An excerpt from - 'His Cross and Mine' By Meade MacGuire
'My Own Cross'
"All the grace which Jesus the saving one GIVES, is given only in the path of FELLOWSHIP with Jesus the crucified ONE. Christ came and took MY place; I MUST PUT MYSELF IN HIS PLACE AND ABIDE THERE. And there is but ONE place which is both HIS and MINE,—that place is THE CROSS.
His in virtue of His free choice; mine by reason of the curse of sin.
He came there to seek me; there alone I can find Him.
When He found me there, it was the place of cursing; this He experienced, for 'cursed is EVERYONE that hangeth on a tree.'
He made it a place of BLESSING; this I experience, for Christ hath delivered us from the curse, 'BEING MADE A CURSE FOR US.'
"When Christ comes in my place, He remains what He was, the beloved of the Father;
but in the fellowship with me He shares my curse and dies MY death.
When I stand in His place, which is still always mine, I am still what I was by nature, THE ACCURSED ONE, WHO DESERVES TO DIE; BUT AS UNITED TO HIM, I SHARE HIS BLESSING, AND RECEIVE HIS LIFE. WHEN HE CAME TO BE ONE WITH ME, HE COULD NOT AVOID THE CROSS, FOR THE CURSE ALWAYS POINTS TO THE CROSS AS ITS END AND FRUIT. AND WHEN I SEEK TO BE ONE WITH HIM, I CANNOT AVOID THE CROSS EITHER, FOR NOWHERE BUT ON THE CROSS ARE LIFE AND DELIVERANCE TO BE FOUND.
AS INEVITABLY AS MY CURSE POINTED HIM TO THE CROSS AS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE HE COULD BE FULLY UNITED TO ME, HIS BLESSING POINTS ME TO THE CROSS, TOO, AS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE I CAN BE UNITED TO HIM.
HE TOOK MY CROSS FOR HIS OWN; I MUST TAKE HIS CROSS AS MY OWN; I MUST BE CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. IT IS AS I ABIDE DAILY, DEEPLY, IN JESUS THE CRUCIFIED ONE, THAT I SHALL TASTE THE SWEETNESS OF HIS LOVE, THE POWER OF HIS LIFE, THE COMPLETELNESS OF HIS SALVATION."
—
Andrew Murray, "Abide in Christ."
'It may be a surprising fact to many that Jesus NEVER ONCE spoke of the cross as His, but
always as ours.
The cross is mentioned in the New Testament twenty-seven times. Of this number, five are attributed to Jesus. Apart from the words of Jesus, Matthew records the expression three times, Mark three times, Luke once, John four times, and Paul eleven times.
We do not mean to imply that it would not be proper to speak of it as Christ's cross, for Paul uses the expression "His cross" once, "the cross of Christ" three times, and "the cross" seven times. We know that the words of Scripture are chosen with a divine purpose, and we may therefore infer that there is some important lesson to be learned from the very words Jesus used when He spoke of the cross. Here are the five passages recorded; let us consider them prayerfully, seeking to know their meaning to us:
"He that doth not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me." Matt. 10:38, A. R. V.
"Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Matt. 16:24.
"He called unto Him the multitude with His disciples, and said unto them, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Mark. 8:34.
"He said unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." Luke 9:23.
"Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:27.
In every instance Jesus is talking about the great crisis in a man's life, when he is deciding the solemn question of his ETERNAL DESTINY. There the man's own cross stands at the parting of the ways. Every rational human being faces the question, SHALL I LIVE FOR SELF OR FOR GOD? You may say, The Christian life seems narrow, the way strait. Surely this is true, and it is YOUR cross standing at the gateway which makes the road narrow and exclusive. There is a world of meaning in that brief sentence, "Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me."
"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
All things else I have forsaken,
Thou henceforth my all shalt be:
"Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought, or hoped, or known;
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heaven are still my own."
How often we have sung, "Jesus, I my cross have taken," with very little realization of
the significance of the words! Or we have regarded the endurance of little daily trials and
annoyances and self-denials, as taking up our cross and following Him.
God gave to mankind His great moral law, a law of love, which is holy and just and
perfect. We have all transgressed that law, and as sinners are under the condemnation of
death. We deserve to die. Should we perish on the cross, we would but receive what we
justly merit. Therefore the cross belongs to mankind. It is your cross and mine.
Adam stood as the head and representative of the human race. He disobeyed God, and
brought the condemnation of death upon himself and the whole human family. There was
no possible escape through any means that man could devise.
