The Cross: Powerful Reasons to Believe in God



By Mike Robinson



The Cross powerful reasons god exists
The Cross is a powerful reason to trust Christ



And he [Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

He planted His cross in the midst of the mad and roaring current of selfishness, aggravated to malignity, and uttered from it the mighty cry of expiring love. And the waters heard Him, and from that moment they began to be refluent about His cross. From that moment, a current deeper and broader and mightier began to set heavenward; and it will continue to be deeper and broader and mightier till its glad waters shall encompass the earth, and toss themselves as the ocean. And not alone did earth hear the cry. It pierced the regions of immensity. Heaven heard it, and hell heard it, and the remotest star shall hear it, testifying to the love of God in His unspeakable gift, and to the supremacy of that blessedness of giving which could be reached only through death—the death of the cross (Mark Hopkins).

Christ on the Cross was more saturated in fury and judgment than blood and sweat. Jesus was hounded and pounded more by God’s wrath in making propitiation than by crossbeam, nail, and mallet. Christ was crucified, killed, and executed; God’s holy justice flung on Jesus by what John Murray termed “The holy revulsion of God’s being against which is the contradiction of His holiness.” God’s wrath was stockpiled and then poured out on Jesus at the Cross. All the sin and wickedness reserved, as it added up and was stacked up, and then poured out on Jesus. Thus God’s judgment for our sin was put away. We deserved wrath and judgment, but God hurled it on Jesus in our place.

Edwards mused, “And yet he is infinitely gracious and merciful. Though his justice be so strict with respect to all sin, and every breach of the law, yet he has grace sufficient for every sinner, and even the chief of sinners. And it is not only sufficient for the most unworthy to show them mercy, and bestow some good upon them, but to bestow the greatest good; yea, it is sufficient to bestow all good upon them, and to do all things for them. There is no benefit or blessing that they can receive, so great but the grace of Christ is sufficient to bestow it on the greatest sinner that ever lived. And not only so, but so great is his grace, that nothing is too much as the means of this good. It is sufficient not only to do great things, but also to suffer in order to do it, and not only to suffer, but to suffer most extremely even unto death, the most terrible of natural evils; and not only death, but the most ignominious and tormenting, and every way the most terrible that men could inflict; yea, and greater sufferings than men could inflict, who could only torment the body. He had sufferings in his soul, that were the more immediate fruits of the wrath of God against the sins of those he undertakes for” (Jonathan Edwards). Jesus died to expiate our sins and propitiate the wrath of God. Thank you Lord!

The consequence of the Cross is forgiveness. The Cross is the remedy for the infection of sin. Jesus hung on the Cross to remove sin and rinse the sin syndrome from our soul inasmuch as the blood of Christ paid the debt, propitiated wrath, and rinsed believers clean.

The Cross has a sufficient effect that insures that sin will not dominate you on earth and is forever removed from your eternal record.

Jesus did not come to live as an example of how to die as a martyr, but as a substitute, taking the place that we deserve in order that we might enjoy what we don't deserve. This is good news. Let us tell all our friends! (Alistair Begg).

Justification

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:5).

You say hold on a minute; I know what justification means: declared righteous. Why is it so important? When I hear this type of questioning, I can understand the reason Martin Luther said: “I feel sometimes that you are so slow to receive it; that I could almost take the Bible and bang it about your heads.” These truths are essential, yet often we don’t really embrace them and it seems we need it pounded into our hearts. Thomas Watson rightly noted that justification is the “very hinge and pillar of Christianity.”

Van Til pointed out that “the idea of grace is wholly out of line with the idea of autonomous man.” Paul declared: “Let God be true and every man a liar.” We should believe God and not any man that attempts to controvert God’s Word. By God’s grace through faith in Jesus one is justified, forgiven, and accepted by God. That’s good news.

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