2.04.05. No cross, no crown

V. NO CROSS, NO CROWN.

"And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus op Nazabkth thb King of thb Jews.”— John 19:19.

“No cross no crown:” how deep and broad is the principle expressed in these words! It belongs to the Master as well as to the servants; to the covenant of God as well as to the experience of men. Christ’s title of royalty is written on his cross; this blessed fruit grows only on that cursed tree. Our Redeemer is made perfect through suffering. In the Apocalyptic prophecy a Lamb as it had been slain is seen in the midst of the throne. It is the cross that bears the crown.

Worthy of notice here is the machinery by which the Redeemer’s royal title was engraved and his royal dignity proclaimed. The human instrument acted blindly, and knew not what he did; all the more fitted therefore was he for doing the necessary work. You may observe that in nature those operations that are performed by blind unintelligent instinct are most surely and most perfectly performed. The creatures that act without intelligence keep their time and execute their tasks far more perfectly after their kind than man. The reason is, that they are only instruments in their Maker’s hands. The Omniscient forms the design, and employs suitable instruments. The execution is correspondingly perfect. But when a creature intervenes, with a determining will of its own, irregularities occur of every kind and degree.

Even in human affairs, those operations that are performed by machinery proceed with greater uniformity and exactitude than those that depend on the worker’s will The worker may be distracted, or idle, or ignorant, or malicious. and corresponding flaws appear in the product; but beams and wheels, having no purpose of their own, simply work their owner’s will. Thus Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, became a rod in Jehovah’s hand for chastening backsliding Israel. He did not intend and desire to iofiict paternal chastisement upon his neighbours for their good.

If the plan had been his, it would not have been executed so well. Nebuchadnezzar gave rein to his own cruel ambition. The Father of wayward Israel lifted the ambition of the heathen king, and employed it as a rod to chasten his child. In like manner, Pilate was employed to proclaim Messiah’s kingdom. He did it better, or rather it was better done by him, than it could have been done by any dLsciple of Jesus. If Pilate had planned this coronation, he would have greatly erred; nor would Peter, or James, or John have done it better. For this work friends and foes were equally imfit. Some of his followers attempted by force to place him prematurely upon an earthly throne. And Peter ventured to rebuke his Master for intimating that the cross must come before the crown. When the Lord would have his own sovereignty at length proclaimed, he did not employ a herald whose will “-ered into the transaction. Had he desired to use the will of a man in the matter, he must have chosen one of his own disciples, for his enemies refused to own his sovereignty. But none of his disciples at that period understood the nature of his reign or knew the date of its beginning. They would not have proclaimed the kingdom at the right time, nor would they have proclaimed the right kingdom. Even after the Lord had offered himself a sacrifice, and risen again, their eyes were still blinded on this point; we find, accordingly, that the promise runs in this form: “ Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me.

They erred on both sides: they attempted to establish the kingdom before the time had come, and when the time had come they did not acknowledge it. They would fain have set the crown on the Lord’s head while he was living and working miracles. In presence of a fickle Jewish mob on the one hand, and of armed Roman legions on the other, they thought they would be safe as subjects of one who could raise the dead by his word, or summon fire from heaven to consume his enemies. They would have crowned Christ at the wrong time; and when the right time came, they had lost confidence in his power. In a tone of the most forlorn despondency, the two with whom the Lord conversed on the way to Emmaus said, “ We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” They trusted once, when they saw his power; but they abandoned hope when they knew he was crucified. They were not the men to write “ King “upon the cross of Jesus. They would have crowned him when his raiment glistened on Tabor; but when his bleeding head drooped on his breast on Calvary, their fondness anticipation of a kingdom vanished like a dream. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" With the precision and pimctuality of an unconscious machine, blindly executing its author’s will, Pilate composed the regal title of the Redeemer, and fastened it aloft upon the cross. Thus the dumb Roman preached Christ crucified before the burning lips of Paul were baptized by the Spirit for taking up and continuing the theme. With equal ignorance in the instrument, and therefore with equal exactness in the performance, the priesthood of Emmanuel was proclaimed by Caiaphas, “ It is expedient that one man should die for the people.” PUate, the supreme civil ruler for the time, meant in revenge to pillory the Jewish leaders aloft before the world as the subjects of the crucified Nazarene; but this wrath of man was by God’s unseen hand intercepted in its flow, and compelled to publish the Redeemer’s praise.