But God had already provided a plan to meet the great emergency. Christ was to come
to this world to redeem the lost race. To do this it was necessary for Him to
become one of us, to be born into the family. Then, standing in the place of Adam as the
representative of humanity, He proposed to pay the penalty of the broken law, and win
back what Adam lost.
Jesus took a human body, and a personality, the same as ours.
He was subject to the same trials and sorrows, the same weariness, difficulties, hardships, and temptations.
Yet He never in the slightest particular transgressed one precept of the divine law. His life
was one of perfect obedience, unmarred by the least deviation from the path of holiness.
Thus by His own character wrought out in frail humanity He merited eternal life and
blessedness, even though He had been but a man._ But He was vastly more than a man;
He was "the Son of man." The significance of this title, which He seemed to prefer to all
others, makes Him more than the son of a man. He was the typical, all-inclusive
representative of all mankind. As such, the righteousness which He wrought out in His
own life was sufficient for the whole race which He represented.
But before a sinner could appropriate this righteousness, satisfaction must be made to
the divine law for his sins. Eternal justice demanded the death of the sinner. Christ had
provided righteousness for every sinner, but what would it avail, since the sinner's life
was forfeited? This is why Jesus died on MY cross. In order to save me from the death
which would inevitably have been eternal, He took MY sins, and then MY cross belonged
to Him. Not as a man, but as the Son of man, the representative of the race, the voluntary
substitute for EVERY human being, standing in the place of EACH individual,—standing in
MY place,—He went to MY cross and bore MY sins in His own body on the tree.
The divine law set up a cross, and demanded that I, the sinner, be placed upon it to
suffer MY just deserts. But my compassionate Saviour said, "If you go to your cross, you
will perish eternally. I will go in your place. I will shed My blood and lay down
My life to atone for your sins."
The sufferings and death of Christ on the cross were in no sense related to His life.
He had lived the life of a saint. Now He died the death of a sinner.
It is evident, therefore, that whatever merit He acquired by His voluntary sacrifice on the cross, is His to impute to those who need it. And we need it.
He was not enduring the sorrow and anguish because of any fault of His own. His were vicarious sufferings, through which He obtained a merit which He did not need for Himself. He took all my sins, and paid the penalty, fully satisfying the demands of the broken law against me. Thus He, standing as my substitute and recognized by the law as the representative sinner, gained a standing of justification before the law. This He now freely offers to me. The moment I accept Him as my sin bearer and Lord, He imparts this justification to me. The law then has nothing
against me. I am free from its condemnation. The sentence of death is removed, and I am
given a standing before God and His law just as if I had never sinned.
I realize that all this is mine only because Christ was willing to make the infinite sacrifice of making MY cross His own. By acknowledging this cross as MINE, I identify myself with Him in the utter renunciation to death of sin and the sinful nature. "Being justified freely by His grace," I "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In Him I now have eternal life.
The two supreme gifts of God to man are LIFE and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The life, Christ purchased on the cross. The righteousness, He wrought out in His earthly life. On the cross He took our death penalty for sin, thus removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. In His earthly life He perfectly wrought out the will of God in our human flesh, and this perfect obedience, or righteousness, He imparts to every true disciple.
"If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
The only way I can truly acknowledge Jesus as my Saviour is by taking up MY cross.
Thus I acknowledge MY own guilt and condemnation. Thus I show my faith in His
atoning sacrifice. Thus I demonstrate my confidence in the efficacy of His death to
purchase life for me. Thus I enter into a living union with Christ, which provides
emancipation from the dominion of sin, and secures to me the righteousness of Christ.'
———
Tenderly
TAKE from the cross the dear form of the Master;
Gently remove ye the nails from His hands;
Carefully cover the poor, mangled body,
Loosen the cruel cords, sever the bands.
Take the rough crown from His pale, bleeding temple,
Wash the dark stains from His dear, sacred head;
Tearfully weep o'er the blessed Redeemer,
Tenderly bathe ye the wounds of the dead.
Fold ye the hands that so often in kindness
Healed, as by magic, the woes of mankind,
Ministered oft to the poor and the needy,
Strengthened the sick, and gave sight to the blind.
Tenderly bear Him, the crucified Saviour;
Lift from thy spirit its terrible gloom;
Leave Him to rest; for the heavenly watcher
Waits but to call Him to life from the tomb.
—Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle.
*******
Tomorrow we will discuss this, all by the grace of God!
All in HIS amazing, amazing LOVE!
