The Glad Tidings

by E. J. Waggoner

Christ, “in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death,” “was heard in that He feared.” Heb. 5:7. But He died! Yes; but no one took His life from Him; He laid it down, that He might take it again. John 10:17, 18. The pangs of death were loosed, “because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Acts 2:24. Why was it not possible for death to hold Him, even though He voluntarily put Himself in its power?—Because He “knew no sin;” He took sin upon Himself, but was saved from its power. He was “in all things” “made like unto His brethren,” “in all points tempted like as we are” (Heb: 2:17; 4:15), and since He could of Himself do nothing (John 5:30), He prayed to the Father to keep Him from being overcome and thereby falling under the power of death. And He was heard. In His case these words were fulfilled: “The Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me?” Isa. 50:7, 8.

Whose sin was it that thus oppressed Him, and from which He was delivered?—Not His own, for He had none. It was your sin and mine. Our sins have already been overcome—vanquished. We have to fight only with an already defeated foe. When you come to God “in the name of Jesus,” having surrendered yourself to His death and life, so that you do not bear His name in vain, because Christ liveth in you, you have only to remember that every sin was on Him, and is still on Him, and that He is the conqueror, and straightway you will say, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Cor. 2:14.

The Revelation of the Cross.

In Gal. 3:13 we are brought back to the subject presented in Gal. 2:20 and 3:1,—the ever-present cross. The subject is inexhaustible, but the following few facts may serve to open it up to our minds:—

1. The redemption from sin and death is accomplished through the cross. Gal. 3:13.

2. The Gospel is all contained in the cross; for the Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16), and “unto us which are saved” the cross of Christ “is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

3. Christ is revealed to fallen men only as the Crucified and risen One. There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby salvation may be obtained (Acts 4:12), and, therefore, it is all that God sets forth before men, since He does not wish to confuse them. “Christ and Him crucified,” is all that Paul wished to know; it is all that any man needs to know. Thus the one thing that men need is salvation; if they get that, they get all things; but salvation is found only in the cross of Christ; therefore, God puts before the eyes of men nothing else: He gives them just what they need. Jesus Christ is by God set forth openly crucified before the eyes of every man, so that there is no excuse for any to be lost, or to continue in sin.

4. Christ is set forth before men only as the crucified Redeemer; and since that from which men need to be saved is the curse, He is set forth as bearing the curse. Wherever there is any curse, there is Christ bearing it. We have already seen that Christ bore, and still bears, our curse, in that He bears our sin. He also bears the curse of the earth itself, for He bore the crown of thorns, and the curse pronounced on the earth was, “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth.” Gen. 3:18. So the whole creation, which now groans under the curse, has been redeemed through the cross of Christ. Rom. 8:19-23.

5. It is only on the cross that Christ bears the curse, for His being made a curse for us was indicated by His hanging on the cross. The cross is the symbol of the curse, but also of deliverance from the curse, since it is the cross of Christ, the Conqueror and Deliverer. The very curse itself, therefore, presents the cross, and proclaims our deliverance.

6. Where is the curse? Ah, where is it not? The blindest can see it, if he will but acknowledge the evidence of his own senses. Imperfection is a curse, yea, that is the curse; and imperfection is on everything connected with this earth. Man is imperfect, and even the finest plant that grows from the earth is not as perfect as it might be. There is nothing that meets the eye that does not show the possibility of improvement, even if our untrained eyes can not see the absolute necessity of it. When God made the earth, everything was “very good,” or, as the Hebrew idiom has it, “good exceedingly.” God Himself could see no chance, no possibility, for improvement. But now it is different. The gardener spends his thought and labor trying to improve the fruits and flowers under his care. And since the best that the earth produces reveals the curse, what need be said of the gnarled, stunted growths, the withered and blasted buds and leaves and fruits, and the noxious, poisonous weeds? Everywhere “hath the curse devoured the earth.” Isa. 24:6.