“ My kingdom,” said Jesus, in his ministry — “ my kingdom is not of this world.” In origin, nature, object, and end it is wholly diverse from other kingdoms. As in other features it is peculiar, so especially in this, that the King’s glory lies in the shame which he endured. The King’s power sprang from his weakness; the King’s authority rested on the King’s death. The crown of the kingdom hangs on the cross of its King. This kingdom that springs from the cross is a new thing. Hitherto it had not been known among the works of God. Not that then the divine sovereignty over the world began first to be exercised. There was a kingdom of God before the cross; but the kingdom that rose from the cross was a new manifestation of the divine attributes, more glorious than any that had been previously made. Frotn the beginning the divine sovereignty was exercised both in the material and spiritual departments without the suffering of a divine person. In nature the Lord reigneth; his throne is from everlasting to everlasting. The heavens declare his glory, and obedient earth echoes back the witness to the sky. How exquisitely perfect is the divine government over matter!

How beautiful the laws of that kingdom, and how uniform the obedience which its subjects yield! These stars never wander from their paths; that sun never fotgets to rise.

Every tree produces its own kind of seed, and every seed reproduces its own kind of tree. How manifold, O Lord, are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made them all! This kingdom is governed by wisdom and power, infinite and eternal. No cross is needed to sustain this throna The Son of God does not need to become a man and die that the stars may be kept in their courses, and the sea within its bed. Nor would a sacrifice be necessary to restore the kingdom to its beauty, if it were reduced to chaos by a universal flood. Again, as at the beginning, might God say, “ Let there be light,” and light would be. Again, internal heat might be employed to upheave new mountain ranges, and leave another hollow for another sea. Other races of living creatures might be called into being, more or less closely resembling those that had been destroyed, and the earth might be commanded to produce fruit for their food. In all this there would be nothing new under the sun; it would be only a repetition with minor variations of what had previously been done. There would, indeed, be a new heaven and a new earth; but no new exercise of divine wisdom and power would be put forth in calling them into being. In regard to the character and kind of sovereignty exercised, it might be proclaimed over the new creation, ** All things continue as they were.” The heavenly hosts might in such a case continue the praises they had learned at their birth, but no new song would have burst from their lip& In the moral department, too, there was a kingdom before Christ was crucified, a rule that did not demand for its exercise the crucifying of Christ. Sovereign rule on this side did not require that the Ruler should suffer even unto death. The kingdom in this department parts, like a stream interrupted by an island, into two diverging channels. The Lord reigneth over the good and the eviL

He reigns over all holy, unfallen intelligences. The sovereignty on this aide consists of one unbroken course of holy love from the King, and a corresponding course of holy obedience from the subjects. It is difficult for us to form a distinct conception of this species of rule; for we have no experience of it. The will of the King is the law of his subjects; and yet their service is free. There is no disobedience; and yet there is no constraint. What a mystery is here! A lordship absolute over the highest kind of created beings; and these beings with all their faculties absolutely free. The kind of sovereignty which the holy God exercises over holy creatures, is perhaps as widely distinguished from his moral government of fallen humanity as it is from his control over material natare. A perfect moral supremacy over intelligent beings, who yield a perfectly willing and delighted obedience, must constitute a happiness in kind and degree far aboye our capacity of conception. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, when in them perfect love has cast out fear. A government exercised over beings perfectly intelligent and completely free, and that government as absolute as the control of matter by the natural laws, constitutes, as I apprehend, a main element in the happiness of heaven. When we shall be as free as we now are in sinning, and yet with that free will shall render to God an obedience as perfect as the elements of nature, we shall have in our hearts the joy of the Redeemer, and that joy will be full.

If the stars in their courses possessed our intelligence, how happy should they be in the sweet willingness of their perfect obedience; if we, with our intelligence, were like the stars in the perfection of our obedience, how happy should we be in knowing and doing God’s will, without a distracting thought or a rebellious desire! But there is another and opposite department of God’s moral government. The same holy Sovereign rules also over unholy intelligent creatures, distinct from man and created before him. Here, too, the relations between the Governor and the governed are short and simple. On one side it is all holiness; and on the other all sin. As in the case of holy creatures in their relation to God, the agreement is perfect; so here is the disagreement. On that side there Ls no jar; on this, no harmony. On the part of the King, it is justice executed; on the part of the subject, it is judgment endured. The lines of relation here between the throne and the prison are terribly short and straight. Righteousness pure and bright, and straight like sunlight, streams from the judgment-seat*, and no mediator stands in the way to receive its piercing, or deflect its course.