'My Own Cross'
"All the grace which Jesus the saving one GIVES, is given only in the path of FELLOWSHIP with Jesus the crucified ONE. Christ came and took MY place; I MUST PUT MYSELF IN HIS PLACE AND ABIDE THERE. And there is but ONE place which is both HIS and MINE,—that place is THE CROSS.
His in virtue of His free choice; mine by reason of the curse of sin.
He came there to seek me; there alone I can find Him.
When He found me there, it was the place of cursing; this He experienced, for 'cursed is EVERYONE that hangeth on a tree.'
He made it a place of BLESSING; this I experience, for Christ hath delivered us from the curse, 'BEING MADE A CURSE FOR US.'
"When Christ comes in my place, He remains what He was, the beloved of the Father;
but in the fellowship with me He shares my curse and dies MY death.
When I stand in His place, which is still always mine, I am still what I was by nature, THE ACCURSED ONE, WHO DESERVES TO DIE; BUT AS UNITED TO HIM, I SHARE HIS BLESSING, AND RECEIVE HIS LIFE. WHEN HE CAME TO BE ONE WITH ME, HE COULD NOT AVOID THE CROSS, FOR THE CURSE ALWAYS POINTS TO THE CROSS AS ITS END AND FRUIT. AND WHEN I SEEK TO BE ONE WITH HIM, I CANNOT AVOID THE CROSS EITHER, FOR NOWHERE BUT ON THE CROSS ARE LIFE AND DELIVERANCE TO BE FOUND.
AS INEVITABLY AS MY CURSE POINTED HIM TO THE CROSS AS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE HE COULD BE FULLY UNITED TO ME, HIS BLESSING POINTS ME TO THE CROSS, TOO, AS THE ONLY PLACE WHERE I CAN BE UNITED TO HIM.
HE TOOK MY CROSS FOR HIS OWN; I MUST TAKE HIS CROSS AS MY OWN; I MUST BE CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. IT IS AS I ABIDE DAILY, DEEPLY, IN JESUS THE CRUCIFIED ONE, THAT I SHALL TASTE THE SWEETNESS OF HIS LOVE, THE POWER OF HIS LIFE, THE COMPLETELNESS OF HIS SALVATION."
—
Andrew Murray, "Abide in Christ."
'It may be a surprising fact to many that Jesus NEVER ONCE spoke of the cross as His, but
always as ours.
The cross is mentioned in the New Testament twenty-seven times. Of this number, five are attributed to Jesus. Apart from the words of Jesus, Matthew records the expression three times, Mark three times, Luke once, John four times, and Paul eleven times.
We do not mean to imply that it would not be proper to speak of it as Christ's cross, for Paul uses the expression "His cross" once, "the cross of Christ" three times, and "the cross" seven times. We know that the words of Scripture are chosen with a divine purpose, and we may therefore infer that there is some important lesson to be learned from the very words Jesus used when He spoke of the cross. Here are the five passages recorded; let us consider them prayerfully, seeking to know their meaning to us:
"He that doth not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me." Matt. 10:38, A. R. V.
"Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Matt. 16:24.
"He called unto Him the multitude with His disciples, and said unto them, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Mark. 8:34.
"He said unto all, If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." Luke 9:23.
"Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:27.
In every instance Jesus is talking about the great crisis in a man's life, when he is deciding the solemn question of his ETERNAL DESTINY. There the man's own cross stands at the parting of the ways. Every rational human being faces the question, SHALL I LIVE FOR SELF OR FOR GOD? You may say, The Christian life seems narrow, the way strait. Surely this is true, and it is YOUR cross standing at the gateway which makes the road narrow and exclusive. There is a world of meaning in that brief sentence, "Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me."
"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
All things else I have forsaken,
Thou henceforth my all shalt be:
"Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought, or hoped, or known;
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heaven are still my own."
How often we have sung, "Jesus, I my cross have taken," with very little realization of
the significance of the words! Or we have regarded the endurance of little daily trials and
annoyances and self-denials, as taking up our cross and following Him.
God gave to mankind His great moral law, a law of love, which is holy and just and
perfect. We have all transgressed that law, and as sinners are under the condemnation of
death. We deserve to die. Should we perish on the cross, we would but receive what we
justly merit. Therefore the cross belongs to mankind. It is your cross and mine.
Adam stood as the head and representative of the human race. He disobeyed God, and
brought the condemnation of death upon himself and the whole human family. There was
no possible escape through any means that man could devise.
