The Cross

“Do you complain of a hard heart? The sight of a broken Christ will break your heart, or nothing will.”

“We must, in ourselves, be like the wounded man that lay in the road, that Christ Jesus the true Samaritan may come by us to dress our wounds, and to power his own precious blood into our souls.”

“Hatred of sin as sin, not only as galling or disquieting, a sense of the love of Christ in the cross, lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification.”

“Christ's blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.”

“There is no death of sin without the death of Christ.”

“Christ by his death, destroying the works of the devil, procuring the Spirit for us, hath so killed sin, as to its reign in believers, that it shall not obtain its end and dominion.”

“Did Christ die, and shall sin live? Was He crucified in the world, and shall our affections to the world be quick and lively?”

“The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either all the sins of all men, or all the sins of some men, or some of the sins of all men.”

“Christ did not die for any upon condition, if they do believe; but He died for all God's elect, that they should believe.”

“Never was sin seen to be more abominably sinful and full of provocation than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God. Would you, then, see the true demerit of sin? Take the measure of it from the cross of Christ.”

“This blood therefore cries from heaven; it is next to God, who sits as Judge there, and it cries in His very ears, whereas the cry of blood from the ground is further off.”

“Christ died, not because God the Father hated—but because He loved the world.”

“There he finds God pacified, and righteousness taking the sinner's side.”

“This agony, this wrestling, was therefore with his Father’s wrath, which now had taken hold on him, and under which he now lay struggling.”

“And therefore, as the worth of Christ’s person was infinite, so must the worth of his actions be.”

“As soon as the blood touches us, by our believing, we are set apart--we become the royal priesthood, holy to the Lord.”

“If one might, by a figure, speak of the veil as living and sentient, might we not say that it dreaded the rending.”

“And as Christ’s death was voluntary, so was it also an accursed death; and therefore it is called the death of the cross.”

“Can you love Christ — and delight in sin, which crucified your Lord?”

“Think, then, of the cross and his rich mercy, his free, immeasurable, everlasting mercy, whose blood makes the foulest clean.”

“Christ takes them, and with his own blood cleanseth them: and will never leave washing and cleansing of the soul, till he hath cleansed it from all its spots, and presented it before the Father.”

“Substitution may be philosophical or unphilosophical, defensible or indefensible; still it is imbedded in the Bible; specially in the sacrificial books and sacerdotal ordinances.”

“So that our seeking of God is not only a duty, and beneficial to us, but it is a high privilege purchased by the blood of Christ.”

“It was as one deserving of death that Abel came, as one who felt himself under the sentence, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” He brought with him the visible symbol of this, in the lamb which he laid upon the altar.”

“By his blood he entered into the holy place; by his blood he hath made an atonement for us before the mercy-seat.”

“It is the blood that emboldens us to draw near to God, and justifies God in drawing near to us. 'Let us draw near' is the voice of the blood, speaking both from the altar and the mercy seat.”

“So every Christian is dearly bought, with the blood of Christ.”

“Obliterate all the holiness in our world that is the sole effect of the cross, and how much, do you think, would there be left?”

“Why, Jesus Christ had dishonor put upon him; he was called Beelzebub, and a Samaritan, and they said he had a devil in him.”

“His first coming in the flesh was to purchase a bride for himself by his obedience and death.”

“For we are under great wrath, and crucified the Lord of Glory.”

“He should be the dearer to us, the more vile and base he was made for us, and he should be most lovely in our eyes, when he was least lovely in his own, and when he was deformed, when our sins were upon him.”

“The offence of the cross has not ceased, nor has the time come when a self-denying spirit does not belong to the catalogue of Christian graces.”

“The lips, which celebrate God's tender love, are touched with a livecoal from atonement's altar.”

“He must take the offender's legal place, bear the offender's legal burden, endure the offender's legal curse.”

“Jesus delivers from wrath by His death—having therein undergone it Himself—in place of His people.”

“A 'good conscience' comes to us through the blood upon the mercy-seat.”

“Beloved, when God exalts you, remember it is because your Savior was abased.”

“There was an allusion in the sufferings of Christ in the garden, unto the first temptation in a garden.”

“It removes that which drew on us the wrath of God, quenching that wrath; it removes that which made us dread God and flee from Him, like Adam.”

“The Son of God was thus to see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.”

“If the virtue of the death of Christ be taken away, all the joy of believers goes with it: for it stands only in this.”

“Men who have so little piety that they have no cross to bear, may well suspect the vigor and consistency, if not the genuineness, of their religion.”

“It was not so much for flesh to suffer—but for God to be made flesh—this was the wonder of humility!”

“So much the more dearer he should be unto us, the more base he was for us.”

“Surely above all others he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself.”

“His strength was dried up like a potsherd, that we might be strong in the Lord.”

“In this very point stands the dignity of the passion, whereby it differs from all other sufferings of men whatsoever.”

