1 Never , Ever, EVER, Think That You're Past the Cross

I am reminded of remarks in Michael Horton's "The Gopsel-Driven Life" as I read (again) Horatius Bonar's wonderful work "The Everlasting Righteousness". Again, and again, Bonar reminds us of the necessity of always having before us the declaration of the completed work of Christ - the gopsel declaration for us who are in Him. Bonar drives this point home in chapter after chapter - that our life indeed, as Horton writes 200 years after his elder brother, must be truly driven by this fact.

Today so frequently as in Bonar's day the gospel is misunderstood as one of those 'elementary things' that Christians who are 'grown up now' needn't refer to it anymore - that gospel message was that which got them into the church, but beyond that, one needs to 'grow up' and get past it. To this, Bonar says,

"You fool! Do you not know that the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ endures forever and that you shall eternally glory in it, if you are saved by it at all?" (p. 33, Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness)

The cross of Christ is symbolic of the glory of the Gospel - the finished work of atonement for Christ's people, and the glorious declaration by God the Father of the acceptance of that sacrifice as He was raised again - and this will be forever our story and song. Bonar's discussion in chapter 4 of The Everlasting Righteousness is grounded in part on the repetition again and again of the motif of the Lamb that was slain throughout the book of Revelation... indicating that indeed, the cry "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" will freover be our cry, into eternity future, and even as we enjoy a foretaste of heaven in the communion of the saints on earth, the church militant.

Bonar has this excellent paragraph which simply stirs the heart up to heights of praise of our Lord and God - and of the Lamb that was slain:

"We are never done with the cross, nor ever shall be. Its wonders will be always new and always fraught with joy. 'The Lamb as it had been slain' will be the theme of our praise above. Why should such a name be given to him in such a book as the Revelation, which in one sense carried us far past the cross, were it not that we shall always realize our connection with its one salvation; we shall always be looking to it even in the midst of the glory; and we shall always be learning from it some new lesson regarding the work of him 'in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace'? What will they who here speak of themselves as being so advanced as to be done with the cross say to being brought face to face with the slain Lamb, in the age of absolute perfection, the age of heavenly glory?" (p. 33, Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness)

This rings SO true with much of the church, liberal and conservative alike. While the liberals often disregard the cross as a messy and primitive thing, and dispense with discussion about it because it's really not something a modern (or postmodern) people need to deal with or even believe in, the conservative church often forgets the need of the gospel to be brought up, discussed, rested upon and gloried in EACH DAY. Let us never, ever think that we're past the cross... may it never be!

0 The Perfection of the Sacrifice

Horatius Bonar wrote one a very important book in 1874 entitled The Everlasting Righteousness, which should be required reading for any student of theology, indeed anyone wanting to understand the glory of Christ's righteousness and the immeasurable riches of God's grace in salvation.

Bonar makes a point early on in the book that is critical regarding salvation by faith. It's been repeated again and again in various ways, but his statement still rings forth with a brilliant tone:

With a weak faith and a fearful heart many a sinner stands before the altar. It is not the strength of his faith but the perfection of the sacrifice that saves; and no feebleness of fiath, no dimness of eye, no trembling of hand, can change the efficacy of our burnt offering. The vigor of our faith can add nothing to it, nor can the poverty of it take anything from it. Faith, in all its degrees, still reads the description, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." If at times the eye is so dim that it cannot read these words, through blinding tears or bewildering mist, faith rests itself on the certain knowledge of the fact that the inscription is still there, or at least that the blood itself (of which these words remind us) remains in all its power and suitableness upon the altar, unchanged and uneffaced. God says that the believing man is justified: Who are we, then, that we should say "We believe, but we do not know whether we are justified?" What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.

The question as to the right way of believing is that which puzzles many and engrosses all their anxiety to the exclusion of far greater questions as to the work of him who is the object of their believing. Thus their thoughts run in a self-righteous direction and are occupied, not with what Christ has done but with what they have yet to do to get themselves connected with his work. (pp. 12-13, The Everlasting Righteousness)

There are as many struggles with faith as there are Christians... and yet one thing remains true: as Bonar writes earlier, "That which satisfies the holiness of God cannot but satisfy the conscience of the sinner. God, pointing to the altar, says 'That is enough for me'; the sinner responds and says, 'It is enough for me.'" (pp. 12, The Everlasting Righteousness) Christ's life and death - his righteousness - satisfies for the believer's sins, and propitiates them. Completely. It is finished, as Christ said, dying, on the cross.

Let us NEVER think that anything in our believing qualifies us - or any wavering of our trust in difficult times DISqualifies us. We contribute zip. We are His because HE made us His, drew us with irresistible grace, and accounts us His children. We are His because HE gave us faith - led us to trust Him for all - and, because we remain frail men and women, we sometimes struggle to keep the constant strength of faith that we sometimes exhibit. Christ has died, Paul said. Christ is risen. Christ shall come again.