But God had already provided a plan to meet the great emergency. Christ was to come
to this world to redeem the lost race. To do this it was necessary for Him to
become one of us, to be born into the family. Then, standing in the place of Adam as the
representative of humanity, He proposed to pay the penalty of the broken law, and win
back what Adam lost.
Jesus took a human body, and a personality, the same as ours.
He was subject to the same trials and sorrows, the same weariness, difficulties, hardships, and temptations.
Yet He never in the slightest particular transgressed one precept of the divine law. His life
was one of perfect obedience, unmarred by the least deviation from the path of holiness.
Thus by His own character wrought out in frail humanity He merited eternal life and
blessedness, even though He had been but a man._ But He was vastly more than a man;
He was "the Son of man." The significance of this title, which He seemed to prefer to all
others, makes Him more than the son of a man. He was the typical, all-inclusive
representative of all mankind. As such, the righteousness which He wrought out in His
own life was sufficient for the whole race which He represented.
But before a sinner could appropriate this righteousness, satisfaction must be made to
the divine law for his sins. Eternal justice demanded the death of the sinner. Christ had
provided righteousness for every sinner, but what would it avail, since the sinner's life
was forfeited? This is why Jesus died on MY cross. In order to save me from the death
which would inevitably have been eternal, He took MY sins, and then MY cross belonged
to Him. Not as a man, but as the Son of man, the representative of the race, the voluntary
substitute for EVERY human being, standing in the place of EACH individual,—standing in
MY place,—He went to MY cross and bore MY sins in His own body on the tree.
The divine law set up a cross, and demanded that I, the sinner, be placed upon it to
suffer MY just deserts. But my compassionate Saviour said, "If you go to your cross, you
will perish eternally. I will go in your place. I will shed My blood and lay down
My life to atone for your sins."
The sufferings and death of Christ on the cross were in no sense related to His life.
He had lived the life of a saint. Now He died the death of a sinner.
It is evident, therefore, that whatever merit He acquired by His voluntary sacrifice on the cross, is His to impute to those who need it. And we need it.
He was not enduring the sorrow and anguish because of any fault of His own. His were vicarious sufferings, through which He obtained a merit which He did not need for Himself. He took all my sins, and paid the penalty, fully satisfying the demands of the broken law against me. Thus He, standing as my substitute and recognized by the law as the representative sinner, gained a standing of justification before the law. This He now freely offers to me. The moment I accept Him as my sin bearer and Lord, He imparts this justification to me. The law then has nothing
against me. I am free from its condemnation. The sentence of death is removed, and I am
given a standing before God and His law just as if I had never sinned.
I realize that all this is mine only because Christ was willing to make the infinite sacrifice of making MY cross His own. By acknowledging this cross as MINE, I identify myself with Him in the utter renunciation to death of sin and the sinful nature. "Being justified freely by His grace," I "have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." In Him I now have eternal life.
The two supreme gifts of God to man are LIFE and RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The life, Christ purchased on the cross. The righteousness, He wrought out in His earthly life. On the cross He took our death penalty for sin, thus removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. In His earthly life He perfectly wrought out the will of God in our human flesh, and this perfect obedience, or righteousness, He imparts to every true disciple.
"If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
The only way I can truly acknowledge Jesus as my Saviour is by taking up MY cross.
Thus I acknowledge MY own guilt and condemnation. Thus I show my faith in His
atoning sacrifice. Thus I demonstrate my confidence in the efficacy of His death to
purchase life for me. Thus I enter into a living union with Christ, which provides
emancipation from the dominion of sin, and secures to me the righteousness of Christ.'
———
Tenderly
TAKE from the cross the dear form of the Master;
Gently remove ye the nails from His hands;
Carefully cover the poor, mangled body,
Loosen the cruel cords, sever the bands.
Take the rough crown from His pale, bleeding temple,
Wash the dark stains from His dear, sacred head;
Tearfully weep o'er the blessed Redeemer,
Tenderly bathe ye the wounds of the dead.
Fold ye the hands that so often in kindness
Healed, as by magic, the woes of mankind,
Ministered oft to the poor and the needy,
Strengthened the sick, and gave sight to the blind.
Tenderly bear Him, the crucified Saviour;
Lift from thy spirit its terrible gloom;
Leave Him to rest; for the heavenly watcher
Waits but to call Him to life from the tomb.
—Mrs. L. D. A. Stuttle.
*******
Tomorrow we will discuss this, all by the grace of God!
All in HIS amazing, amazing LOVE!
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