God"s Glory...the Cross

But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are no words, there are no thoughts, there are no expressions that can come from a human being that can fully explain or reveal the totality of what was said, suffered, and accomplished...at the cross. Oh we can recall the event and in a general way reiterate the chronology of what took place at that cursed and blessed place outside the city of peace, but we haven't scratched the surface of the infinite depths of what had been planned, carried out, and accomplished. We can understand what a crucifixion is, but THIS crucifixion? It stands unplumbed by any human mind, and in a mystery, only a heart that has bowed at Golgatha can taste the redemption in the blood that drips from that cross and spills through this earthly house, penetrating that suddenly believing heart. At that moment the scales fall from a sinner's darkened eyes and as we again gaze at that cross, the dead, blaspheming Jew that once hung there now appears like unto a Lamb, a spotless and sinless Lamb, covered in His own blood and gory glory. It is at that sacred moment the eternal journey begins...at the cross.


The Father has done to His Son what He could have and should have done... to me. And what I could never have accomplished by an eternity of tormented justice, this Sacrificial Lamb has absorbed and has forever satisfied my eternal punishment, unimaginably compacting the eternal suffering that awaited my death…in three hours…three horrifying hours…that belonged rightfully to me.


It might be an old, stale story to some, but to me I will never get over the imagery of what Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, did for someone like me. To say I did not deserve it is to feign humility, it goes way beyond that. I cannot ever imagine how vile a creature I was against the loving holiness of the Creator God, I only know I was vile in my own carnal and excusing eyes. I would not desire my worst enemy to suffer like Jesus did, and to think that “...He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin...” is so far out of my so called intellectual league that it can only elicit from me brokenness and worship, which is exactly what the Lamb deserves.


No son of Adam can understand how that was completed on the cross, much less what species of love planned and finished it. An earthly heart feels only disgust and repulsion, but when a changed heart peers out through the cleansing blood of the Son of Judah, it cannot help but cry out…

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior

And one day that has no equal, in the expanse of the place called heaven, all the remedies of earth will be unclothed to reveal them as they really are and always have been,

Nothing.

But look! The celestial beasts are gathering to worship. And the elders gather beside them to bow also. All of heaven is gathering as one to prostrate themselves to give glory to something in the very center of heaven.
Is it all the philosophies? Is it all the medicines? Is it all the psychologies? Is it all the investments? Is it all the kings? Is it all the heroes? Is it all the sciences? Is it all the books? Is it all the inventions? Is it all the meetings? Is it all the wars? Is it all the riches? Is it all the stars? Is it all the nations? Is it all the history of mankind?

No, forever, no.

And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders…

Stood a Lamb, as it had been slain.

So if any man of woman born would desire to see the glory of God you need not look at the highest mountain tops, you need not look across the greatest ocean, you need not gaze into the deepest heavens, you need not be carried to the highest place in the universe and see the immensity of the wondrous creation made with just a Word. No, to see the unveiled glory of Almighty God go to a little hill outside Jerusalem, fall to your knees and lift your eyes, and look fully at the event that completely revealed the express image of His Person and the brightness of His glory…

the cross