THE RELIGION OF REDEMPTION
‘The preaching of the Cross.’
Christianity is the religion of redemption; it is for that reason that the Apostle gives as the motto and the summary of the Gospel this little sentence in the text, ‘The preaching of the Cross.’ For the Cross is the symbol, as it once was the instrument, of our redemption. Whether it were to Galatia or to Corinth, to rude and barbarous rustics in their impetuosity and changefulness, or whether it were to the cultivated children of Greek wisdom, St. Paul had one message, and that message was ‘The preaching of the Cross.’ What did he mean?
I. An historical reality.—The Apostle rejoiced in an historical redemption. Not in ideas, but in facts; not in a code, but a Person; not in impulses and sentiments, but in the flesh and blood reality of the dire struggle of our Lord with human guilt, wretchedness, and wrong. He rejoiced in an historical redemption when he preached the Gospel of the Cross; and if ever there was a doleful and desperate reality in this world, it was the Cross of Jesus Christ. Paul spoke of this reality as a great thing effected here in this world and on its dusty surface. He spoke upon events that transpired in a known place, under a known government, in known circumstances, on which eyes had been riveted, over which hearts had been broken. He spoke of Christ in Jerusalem nailed to the Cross, placed in the tomb, and risen from the dead. Never forget that Christianity rests upon the great obdurate facts of human history.
II. An inward experience.—He said, ‘I am crucified with Christ.’ ‘The life I live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ ‘God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Very personal, very inward, even mystical is the language, and it is the preaching of the Cross that carries that message home into the living experiences of men and women.
III. A vivid and graphic description of Christ in His unseen power working among men. Do you recall those words from the letter to the Galatians? So powerful was the portraiture which Paul drew before the spiritual eyes of the Galatian hearers, that for a moment they seem to have seen the extended arms, the bleeding brow, and pierced side of the crucified Jesus.
Now this, in brief, is what he meant by ‘the preaching of the Cross’; he meant the historical redemption, he meant the inward experience, he meant the vivid portraiture and living presentation of an exalted but still potent Saviour, so as to reach the inward vision of the soul; and such should be the preaching of the Gospel to-day.
—Rev. H. J. R. Marston.
Illustration
‘I would warn you against being tired of the religion of Redemption, and going after what is called the religion of the Incarnation. The religion of the Incarnation is a glorious and a true one when it is truly taught, but it very often means nothing else but the religion of Incarnation, and that is just glorying in the flesh, glorying in man’s power, glorying in human faculties, human destinies, human efforts, human aspirations. It is that glorying in the flesh which St. Paul repudiated when he said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Humanity is wonderful, wonderful are its powers, its achievements, and its aspirations; but every poet and every philosopher that has written of its power has sunk down at last with a sigh of despondency. We know neither despondency nor despair, for we sum up all hopes in one word, and that “the Cross.” ’