Such were the departments of Jehovah’s kingdom, and such the kinds of government which he exercised, before man made in his image disobeyed his law. The authority in these several departments was in species various, but in all of them alike it was single, short, direct. No mediator intervened. Towards matter, it was omnipotence; towards moral intelligence, righteousness, diverging practically into two channels; towards the good, complacent love, — towards the evil, holy anger. In none of these kingdoms did it behove the King to die. But when human creatures fell, a new thing happened in the universe. The exercises of divine sovereignty hitherto put forth did not apply to the case, and contained not a cure for the ailment. The laws of nature do not reach it, for they are spiritual, intelligent beings who have rebelled. The law of gravity would grasp a falling star and raise it — would seize a wandering world and restore it to the circle of the planets in the sky, as a good shepherd bears back a strayed sheep to the fold; but the law of gravity has no power over a prodigal souL It has no sense to perceive the departure, and no faculty to arrest the fugitive. Even all-comprehending omnipotence does not keep a soul from sinning, — does not win back a soul that has sinned. Spirits escape from the grasp of power, even though that power be divine, as water escapes through the net which encloses and brings to land the fishes great and small that lie within its sweep. This is not a defect in the attributes or government of God. He hath done all things well. It is no more a disparagement to the wisdom and power of God that the laws of nature do not control spirits, than it is a disparagement to the skill of man that a net does not hold water. The net was not made for holding water: neither were the natural laws intended to rule spirits. It was God’s plan to leave meshes wide enough in the circumference of his providential government for spirits to escape into rebellion, if they should so will. To arrest and win back these fugitives he has instituted a new kingdom, and in it now exercises a new and unique species of sovereignty. When power and wisdom and holiness, in their simple and direct exercise, are no longer adequate to meet the creature’s need and accomplish the Creator’s purpose, the Infinite and Omniscient will call in another principle of government, foreseen and predetermined by himself from eternity, but never exercised till now. The problem is deeper now; more glorious, therefore, will be the display of wisdom and love by which its secrets shall be searched, and its difficulties overcome.

Hitherto, in exercising sovereignty over moral and intelligent beings, God had only visited the good with simple approval, and the bad with simple condemnation. In the one direction no displeasure radiated from his face, d in the other no favour. Upward, it was all and only paternal love; downward, it was all and only judicial condemnation. But now, in accordance with the divine counsel from eternity, his love and his justice will be more gloriously manifested by being joined in one. The love of the Holy One will now be seen to flow full on spirits that have rebelled. To make this possible, the Son of God becomes a man and dies. This new exercise of sovereignty can be put forth only through a suffering Sovereign. The title of this King can be written nowhere but on his cross. Christ crucified, and none other, is the power of God that can control the course, and renew the character, and make blessed the destiny, of fallen men. With the awful exactitude and irresistible force of machinery, whose iron arms are destitute of thought and feeling, and therefore only execute the designer’s will, the kingly dignity of Jesus is held in reserve imtil Jesus himself is nailed to the cross; then it is emblazoned over his head, and proclaimed in three languages to the world.

Fix your regard now on the great central and fundamental fact, that Christ’s reign rests on Christ’s suffering. In the shedding of his blood lies the essence of his power to save. This kingdom is a new kingdom. Its power is as great, and its control in its own sphere as complete, as the divine sovereignty over matter and over good and bad spirits; but it is a sovereignty different in essentials from all that the Supreme has hitherto put forth. The newness, the peculiarity lies in this, that the power which the King wields rests on the death which the King endured From the cross a kingly power goes forth, to heaven above, and hell beneath, and earth around. It is the blood of the Lamb that satisfies God, silences the adversary, and wins a human souL

It was this sovereignty which Jesus desired to obtain and delights to wield. For this hope that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame. He refused to permit himself to be proclaimed King prematurely, because a crown before the cross would not have possessed power to save sinners. When the people were bent on elevating him to the throne of David, he conveyed himself away. When the Greeks sought to be introduced to him before he suffered, he intimated that unless he should die he could not put forth in their behalf the power which they needed — “ Unless a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth alone.” Without the suffering he could not obtain the power to win back and rule a multitude of alienated, condemned creatures; but if he should suffer death according to the covenant with the Father, he would thereby acquire power to ransom and renew a people unto himself manifold as the grains of wheat in the fields of harvest. If the comof wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit. When he made a similar intimation to his disciples, and Peter officiously interposed with, “Far be this from thee, Lord,” he resented Peter’s advice as the suggestion of Satan to subvert his throne.

Thus uniformly and peremptorily did Jesus repudiate a kingdom, until by his suffering he had acquired the right to reign and the power of reigning; but as soon as the cross was planted on Calvary, and his body was nailed to the cross, he permitted the regalia to be displayed above his bleeding brow. For, mark, if he had not permitted it, the thing would not have been done. Expressly on that very day this Jesus had said to Pilate, “ Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” He who so long refused the title of royalty will not let it lie idle when he has accepted it at last. He had not power to act in his new kingdom until he suffered; but now that by suffering he has obtained the power, he will certainly wield it. He is a crowned King now; whatsoever he does as Mediator, he does in a kingly way.

