The Cross: Crucified with Christ, and Christ Alive in Me

by J.C. Ryle

A man must be right on this subject, or he is lost forever. Heaven or hell, happiness or misery, life or death, blessing or cursing in the last day – all hinges on the answer to this question: “What do you think about the cross of Christ?”

Does he ever speak as if his churchmanship would save him, justify him, remove his sins, and make him acceptable before God? Oh no, never! Never for a moment!

Glorying for salvation isn't the only problem. How about glorying for the reputation among men? How about glorying in things for self-gratification?

Be thankful if you have grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ with heart and soul and mind and strength, but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own.

think, you who wrap yourselves up in the notion that all must be right if I stay in my church; think for a moment what a sandy foundation you are building! Think for a moment how miserably defective your hopes and pleas will look in the hour of death and in the day of judgment!

The light of that great day of judgment will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, and expose the rottenness of many deeds that are now called good. Their wheat will prove to be nothing but chaff; their gold will be found to be nothing but dross. Millions of so-called good works will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They were genuine and valued among men, but they will prove light and worthless in the balance of God. They will be found to have been like the whitened sepulchres of old, fair and beautiful outside but full of corruption within.

when the hour of death approacheth, when they secretly hear themselves summoned to appear and stand at the bar of that Judge, whose brightness causeth the eyes of angels themselves to dazzle, all those idle imaginations do then begin to hide their faces. To name merits then is to lay their souls upon the rack. The memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them. They forsake all things wherein they have put any trust and confidence. No staff to lean upon, no rest, no ease, no comfort then, but only in Christ Jesus.”

The cross sometimes means that wooden cross on which the Lord Jesus was nailed and put to death on Mount Calvary.

The cross sometimes means the afflictions and trials which believers in Christ have to go through if they follow Christ faithfully for their religion’s sake.

But in some places the cross also indicates the doctrine that Christ died for sinners on the cross – the atonement that He made for sinners by His suffering for them on the cross, the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin that He offered when He gave His own body to be crucified.

Paul, a blaspheming, persecuting Pharisee, had been washed in Christ’s blood. He could not hold his peace about it. He was never weary of telling the story of the cross. This is the subject he loved to dwell upon when he wrote to believers. It is wonderful to observe how full his epistles generally are of the sufferings and death of Christ and how they run over with “thoughts that breathe and words that burn”[2] about Christ’s dying love and power. His heart seemed full of the subject. He enlarged on it constantly; he returned to it continually. It is the golden thread that runs through all his doctrinal teaching and practical exhortations. He seemed to think that the most advanced Christian could never hear too much about the cross.[3] This is what he lived all his life from the time of his conversion. He told the Galatians, 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 (Galatians 2:20). What made him so strong to labor? What made him so willing to work? What made him so unwearied in endeavoring to save some? What made him so persevering and patient? I will tell you the secret. He was always feeding by faith on Christ’s body and Christ’s blood. Jesus crucified was the meat and drink of his soul.

"This is what he lived"!

You may know how He lived, how He suffered, and how He died. But unless you know the power of Christ’s cross by experience, unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins, and unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on the work that Christ did upon the cross, Christ will profit you nothing.

The Savior and His dying love are either not mentioned or mentioned in an unscriptural way. Because of this they are worse than useless. Beware of such books.

I suspect that many see no peculiar glory and beauty in the subject of Christ’s cross. On the contrary, they think it painful, humbling, and degrading. They do not see much profit in the story of His death and sufferings. They’d rather turn from it as an unpleasant thing.

But there is one thing that all four describe most fully, and that one thing is the story of the cross.

foreordained.

necessary for man’s salvation.

voluntarily

When I think of all this, I see nothing painful or disagreeable in the subject of Christ’s cross. On the contrary, I see wisdom and power, peace and hope, joy and gladness, comfort and consolation. The more I keep the cross in my mind’s eye, the more fullness I seem to discern in it. The longer I dwell on the cross in my thoughts, the more I am satisfied that there is more to be learned at the foot of the cross than anywhere else in the world.[2] Can I know the length and breadth of God the Father’s love towards a sinful world? Where would I see it most displayed?

I would love to feel this way

I can find a stronger proof of love than anything of this sort. I look at the cross of Christ. I see in it not the cause of the Father’s love, but the effect. God increased the price of his charity toward us in that while we were yet sinners the Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). There I see that God so loved this wicked world that he gave his only begotten Son – gave Him to suffer and die – that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). I know that the Father loves us because He did not withhold His Son from us, His only Son.

I look at the cross of Christ. There I see that sin is so black and damnable that nothing but the blood of God’s own Son can wash it away. There I see that sin has so separated me from my holy Maker that all the angels in heaven could never have made peace between us. Nothing could reconcile us short of the death of Christ.

Can I know the fullness and completeness of the salvation God has provided for sinners? Where would I see it most distinctly? Shall I go to the general declarations in the Bible about God’s mercy? Shall I rest in the general truth that God is a God of love? Oh no, I will look at the cross of Christ. I find no evidence like that. I find no balm for a sore conscience and a troubled heart like the sight of Jesus dying for me on the accursed tree. There I see that a full payment has been made for all my enormous debts. The curse of that law which I have broken has come down on One who suffered there in my place.

I feel sure that there is a way to heaven for the very vilest of men, when I look at the cross.

I will look at the cross of Christ. There I see the love of Christ that constrains me to live not unto myself, but unto Him. There I see that I am not my own; I am bought with a price. As Paul told the Corinthians, Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:20). I am bound by the most solemn obligations to glorify Jesus with body and spirit, which are His. At the cross I see that Jesus gave Himself for me, not only to redeem me from all iniquity, but also to purify me and make me one of a peculiar people, zealous of good works. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree so that I, being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness. There is nothing so sanctifying as a clear view of the cross of Christ. It crucifies the world unto us, and us unto the world, for those that are of the Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). How can we love sin when we remember that because of our sins Jesus died? Surely, no one could be so holy as the disciples of a crucified Lord.

Could I learn how to be contented and cheerful under all the cares and anxieties of life? What school would I go to? How shall I attain this state of mind most easily? Shall I consider the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, the providence of God, the love of God? It is well to do so. But I have a better argument. I will look at the cross of Christ. I feel that He who spared not His only begotten Son, but delivered Him up to die for me, will surely with Him give me all things that I need. He who endured that pain for my soul will surely not withhold from me anything that is good. He who has done the greater things for me will doubtless do the lesser things also. He who gave His own blood to procure me a home will unquestionably supply me with all that is profitable for me along the way. There is no school for learning contentment than can be compared with the foot of the cross.

I cannot think that He who went through such sufferings to redeem my soul will let that soul perish after it has once cast itself on Him. Oh no, what Jesus paid for, Jesus will surely keep, therefore I am certain that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any creature shall be able to separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ, Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). He paid dearly for it. He will not let it be lost. He died for me when I was yet a dark sinner; He will never forsake me after I have believed. Ah, when Satan tempts you to doubt whether Christ’s people will be kept from falling, you should tell Satan to look at the cross.

This isn't clear to me.