The Glory of the Cross

Read:

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” (, KJV 1900)

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (, KJV 1900)

Intro:

A songwriter once wrote joyously:

“Oh the Cross has wondrous beauty,

Oft I’ve proved this to be true...”

This morning with the Lord’s help, I want to preach to you about the glories of the Cross.

Now when we think of the cross, our first thoughts are probably not ones of glory, beauty, and wonderful.

A Cross was a horrid and terrible form of execution. Can you imagine a form of execution being a thing of beauty or glory? Most of our churches somewhere display a Cross. It is a frequent symbol of Christianity. Can you imagine if we used a more modern form of execution? Begin hanging the electric chair, the gallows, a syringe?

People would think we had lost our minds. What makes the cross such a thing of wonder and beauty?

Even Paul quoting from the book of Deuteronomy makes the bold declaration that - “Cursed is everyone that dies on the tree” () (Crucified is what Paul is talking about)

() (Crucified is what Paul is talking about)

And yet Paul also declares we can and should “glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ()

Well, because its not the wooden beams and torture, its not the blood and gore, its not the death and defeat...

It’s who was on that cross and what He accomplished for us that makes it a scene I can stand at spiritually by faith and stare at in enraptured view.

It is a glorious scene because there on that cross Christ bore my sin. “He being made a curse for us.”

The Cross is Glorious because He Took My Curse;

The curse of the law is death - He took that. He redeemed us or bought us back with his death on the cross.

I. I Can glory in the cross because through it He took my Sin!

That’s why we can sing:

“At the cross, at the cross

Where I first saw the light

And the burden of my heart rolled away.”

That’s why we can sing,

“Kneel at the cross, Christ will meet you there..”

Because “There on the cross the wrath of God was satisfied.”

He bore my sins all my broken laws, all of my falling shortness, all of my failings, all of my grievances against God, all of the charges against me written down in the books Every ring of the hammer, every pound of the nails they were nailing my sin MY SIN to the cross.

And because of that we can sing along with Spafford:

“My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin NOT IN PART BUT THE WHOLE

Is nailed to the cross

And I BEAR IT NO MORE

PRAISE THE LORD< PRAISE THE LORD OH MY SOUL!!!

I can glory or boast or rejoice in the cross because on it He took my sin. But I can also glory in the cross because He took my SHAME!!!

By shame I am referring to the guilt and condemnation associated with sin.

I want to try to illustrate this by a could have happened biblical story. In other words this isn’t in the Bible but I’m sure something like this happened.

Paul is preaching at a small town not far from Jerusalem and a young man comes up to him, the young man has a very confused look on his face, and Paul asks him what is the matter.

The young man replies, “I just can’t believe it. I remember about 5 or 6 years ago you and a bunch of guards came to our house, you hauled off Dad & Mom to jail beating them and then condemned them to die because they were following Jesus.

Next thing I know you are out preaching this same Jesus. How did this happen?

Paul would probabbly have said something like, “SOn, I am so sorry you have to live with that memory. I was doing what I thought was right. It haunts me every once in a while, and then I remember what Jesus did for me on the cross,

I remember that He became cursed for me, for my sin, for Paul the chief of sinners, but not only to pay for my sin, but the cross also brings healing, taking away the condemnation the guilt the shame.

I saw their faces and back then they haunted me, now I see the glory of Christ in them.

The past by faith in Christ is cleansed by the blood, I am no longer guilty in God’s eyes for those things, and Praise God you have forgiven me as well, and the guilt, the shame the regret can burden me down and every once in a while I go back to God feeling like I have blood on my hands - but God points me to the cross and says, “What crimes what sins are you talking about I have cleansed you

SO forgetting those things which are behind I press for the prize of the high calling of God.

We can rejoice and glory in the cross along with the song writer who testified:

“The burden that once I carried is GONE

Of all of my sins there remaineth NOT ONE”

The cross can take the sin and the guilt bring healing to you. but it can also take your sorrow and emptiness.

I Can Glory in the Cross because of it he took my sorrow.

Isaiah prophesied, “He was wounded for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed.”

I want to look at this a little closer this morning. Look at our text where Paul says “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”

It is interesting how many times the New Testament refers to Jesus dying on a tree. at least twice in Acts, in , and our text in . “They hung him on a tree, he was nailed to a tree, he died on a tree,”

Why do they say tree? Why not cross? I don’t think it was an accident, It was deliberate and significant.

Here is why:

Back in Genesis God planted a garden in Eden and had the ground made trees to grow, especially two The tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.

God gives them the command - don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and you will live, eat it and you will die.

You know what happened they ate the fruit.

They were cast out of the Garden - not to stay away from the tree from wich they ate - but from the Tree of LIfe - a heavenly being with a flaming sword was sent to guard the gate of the garden and would not allow them in.

Now I always thought there was something in the tree that would make them live forever, but that is not true -man already had life, GOd breathed into them and they became a living soul - they would already live forever and no doubt they had already eaten of that tree.

It was their sin that brought death, not their absence from the tree of life -

but their access to the Tree of life was symbol of their relationship with GOd and that relationship was broken. It is a symbol of eternal life that only comes through a proper relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

We don’t hear much more about the tree of Life until you get to Proverbs and there the writer seems to think about this tree often and he uses it as a metaphor or symbol of blessing.

Wisdom is a tree of life

the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life

And then all of these New Testament writers are referencing this Tree of Life.

But here is the difference:

In the Garden God told the first Adam “Obey me about the tree” they didn’t

Centuries later Jesus the second Adam comes into another Garden and God tells him “Obey me about the tree” and He did.

When Jesus climbed up that tree and ate the fruit he was crushed, he was bruised, he was wounded, he was beaten but in that one act he made possible

2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

You wonder how the cross can be so beautiful, so glorious, so wonderful THIS IS WHY

IT TAKES MY SIN

IT TAKES MY SHAME

IT TAKES MY SORROW

This morning if you are suffering from any of those things - He went to teh cross for you. Avail yourself of that atoning work.