“We
preach Christ crucified!”
I say with the inspired Apostle, “We preach Christ crucified.”
Man’s approval or disapproval, changing circumstances and times, religious fads
and feuds have absolutely nothing to do with our message. All who are sent of
God to preach the gospel see eye to eye in this matter. Our God has sent us to
preach the crucified Christ to poor, needy sinners, assuring us that this
gospel of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” is the power of God unto
salvation. Yet, religious leaders everywhere are quickly and easily turned from
this message to another to the everlasting ruin of men’s souls.
Our Singular Message
Christ crucified is the message God has sent us to proclaim. I
have no other message. I own no other creed. Christ crucified is the sum and
substance of my doctrine. There is no point in the life and experience of God’s
elect (before or after conversion) when they cease to need the gospel
Therefore, we always point them to the cross of Christ and seek to make manifest
the redemptive glory of our crucified Lord. Let no one misunderstand. We do not
and must not neglect any other aspect of revealed truth; but all revealed truth
has one message. That singular message is “Christ crucified.”
Second Coming
Multitudes delude themselves by the excited study of eschatology.
We rejoice to know that Christ is coming again in power and great glory. All
who know God know that and rejoice in the hope of our Lord’s second advent.
However, it is not our Lord’s second advent that justified us, but his first.
We believe in and proclaim Christ’s burial, resurrection, ascension and
exaltation; but we do not find the blessed peace of justification in these
things. Our Lord’s resurrection and glory are the pledge, the declaration of
justification accomplished, but not the accomplishment of our justification. “He
was delivered for (because of) our offenses, and raised again for (because
of) our justification. Therefore being justified, by faith we have peace
with God.”
The Power of His Resurrection
"The power of His resurrection" (Phil 3:10) has
nothing to do with atonement, forgiveness, or reconciliation. "The power of His resurrection"
speaks of our being renewed in the spirit of our minds, to our being "begotten
again unto a living hope, by the resurrection from the dead" (1 Pet
1:3). "The power of His resurrection" refers to grace wrought
in us, not to justification. Justification is the work of God accomplished by
our Savior’s death, wholly outside ourselves. We are not justified by imparted,
or infused, righteousness, but by imputed righteousness.
The Blood
It is the blood of Christ that justified us (Rom 5:9). It is the
blood that pacifies the conscience, purging it from dead works to serve the
living God (Heb 9:14). It is the blood that gives us boldness to enter through
the veil into the holiest and go up to the sprinkled mercy-seat It is the blood
that we are to drink for the quenching of our souls’ thirst (John 6:55). It is
the blood by which we have peace with God (Col 1:20). It is the blood through
which we have redemption (Eph 1:7), and by which we are brought nigh (Eph
2:13), by which we are sanctified (Heb 13:12). It is the blood which is the
seal of the everlasting covenant (Heb 13:20). It is the blood which cleanses (1
John 1:7), which gives us victory (Rev 12:11), and with which we have communion
in the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 10:16). It is the blood which is the purchase-money
or ransom of our souls (Acts 20:28).
Amen.