The Cross the Measure of Sin.
How is it that every sin, even the very least, makes men enemies of the Cross of Christ?
I. First, because it was sin that, so to speak, created the Cross: sin made a Redeemer necessary. It opened some deep breach in the order of life and in the unity of God's kingdom which could be no way healed but by the Atonement. If there had been no sin in the world until now, the sin we have committed, each one of us, this day, would have demanded the sacrifice and reconciliation. Such is the intensity of one offence, such its infinity of guilt.
II. And, again, not only does sin both create and multiply this necessity, but, so to speak, it continues to frustrate the work of the Cross and Passion of the Son of God. It demands His death, and it defeats its virtues; it invokes it from the mercies of God, and it wars against it by direct hostility; it first makes it necessary, and then would make it fruitless.
III. And, once more, sin makes men enemies of the Cross, because it is in virtue and spirit a renewal of the Crucifixion; it acts the Crucifixion over again. And therefore our Lord, though He was already in the bliss and glory of the Father, cried saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" It is no mere figure of speech, but a very deep and appalling reality, that sin makes every soul that willingly offends an enemy of the Cross of Christ by converting it into a direct spiritual antagonist of the will and intent of our merciful Lord in the mystery of His Passion. Hence we may see (1) the exceeding sinfulness of every act of wilful sin; (2) the sinfulness of every habitual state or temper of mind contrary to the spirit of our Saviour.
H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. iii., p. 201.
Reference: Philippians 3:18. R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,1st series, p. 290; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 93; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 3245.Philippians 3:18; Philippians 3:19. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 102; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vii., p. 219; Plain Sermons by Contributors to" Tracts for the Times," vol. vi., p. 253.Philippians 3:19. Wilkinson, Church of England Pulpit,vol. v., p. 9; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 250.