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“He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:8.

There are many ways to die! By an accident; by the hands of an evil person; on a battlefield or even by our own hands, which some are most foolishly seeking to legalise!

Why was the cross chosen by God as the means by which our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, should die?

It was in the darkness of the night that this matter arose in my mind. In the morning I began a search of my Bible wherever the word ‘cross’ appeared. One needs ever to refresh one’s knowledge of the truths of God. Thus the Psalmist  said of the “blessed man” that “his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night,” Psalm 1.

When I came on my text I saw that my question was wonderfully answered.

I. TO MAKE ATONEMENT FOR THE SINS OF HIS ELECT CHRIST MUST DESCEND TO THE DEPTHS OF HUMILIATION.

1. This was because He had to became as our sin. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Christ on the cross pictures the sinfulness, the gravity of sin, in the sight of God! The humiliation of Christ was of God! It was ‘He’ who heaped humiliation upon the Saviour!

That was because Christ had assumed our sin and became ‘sin’ in the sight of the Father and was therefore treated by Him as such.

2. Sin is the lowest state into which man can sink! Mankind fell by Adam’s transgression and the humiliation of Christ on the cross, when He bore our sin, illustrates how far man fell. Mankind does not feel or know how low they are before God. Self-opinion is always very high! However, the humiliations and sufferings of Christ on the cross indicate and illustrate where sin has brought mankind!

3. When the sinner upon death is committed to everlasting damnation, in truth he has not sunk any further than when he was alive, he is just being committed to that place befitting his dreadful state. When the prisoner is taken from the dock to the prison cell, he does not become more guilty or depraved. He is being confined to that place appropriate to his sinfulness. (more…)

“Now it came to pass after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his stead. And David said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father shewed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. So the servants of David came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him. But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away,” 1 Chronicles 19:1-4.

I am seeking to set forth the parallels in this passage with the kindness of God toward sinners, displayed in the Gospel message sent to those who “were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,” Romans 5:6.

We have considered the greatness of the King, even the Lord, who sent the Gospel condolences and the spurning of the kindness by those to whom the expression of love was sent.

The chief manifestation of the rejecting of the Gospel is the humiliating of God’s servants.

History tells a sad and horrific tale of the sufferings of the servants of the true God.

Mention is made of this byPaul in his epistle to the Hebrews.

“And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth,” Hebrews 11:36-38.

The ‘Dark Ages’ was a time of great persecution of the people of God. The Roman Catholic Church is stained with the blood of many tens of thousands of men, women and children, whom it deemed were only worthy of destruction.

God has appointed a day when their blood will be avenged! Heaven will sing on that day! The hurting of His servants is counted by Him as a hurting of Him. (more…)