The appeal which Jesus Christ makes, with His hands stretched out upon the cross, to the hearts of Christians is twofold.
1. It is an appeal on behalf of God's standard of holiness, and against the laxity and sin of man. And He makes this appeal by the force of His own example. There are two ways of teaching duty by word of mouth or precept, and by personal conduct or example. The first is necessary; it is indispensable. The second is more effective than the first. Teaching by precept is the method common to the saints and to the philosophers. Teaching by example is the high prerogative of the saints. Teaching by precept begins with the understanding; it may or may not reach the heart. Teaching by example begins with the heart. The understanding can hardly fail to learn its lesson at a glance. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ uses both methods. Between the Sermon on the Mount and the last discourse in the supper room, He was continually teaching by word of mouth, sometimes single souls, sometimes His disciples, sometimes the Jews, now those who listened, and again those who refused to listen. But side by side with the method of precept, He employed the method of example. All through His life He reinforced His precepts by the eloquence of His conduct; but He gathered up all these lessons, or the most difficult of them, into one supreme appeal to the dormant moral sense in man when He raised Himself upon the cross and stretched out His hands to die.
II. Jesus Christ with His hands stretched out upon the cross makes an appeal to our sense of what He has done for us. Why is He there? Not for any demerit of His own; not only or chiefly to teach us virtue. He is there because otherwise we are lost; because we must be reconciled to God by the death of His Son. He is there because He has first taken our nature made Himself our representative, and then, in this capacity, in bearing the penalty which, in virtue of those moral laws whereby the universe is governed, is due to our sins. When He suffers, we too suffer by implication. When He dies, we too share His death. His appeal is the appeal of love, of love the most tender, the most practical, the most disinterested. There are two lessons, in conclusion, which we may endeavour to make our own. (1) One is particular. Jesus Christ stretching out His hands on the cross is a model for all Christians who are in any position of authority, not only for monarchs or statesmen or great officers, but for that large number of us who, in various ways, have others dependent on us, under our government and influence. The model for Christians, parents, masters, employers, governors, is rather Christ upon His cross in anxious pain, stretching out the arms of entreaty and compassion, than Christ upon His throne finally dispensing the awards of judgment. (2) The other lesson is general. The longest day has its evening, and after the evening comes the darkness of the night. As the soul passes the gate of eternity, the pierced hands of Christ, which during the long day of life have been outstretched upon the cross, seem to the soul's eye to detach themselves and to fold together for judgment.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 868.
References: Romans 11:5. Homilist,vol. v., p. 197; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 270. Romans 11:7. Philpot, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. v., p. 49; Durrant, Ibid.,vol. ii., p. 301.Romans 11:15. Bishop Temple, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 129. Romans 11:17-21. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 272.Romans 11:20. Church of England Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 72; J. Vaughan, Sermons,13th series, p. 53.Romans 11:22. J. H. Thom, Laws of Life,p. 64; E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons,p. 160; J. Wells, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. v., p. 377; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 402.Romans 11:25. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 86. Romans 11:26. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 21.Romans 11:32. Homilist,vol. vi., p. 196; Plain Sermons,vol. vii., p. 15; J. Pulsford, Our Deathless Hope,p. 202.Romans 11:33. G. Huntingdon, Sermons for Holy Seasons,2nd series, p. 253.