapsed through mortal weakness in Gethsemane. He came very near collapsing as He lifted the cup – which might not pass from Him – to His lips. The peril was imminent – for we are told in Hebrews 5:7 that, in the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications unto Him, who was able to save Him from death – and this surely implies that there was some fear, lest in the extremity of that final conflict, His body would collapse. It was the hour of the power of darkness! His failure, then, would have changed the destiny of our race, and shrouded the heavens with the blackness of despair. How little do the frivolous children of this world recognize their indebtedness to the Christ, whom they ignore! But, thanks to the angel that stood beside and strengthened Him, our Saviour destroyed him that had power of death, the devil, and delivered those, who, through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. As we stand in our risen and ascended Lord, we see Satan fall as lightning from heaven. The Lord gives us authority to tread on all the power of the enemy. As a man in uniform is able to regulate the traffic of a crowded street, because he represents the authority of the state, so the weakest child of God, who stands in the victory of Calvary, is able to resist and overcome all the power of the evil spirits, who infect the air. If you can only claim to be in the feet of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), you can tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the devil.
(c) Our Saviour, when dying, not only put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, but He opened doors that none can shut and shut doors that none could open. His death was a voluntary act of love. He said, “No man taketh my life from me, I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This command I received of my Father.” He wrested the keys of death from the hand of Satan and they now hang at His girdle. Hades is the ante-chamber of paradise. John heard Him say: “I am he that liveth. I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.”
Clearly, then, our Lord commands the door that opens on eternity. When we come to the end of this valley of shadow, we shall find Him waiting for us with a smile. Stephen saw Him standing there; and, as the first-born from among the dead, Jesus welcomed the first Christian martyr to his crown. How good it will be to see Him and hear Him bid us enter into His joy! The grave shall have no terrors, neither death its sting. As a little babe is welcomed into the world with a kiss and finds gentle arms waiting to cradle it, and many good things prepared for it, so, when we open our eyes on that new world we shall hear His voice, musical as many waters, and see His face, once wet with tears, but then, radiant with eternal dawn.
(d) The Cross also stands for separation. It is not enough to reach out our hands to receive the blessings that Christ has won for us. We must live as those who are identified with Him.
“One when He died; One when He rose!
One when He triumphed o’er our foes!
One when in Heaven He took His seat!
And Heaven rejoiced o’er hell’s defeat.”
The whole New Testament rings with this thought, as in Romans 6:5-11; Colossians 2:20; 3:1-4, and Ephesians 4:17-24.
Yield yourselves to God as those who have risen from the dead, and surrender your faculties to God to be used by Him as weapons to maintain the right! You have become one with Jesus in sharing the benefits of His death, now partake of and manifest His risen life! He is the vine, be you the branches! Our old self was crucified with Christ, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin; but as we shared Christ’s death, we should also share His life! Reckon yourselves, therefore, as dead to sin, but as living to God, through union with the risen Saviour! Let His Cross be the barrier between your former life and your present!
This will greatly help us to decide doubtful matters! We have, of course, to mix with men, to conduct our business, to take our place in the life around; but our behavior must be guided by the principles which emanate from our risen and ascended Lord. As laid down by the Master in the Sermon on the Mount, they must become our guiding stars. We shall find all these things to be possible, through the Holy Spirit’s gracious help.
A young girl who had become a true disciple of Christ, had partaken of the Holy Communion, and was teaching in our Sunday-school, brought me an invitation that had been sent to her, to join a very worldly set in an evening of frivolous amusement. Now, I heartily believe in all natural recreation and pleasure. High spirits! Bright faces! Dexterity in games! These so far as my judgment goes are perfectly consistent with a healthy Christian life. They must not be an end in themselves; but they help to maintain a healthy mind in a healthy body. But, in the case before us, those conditions were absent. This young girl would be tempted in her dress, and in conforming to certain phases of the modern dance, to overstep the limit which divides God’s children from the fashion of this world. I did not desire to settle the matter for her; but resolved to teach her how to determine such questions for herself. I, therefore, drew on paper the pictures of the Cross. On the left side I inserted the words – “The World, the Flesh, the Devil.” On the right side the words – “Resurrection, Ascension, Second Advent.”
“Where shall I write: ‘Fancy Dress Ball’? Shall I write it here on the right-hand side?”
“No, it will not do there.”
Then I proposed to put it beside the Crown of Thorns.
“No, it will not do there.”
Then I wrote it at the foot, by the Grave of Christ, through which she had passed in her baptism.
“No, it will not do there.”
Finally, after a pause, she consented to my writing the words on the left hand of the Cross, next to the World, which is still under the dominion of the Flesh and the Devil. She saw the incongruity of that kind of amusement with her profession of Christ and caught sight of a principle which will guide her in all similar positions.
Let it never be said or thought that the life hidden with Christ in God is sad or sour! He, who created the song of the singing bird, the infectious laughter of the child, the dancing sunlight of the woodland, and loved to see the children playing in the marketplace, has not brought melancholy into the world. When He came to the wedding feast, He gave the best wine last. His religion can never be counted a kill-joy.
For the most part, the redeemed soul loses its taste for the things that once charmed and engrossed it.
A young working-girl, speaking of a certain form of amusement, once said to me: “I went every evening, as soon as I got home from work. I thought I couldn’t live without it; but when I found Jesus, and Jesus found me, I lost all my taste for it. I went the other night to see what it was that had held me, but I came out in ten minutes and shall never go back again.” Surely the Scripture tells truly that, in Christ, old things pass away, and lo, all things become new!
Let us never forget those words of Hartley Coleridge! It is a fitting epitaph on the sacrifice of Calvary when its spirit has entered a human life.
“Think not the faith by which the just shall live
Is a dead creed, a map correct of heaven,
Far less a feeling fond and fugitive,
A thoughtless gift, withdrawn as soon as given,
It is an affirmation and an act
Which makes eternal truth be present fact!”