The Cross by Bonar

I love Horatius Bonar.  He had a true grasp of Christianity, and was able to convey it in the most simple terms.

~Al

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Rev 11:8 

The Cross of the Lord Jesus

This passage strikingly identifies the Master and the servants—our Lord and His witnesses. They were to suffer as He suffered and where He suffered: one with Him in life and death, in shame and glory; one with Him on the Cross, in the grave, in resurrection, in ascension, and on the throne. "Where also our Lord was crucified." It is the last reference to the Cross of Christ in the Bible, and corresponds well with that frequent expression in the Revelation, "the Lamb slain"; carrying us back to "the seed of the woman" and "the bruised heel."

1. It was the place of guilt and condemnation (Mat 27:22; Mat 27:26; Mat 27:28).

2. It was the place of shame (Heb 12:2).

3. It was the place of weakness (2Co 13:4).

4. It was the place of pain (Heb 13:12).

5. The place of the curse (Gal 3:13).

6. The place of rejection (Joh 19:6).

7. The place of hatred (Mat 27:25).

8. The place of death (Mat 20:18-19).

(H. Bonar, D. D.)

Good things found in the Cross

This Cross, where so many evil things meet, is the place where all good things are to be found. God gathered all the evil to that spot, that He might utterly make away with it, through Him who took all the evil on Himself, that He might bring out of it only good.

1. It is the place of propitiation (Lev 16:15; Rom 3:25). The altar was there for the burnt-offering. The place without the gate for the sin-offering was there.

2. It is the meeting-place (Exo 29:42). It is the place where we meet with God, and God meets with us in friendship, and love, and joy. It is the place where the Father meets the prodigal and embraces him.

3. It is the place of love. God's love is there, shining in its full brightness, unhindered and undimmed.

4. It is the place of acceptance. Here we become "accepted in the Beloved." Here the exchange takes place between the perfect and the imperfect. Believing in the perfect One, we become "complete in Him."

(H. Bonar, D. D.)

What the Cross accomplished

The Cross accomplished such things as the following:—

1. It removed the wall of partition (Col 2:14).

2. It made peace (Col 1:20).

3. It has secured oneness (Eph 2:15-16).

4. It has brought life (2Co 13:4).

5. It contains power (1Co 1:18; 1Co 1:23).

6. It is the focus or center of all wisdom (1Co 1:24).

7. It crucifies the world (Gal 6:14).

8. It furnishes a theme for glorying (Gal 6:14).

9. It is the model and test of service (Mar 8:34; Luk 9:23).

10. It is the badge of discipleship (Luk 14:27).

11. It is God's way of salvation (Act 10:39-43).

12. It is the measure of Christ's endurance and obedience (Php 2:8).

13. It is the pledge and standard of Divine love (Rom 5:8).

14. It is the revelation of God's character (1Jn 4:10).

15. It is God's lamp of light.

16. It is the universal magnet (Joh 12:32).

17. It is the universal balm and medicine.

18. It is man's estimate of sin.

19. It is God's verdict against sin, and His estimate of it (Rom 8:3).

20. It is man's estimate of the Son of God.

21. It is God's interpretation of law and its penalties.

(H. Bonar, D. D.)