“That blood, by covering his sins, brings pardon--pardon to anyone who is willing to take pardon in this way from God.”

“He was a Father that exacted this ransom for souls; and he was his own Son that paid it.”

“Indeed, he was the Son of God, but he appeared in abased flesh, in the form of a 'servant.' He was crucified.”

“Cursed sin! you were the knife that stabbed him: you the sword that pierced him.”

“Seed, sown in Jesus's blood, brings harvests to heaven's garner.”

“It was not the blood of bulls and goats sacrificed under the law, which can remove guilt—and procure remission of sin.”

“The priest that was the representator of all Israel, when he went into the holiest, was not to go in, but as sprinkled with blood first (Exo 29).”

“If a town or castle hath cost blood, the blood of many soldiers to win it, and he to whom it is betrusted should yield it up, how heinous would the action be!”

“This is the result of the application of the blood to those who were 'blacker than the coal,' redder than crimson.”

“Therefore, because in love he would die, and be a sacrifice, he would take upon him such a nature wherein he might be a sacrifice.”

“To conclude, Did Christ endure all these things for me? then it is past doubt, he will never leave nor forsake me: It cannot be that after he has endured all this, he will cast off the souls for whom he endured it.”

“It showed the price all paid—the wrath removed—the curse endured—the flock all free.”

“Thus Christ, God's sacrifice for sin, is taken from earth's sons.”

“That death was like the touching of the electric wire between Calvary and Moriah, setting loose suddenly the divine power that for a thousand years had been lying in wait to rend the veil and cast down the barrier.”

“About twelve, when the sun is usually brightest, it began now to darken, and this darkness was so great that it spread over all the land of Jerusalem; yes, some think over all the world.”

“Now, if no more good redounds to us by the death of Christ than it does to Simon Magus, we are not much obliged to Christ for our salvation.”

“Blood 'shed' is the symbol or visible exhibition of 'death'.”

“In that celestial kingdom there shall be no vilifying or slandering one another, no raking into those sores which Christ died to heal.”

“The riches of a believer stands in the poverty of Christ; and every true believer counts Christ's poverty his riches.”

“When His own hands brought His own life a victim to the altar-cross, all 'typical' functions were fulfilled.”

“Hence, though Christ's death obliterates condemnatory stains, the Spirit must come in with further aid, to wash the heart, and fit it for heavenly home.”

“The dignity of His person, put an infinite merit on His sufferings—and so His sufferings became a sufficient satisfaction to justice, and that was accepted as fully as if sinners had done it in their own persons.”

“There is also the willfully ignorant professor, or him that is afraid to know more, for fear of the cross.”

“And he who will receive the Atonement of the cross as a little child, as a humble disciple at the feet of Jesus, shall know of this doctrine whether it be of God, or whether we speak it of ourselves.”

“Oh! what a value then would be set upon a king’s becoming a ransom himself, yea, of the great God made one person with our nature, and of his giving himself a ransom, who is the King of kings.”

“For one stage of our lives our hearts run after him for his blood to wash away our sins, and for his righteousness to cover us in the presence of God.”

“He stood in their stead, and they were viewed as one with Him from His cradle to His cross, and from His cross to His throne.”

“Death, with all its consequences, lies on the transgressor until another death comes (in the symbolic form of blood), and washes it away.”

“But our Lawgiver, God over all, has cast into the shade every such act of homage to law by the infinitude of suffering he in our nature endured, to honour the law of heaven and save the doomed transgressors.”

“We may account for some links in the chain, but the chain itself terminates at the cross.”

“Many people think to wash away their sins with their sorrow; But they must know, there is something beyond sorrow, it is onely the blood of Jesus Christ, can cleanse and take away this stain.”

“The Pharisees would never have persecuted him and hated him, if they had seen him to have been such a person as he was; but he veiled his glory that he might suffer.”

“Thus, taking as true the good news of the finished sacrifice, we rest there.”

“In a word, the whole work of justification, and whatever goes to it, is meant by blood.”

“For at the very time when He bore our sins, He was in Himself more holy than all men, and all angels.”

“It offers to the sinner a reversal of the sentence of death, by presenting him with the death of another in his stead.”

“He did the same when He suffered: “Not my will, but thine be done,” which was His motto from first to last.”

“For though Christ was made a curse to redeem us from the curse — yet those only have the saving benefits of that redemption, who have found faith in, and sincere love to, Jesus Christ.”

“For if sin be so dreadful a thing as to wring the heart of the Son of God, how shall a poor wretched sinner be able to bear it?”

“Was not Christ charged with as great sins as thine can be when he was upon the cross?”

“Behold the truth—bathe in this stream—trust in this death—plead this atoning cross.”

“The great sacrifice has met law and righteousness at every point.”

“The 'blood of the covenant' is the payment demanded by the Father, and paid by the Son.”

“In believing God's testimony to the blood; it becomes sprinkled upon us; and from that moment we are safe.”

