1. By Christ crucified we have reconciliation with God, remission of sins, and acceptance to eternal life.
  2. We have the peace of God, peace with men, with ourselves, with the creatures.
  3. We recover the right and title which we had in creation to all the creatures and blessings of God.
  4. All afflictions cease to be curses and punishments and become either trials or corrections.
  5. Those who can truly glory in the cross are dead to the world and the world to them.
  6. We are taught to carry ourselves in the world as crucified and dead men, not to love, but to renounce and forsake it.—Perkins.

Glorying in the Cross of Christ.

I. We glory in the doctrine of the cross—the justification of guilty men through a propitiatory sacrifice—because of its antiquity.—It was taught by patriarchs and prophets, the law of sacrifice was its grand hieroglyphical record, the first sacrifices were its types, the first awakened sinner with his load of guilt fell upon this rock and was supported, and by the sacrifice of Christ shall the last sinner saved be raised to glory.

II. Because it forms an important part of the revelation of the New Testament.

III. As affording the only sure ground of confidence to a penitent sinner.

IV. Because of its moral effects.—Not only in the superstitions and idolatries it has destroyed, the barbarous nations it has civilised, the cruel customs it has abrogated, and the kindly influence it has shed upon the laws and manners of nations; but in its moral effect on individuals, producing the most ardent love to God and kindling benevolence towards all—Richard Watson.

The True Glory of the Christian.

I. The disposition of mind denoted by the expressions—“The world is crucified unto me; I am crucified to the world.”—1. The nature of it—a total rupture with the world. 2. The gradations of which it admits. Deadness to avarice and pride—in respect to exertion and actual progress—in respect of hope and fervour. 3. The difficulty, the bitterness, of making a sacrifice so painful.

II. In such a disposition true glory consists.—Comparison between the hero of this world and the Christian hero. The hero derives his glory from the greatness of the master he serves, from the dignity of the persons who have preceded him in the same honourable career, from the brilliancy of his achievements, from the acclamations his exploits excite. How much more the Christian hero!

III. The cross of Christ alone can inspire us with these sentiments.—If we consider it in relation to the atrocious guilt of those who despise it, in relation to the proofs there displayed of Christ’s love, in the proofs it supplies of the doctrine of Christ, and in relation to the glory that shall follow.—Saurin.