The Greatness of the Cross by T. Austin Sparks

The Greatness of the Cross


Reading: 1 Chronicles 29:22; 1 Kings 8:62-63; 2 Chronicles 4:1; 7:1, 4-5, 9; Ephesians 1:6-8; 3:17-19; 5:27.

In those chapters of the book of Chronicles we have already seen Solomon so lavishly and oveflowingly dealt with by God because He had in view One greater than Solomon whom He was seeking to interpret to men by way of illustration; so also in the different records of Solomon’s reign we find the intimation of the greatness of the Cross given by God by the same means of illustration. The great altar, pointing to the Cross, is brought into view, and then in the double connection — the exaltation of the king and the consecration of the house of God — the greatness of the significance of that altar is intimated by the immensity of the sacrifice.

We but glance, in passing, at that double connection of the Cross. Its greatness is seen firstly related to the enthronement of the king. There is a good deal about that in the New Testament — that enthronement, that exaltation being because of that immense work which was accomplished in the Cross.

“. . . obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth” (Phil 2:8-10).

Then secondly we see how the house of God is established upon the greatness of the Cross, and how the Church takes its significance from the Cross. We have read something about that in the Ephesian letter, which has more to do with the Church than any other letter or any other part of the Bible. You find that the very foundations of the Church are in the Cross of the Lord Jesus.

We leave that for the moment, and seek to speak for this time solely about the greatness of the Cross.


MYRIADS OF SACRIFICES UNAVAILING

We are impressed when we read of this sacrifice which was made by Solomon. It is almost bewildering to think of it — battalions upon battalions of oxen! The highways must have been thronged with cattle and with sheep during those days, for there were thousands upon thousands! It does not do to let our imagination dwell upon that! And there must have been literally rivers of blood. It is a terrible picture, and but for the moral support which was found in the meaning and spiritual value of it, I am quite sure the priests, during those days, must have been overwhelmed by the ghastliness of it. They could only have gone through the slaying of those thousands and thousands of oxen, sheep and lambs, with the support given by the realization of what it meant. All that which is beyond our imagination — and we do not want to dwell upon it too much — is indicative in the type of how great is the Cross of the Lord Jesus. It should lead us to think again. If that is a type of the Cross, a type of Christ the Offering for sin, and if it is true that types are always far less than that which they typify, how great must the Cross be! By mere logical deduction, the Cross in the Divine mind must be immense. And yet we are distinctly and definitely told that all that offering in Solomon’s day, both at his enthronement and at the dedication of the temple, and all that had led up to it through many generations from the first recorded sacrifice (the offering of Abel), and every subsequent sacrifice, aggregating millions in number, was unavailing in any sense of finality.

It was unavailing in two ways. First, because it never reached a final end; it had to be repeated again and again. There was no end to this thing. Yes, this morning the sacrifice has been offered, and perhaps for the moment it has secured a kind of ceremonial adjustment to God, an acknowledgment of God which is taken account of by Him; but it has to be repeated this evening, and again tomorrow, and every morning and evening throughout all life; and when life at its longest is finished the thing is not concluded; the next generation must take it up and go on, and then the next.

And in this second and included sense, it was unavailing, in that it never really dealt with conscience; that is, it never rolled the burden of sin from the conscience. It was merely external and ceremonial; it was religion, which, though very thorough going, had really no relatedness to the inner life. “. . . gifts and sacrifices that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect” (Heb 9:9). Positively and definitely it was unavailing.


THE CROSS — ONE OFFERING AVAILING FOR EVER

And look at the immensity of it! I say again that it is overpowering to contemplate all that tremendous offering made by Solomon. But then gather up the generations! Then come to these simple but marvelous statements: “. . . once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9:26); “. . . the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10); “. . . when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12). One offering, and only one! What a work that must be if in one single act it does what all this other, in its immensity through generations, has never been able to accomplish! “By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb 10:14). All the other, it says, could never make the worshippers perfect; but He, by one offering, perfected for ever. What a sacrifice! What a Cross! Twenty and two thousand oxen, and all the thousands of sheep and lambs, yes; but one single offering did it once for all! There is no harm in reiteration, in dwelling upon it, that we may really register the significance of this. One single offering, just one, and all that other is swallowed up!

Why one, and once and for all? Well, surely there is present in the one thing that which was absent in all the others. What was that? Simply the full satisfaction of God in the matter of a perfect nature. Although these animal sacrifices were ceremonially perfect, typically without spot or blemish, actually that related only to the physical side. They were selected sacrifices, which were of a special breed and pedigree, and from which there were absent certain flaws of mixture, but this was merely external. If you got right into the bloodstream you would find the old creation there. Those oxen could fight as well as any others! It was there in the blood, for it was nature, the old creation. Only in a sort of ceremonial way were they perfect. But He — not ceremonially, but actually, intrinsically perfect — offered Himself — not ceremonially, but actually — without spot unto God. In His blood there was no corruption. Somewhere, in the mystery of God, there was a clean cutting in between His inheritance from His earthly mother, and His own Divine nature; the tainted thing was cut off, and in Him there was none of the Adam corruption. “The prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). It was the essential, intrinsic perfection of nature in the one offering which was not found in all the others. That was what God was looking for: a perfect being, a perfect human being, a perfect specimen of creation, one who in essential nature fully satisfied the thought of God in making man. God found that in Him; and that being offered unto God, there need be no more offering. It was once and for all and for ever. It is finished, for God is satisfied. That is the great foundation of our faith; the greatness of the Cross in the light of who it is that is on that Cross; for it is the greatness of Christ which gives the greatness to the Cross.

The greatness of the Cross in such terms is the basis of our salvation, our hope, our justification, our righteousness. Then let us once and for all cease to look for perfection anywhere else, in ourselves or in others, and keep our eyes on the object which satisfies God — the sole and final object of His satisfaction.

We have to see the Cross, then, in those Divine terms, in its four dimensions — breadth and length and height and depth — and until we have so seen it our salvation is still lacking in essential qualities, and we, as saved people, will not be the people that God means us to be.