“As the Man Christs perfect conformity to the Law of God, so as man he was oblidged to do and suffer all that he did and suffered, even to lay down his life for man.”

“But this satisfaction to divine justice is not to be wrought out by believers themselves; and, therefore, whatsoever they suffer is not strictly punishment.”

“That sin which I so often cherish, this pride, this envy, unbelief, and hypocrisy, this covetousness of mind was that which put Christ into such torment.”

“The school of the cross is the school of light; it discovers the world's vanity, baseness, and wickedness, and lets us see more of God's mind.”

“For by raising any soul from a death in sin, God doth evidence the particular value of Christ's blood for that soul, as he did, in raising Christ, evidence the general fulness of that satisfaction.”

“Grace finds at Calvary an open door, and free opportunity to enter on this noble work.”

“The word which cannot fail, had said, "He was numbered with the transgressors." Behold the fulfillment.”

“The deliverance of the godly is just as sure as the deliverance of our great Head from the cruel taunts of those who mocked Him in His extremest anguish.”

“Let us give thanks, knowing that by these wounds we are saved, by these stripes we are healed.”

“And thus that last burnt-offering gave to the Church the assurance that the reconciliation was accomplished.”

“The ministry of reconciliation" is the ministry that makes known the atonement of Christ.”

“There is such a power and efficacy in the blood of Christ, as is sufficient to cleanse all sorts of sinners from all sorts of sins.”

“For first, by Christ crucified, we have reconciliation with God, remission of sins, and acceptation to eternal life.”

“To him whose sin is thus 'covered' by the blood, God is propitious.”

“Our sins had slain Him, shed His blood, and brought Him down to the grave!”

“Sometimes it is said that Christ gave himself, and sometimes it is said that God the Father gave Christ.”

“How much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your Conscience from dead works, to serve the Living God?”

“If your vileness had not been so great, his sufferings had not been so many.”

“Without man's money and self's aid, the payment is all paid by the grand Surety, Christ.”

“Though this kingdom is given us freely—yet Christ bought it with the price of his blood; which is a heaven procuring blood.”

“That to which He looked forward was not so much the rending of the veil, as the result of that rending,--both for Himself and for His Church, His body, the redeemed from among men.”

“Surely one may voluntarily assume pains and penalties for even a guilty man without approving of his wrong, or without being like him in moral character.”

“Nay, more still, that inner sanctuary has been also sprinkled with blood, so that a sinner may go in and worship there with safety to himself, and without defiling the sacred floor and walls.”

“There was none fit to umpire the business between God and man— but he who was God-man.”

“For our sakes he was despised, and his face more marred than any man’s, and so he had not the honours of this world, though he had the right to all.”

“The second question is, how by the short and temporary death of the Son of God any man can possibly be freed from eternal death and damnation which is due unto Him for the least sin?”

“As the great Shepherd, He gave His life for the sheep; His life was accepted instead of theirs; His death made their dying no longer necessary--no, unjust.”

“There is indeed a sovereign virtue in the blood of Christ to pardon sin, but thy soul cannot have the benefit of it, while it remains under the dominion of this sin.”

“There is such a thirst raised in the soul, that nothing can quench it but the blood of Christ!”

“Did Christ sweat clots of blood at it, and do you make light of it?”

“Look we therefore to our sins, the curse and wrath due unto them, and all as laid on him.”

“Are we satisfied that the way has been opened, and the blood sprinkled, so as to make it safe for us to enter?”

“In a garden Adam sinned, and therefore in a garden Christ was buried.”

“The paying down the money is one thing; the redeeming the person so paid for, so ransomed, is something more.”

“Under the weight of 'rejected blood' the unbelieving sinner perishes.”

“Christ Jesus Himself has purchased it for us in His blood, He has laid the foundation of it, His blood was laid out for it; He spun this thread of glory out of His own bowels.”

“Error on outward points is only a skin-deep disease—error about the cross is disease at the heart.”

“As has been well remarked by a profound theologian, "In his sufferings he obeyed, and in his obedience he suffered." His mediatorial work, like his robe, cannot be divided into separate parts.”

“The weight of sin is taken off from you, and in the eye of the law transferred to the mighty Sufferer on Calvary.”

“One man sins against God, and what hath he to cover his sins?”

“What is the blood of beasts to God? the blood of all the men in the world can do nothing in this case.”

“The Altar has many uses; but this is the main—it is the victim's dying bed.”

“His heart was melted in him like wax, that ours might be melted in penitence.”

“Thus like as by assuming the likeness of sinful flesh, he killed the sin in our flesh; so by taking these our enmities and animosities in his flesh, he slew and abolished them; and as his death was the death of death, so of these.”

“And yet Christ speaks no word of revenge unto them, but with all patience in the extremity of their malice and injury He prays unto His Father to forgive them.”

“He obtained eternal redemption, and by confirming the Covenant of Grace with his own blood, he passed all its promises into an unalterable testament. 46 §6.”