April 25
He Reigned From the Tree
In the Hour of Silence“Unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”—1 Corinthians 1:18.
THE Cross—the Power of God! What a paradox, what a folly, what an impossibility it seemed to Jewish religiousness and to Greek wisdom! But simple faith understands the mystery well.
The Cross shows me a God who clothes Himself with absolute humility. He bends to this sharpest sorrow and this darkest shame. And whereas my proud spirit would only rebel against a King all majestic, all happy, all untouched by poverty and grief and disgrace, I am subdued and vanquished by One who comes to me in so lowly a guise. The Sufferer and the Saviour prevails where the Sovereign must have failed.
And the Cross shows me a God who meets and discharges the awful demands of law. The divine law hates my sin, and has righteously condemned me to die because of it. I cannot answer it for one out of a thousand of my transgressions. But my Lord, whose mouthpiece it is, fulfils its commands and bears its penalty in my place. And this is all I need; this fetters and enthrals me in glad bondage to my Redeemer.
And the Cross shows me a God who loves me without stint. Many waters cannot quench His love; the floods cannot drown it. He knows from the beginning the end, so bitter and so shameful—the agony in the Garden, the desolation on the Tree; and yet He cares for me so passionately that He steadfastly sets His face towards this end. My heart of stone is melted thus, and I am led in willing captivity.
So the Cross, to me who am being saved by it, is indeed the very power of the Most High God.