The Cross: A Tract for the TimesRyle, J. C. (John Charles)
Religion
The Cross: A Tract for the Times
Ryle, J. C. (John Charles)
Atonement
Would I know the _fulness and completeness of the salvation_ God has
provided for sinners? Where shall I see it most distinctly? Shall I go
to the general declarations in the Bible about God’s mercy? Shall I rest
in the general truth that God is a God of love? Oh! no! I will look at
the cross of Christ. I find no evidence like that. I find no balm for a
sore conscience, and a troubled heart, like the sight of Jesus dying for
me on the accursed tree. There I see that a full payment has been made
for all my enormous debts. The curse of that law which I have broken has
come down on One who there suffered in my stead. The demands of that law
are all satisfied. Payment has been made for me, even to the uttermost
farthing. It will not be required twice over. Ah! I might sometimes
imagine I was too bad to be forgiven. My own heart sometimes whispers
that I am too wicked to be saved. But I know in my better moments this
is all my foolish unbelief. I read an answer to my doubts in the blood
shed on Calvary. I feel sure that there is a way to heaven for the very
vilest of men, when I look at the cross.
Would I find strong _reasons for being a holy man_? Whither shall I turn
for them? Shall I listen to the ten commandments merely? Shall I study
the examples given me in the Bible of what grace can do? Shall I
meditate on the rewards of heaven, and the punishments of hell? Is there
no stronger motive still? Yes! I will look at the cross of Christ.
There I see the love of Christ constraining me to live not unto myself,
but unto Him. There I see that I am not my own now;—I am bought with a
price. I am bound by the most solemn obligations to glorify Jesus with
body and spirit, which are His. There I see that Jesus gave Himself for
me, not only to redeem me from all iniquity, but also to purify me and
make me one of a peculiar people, zealous of good works. He bore my sins
in His own body on the tree, that I being dead unto sin should live unto
righteousness. Ah! reader, there is nothing so sanctifying as a clear
view of the cross of Christ! It crucifies the world unto us, and us unto
the world. How can we love sin when we remember that because of our sins
Jesus died? Surely none ought to be so holy as the disciples of a
crucified Lord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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