Kiss ye the Son, lest he be angry. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Christ crucified satisfies divine justice, and forgives his people’s sin. In a royal way he cancels the sentence of death, although it was righteously pronounced and recorded. The handwriting that constituted a soul’s death-warrant, duly signed and sealed by the King of righteousness, he wrenches from the executioner’s hand and cancels; but observe, it is by nailing it to his cross that he can blot out that dread handwriting. On the cross the work was finished, — the Father’s work which the Son’ loved to perform. There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The death of Jesus perfects for ever all his own. The truth and the power of God are pledged here. An omnipotent sovereignty shields the disciples of Jesus. “ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” After the manner of a king, the Saviour of sinners speaks. He knows his own power, and we may safely trust it. A half -hesitating faith dishonours the Lord, and mars the happiness of his servant. What pains he took that his work should be complete, and that its completeness might be manifest! There is sovereign power in this shed blood! “ The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son deanseth us from all sin “ — “ Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is Christ that died” — “ I saw in the midst of the throne a Lamb as it had been slain.” Righteous Abel, — that blood of the Sacrifice washed his sin away, and made him just with God. The sprinkled blood on the door-posts kept the Hebrew households safe from the angel of death on the eve of the exodus in Egypt. Let that blood be on my conscience, and I shall be safe from the second death. Christ crucified has all power in heaven and in earth. Count him a King. Treat him as a King.

Confide in the royal power of his sacrifice, — he shields all his own from condemnation. “The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow: “ as the flowers and fruit spring from the living root that spreads darkly under ground, so the blossom of hope here and the fruit of eternal life hereafter, for all Christ’s members, spring from the suffering of Christ in his people’s stead. The dying of the Lord Jesus has a sovereign power to win us to obedience, as well as to shield us from wrath.

It is the power that lies in the cross to which we must look for arresting, controlling, moulding human hearts. Our spirits are not made for yielding to any other kind of power. The forces in nature that have raised the mountains, have no eflScacy to rend a stony heart. The force that shook the jail at Philippi could not have shaken the jailer. God was not in that sense in the earthquake. It was a still, small voice, accompanying or following the shock of nature, that reached and melted the man. “ No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” It is the new kingdom — the kingdom whose throne is occupied by a Lamb as it had been slain, that reaches and leads them captive.

Bear in mind that if you are ever grasped and held for saving, that you may not go down to the pit, it is the power of the dying of Christ that will do it. There is power in the blood that he shed to hold you — and hold you up, when the power which keeps the stars in their courses would fail to arrest your fall. Brother, a power is sent out from heaven, and softly thrown around you, greater than the power that sends angels forth on their errands, and casts the wicked into their own place.

Abandon yourselves to its drawing, and you will be borne safely home. “ I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” But why so few drawn to Jesus — drawn by the power of his dying, whithersoever he will? Yonder ship lying on the water has all her sails spread, and a great steady breeze filling them; yet she moves not. Why?

She is in secret unseen depths touching the earth. She is aground It must be a similar cause — it must be some secret cleaving to the dust that keeps us from being won by Christ, so as to run the way of his commandments.

Saved men, from righteous Abel to the last saved man, are like one long procession marching across the world. The head of the column appeared at the gate of Eden; while the rear rank will pass only before the flame in which the earth shall be burned up. It is one company, and there is no break in the line. The shout of a King is in the camp all through; but the King personally marches neither with the first nor with the last. Jesus is in the midst. But his kingly power — the sovereign sway of his dying, covers the foremost and covers the last, shields the earliest and shields the latest; and gives to all, at the journey’s end, an abundant entrance into the joy of their Lord.

Two lessons at the close hang on two IFS: —

1. If Christ had not died. If his patience had given way when he had wept over Jerusalem, and Jerusalem still laughed him to scorn; if he had dashed the cup from his lips in anger, refusing to drink it for a thankless world; if he had taken the scoffers at their word, on Calvary, and come down from the cross to save himself, — what then?

Ah! the kingdom’s power would have been all employed to cast into outer darkness a wicked world No sacrifice for sin! but a fearful looking for of judgment. He was faithful unto death. “ I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

2. Now that the price is paid and redemption completed; now that Christ crucified is King, and has all power in heaven and in earth; now that the shelter of Omnipotence is spread open towards time, — if any one of us pass over time and across the border into eternity without taking shelter under this sprinkled blood — what then? No more sacrifice for sin; but a fearful looking for of judgment.