The Cross of Power

“He hath poured out His soul unto death.” (Isaiah 53:12)

“On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father.” (John 10:17-18)

God has presented His wisdom and His power in the cross. How does His power come out, not only in the effect of the cross, but in the cross itself! It never shone out so bright. Not the creation of a new heaven and earth could be such an expression of His power as that cross.

That the infinite God, He who is the Almighty God, should have been down here on that cross! That no one less than the God who created all things, who had but to speak and it was done, — that that Almighty God should become a man! What had Almighty God to do there upon that cross between two thieves, tied and bound to it, not by circumstances — the nails could not keep Him there — but by something stronger than all fetters, (1) something that He cannot break through: “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7). The Son of God had become the servant of God. He, the very One by whom God had created all things, there was He, with power to put everything down, fettered, absolutely fettered (2) as servant to the will of God, whose servant He had pledged Himself to be.

Where did God’s power ever shine out as it did there? Not only — I repeat it — the expression of Divine power in the fruits of the cross, but in the cross itself, that cross where He leaves Himself and everything in God’s hands, to turn everything to His own glory. I know nothing like the moral glory shining out in connection with the cross. We hear of moral glory in the actions of different individuals. In Christ it was perfect. Because the power of God brought Him down to weakness, He gives up His spirit in perfect obedience; but God alone could do it. A man’s life is not his own to give; but the Lord could give His life.

God alone has a right to act as He pleases. He had an only Son, of whom He could say, “He is all my delight;” and if He would make that Son the One on whom all His wrath should fall, who could dare to say to God, “What doest Thou?” (Job 9:12). He is God, and He alone had a right to do what He liked and do it how He liked. If He had a plan in connection with that Son, He must have the cooperation of that Son to carry out His plan, and He had it. Christ came to the cross to die there.

--G. V. Wigram, Gleanings, Volume 1.

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(1) Chains
(2) Bound