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The Cross Interprets Man’s Heart

Matthew 27:31

Oh, what a revelation of man the cross is! — Man hating God, and hating him most when God displayed his love most fully. — Man acting like the devil, taking Satan’s side against God. Yes, the cross was a public declaration of man’s hatred for God and his Son. The cross is proud man spitting in God’s face and saying, “I am holy. I need no Savior. To hell with God and his Son!” Our Savior asked, “What think ye of Christ?” Man’s answer was, “Crucify Him!” Man’s heart, his hands, his tongue all combine to scream out hatred for God and his Son. Everything I see in man on Calvary’s hill is hatred, utter hatred for God, the hatred of the human race toward the triune God.

Deep Hatred

How deep, bitter, universal, and vile is the hatred of the human heart for God! Oh, how fallen man hates God! We see it in the priests and the scribes. We see it in the soldiers and the people. Hatred echoed through Pilate’s judgment hall. Malice rang in Herod’s court. Envy was the motive behind every word and deed performed on that infamous night by wicked men. The arrest, the scourging, the mockery, the spitting, the smiting, the cries, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”, the wagging the heads, the drunken songs, the nailing, the thieves’ railing, everything was but the outpouring of man’s utter hatred for God. Here we see what is in every human heart by nature. The heart of man is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). Man declared his heart in the crucifixion of God’s darling Son. Here is fallen man showing himself openly, making an unconscious confession of his hatred of God. It was man who erected the cross and nailed the Son of God to it. God gave the wild ass’s colt his reins and seems to have said, “Vent the feelings of your heart.” And he did, taking God by the throat, as it were, man snatched the only begotten Son of God from his Father’s heart and crucified him with hellish delight.

“Crucify Him”

Reckoning the death of the cross the worst of all deaths, man says, “This is the best way to show my contempt for God. This is exactly what I think of the Son of God.” Thus, the enmity of the natural heart speaks out, and man not only confesses publicly that he is a hater of God, but he takes pains to show the intensity of his hatred. He glories in his shame, crying aloud, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The cross interprets what is in man’s heart. The cross rips the mask of pretended religion off of the face of our race. The cross of Christ exhibits man’s heart as a cesspool overflowing with the malignity of hell. Will you dare look at your hands? They are red, dripping with blood! Whose blood is that? It is the blood of God’s own Son! Blood you shed continually in your heart, because you hate God, because you really want to be God yourself! That is what your unbelief is: hatred for God and his Son (1 John 1:7-10; 5:10).

Don Fortner

Pastor Fortner’s