When I Survey the Wondrous Cross?

JOSHUA ALEXANDER

“When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of Glory died. My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it Lord that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my Lord. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head His hands His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did ever such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small. Love so amazing so divine, Demands my soul my life my all.” 

Our finite minds are incapable of truly grasping the extent of what happened at the cross of Calvary. All who are accountable have tasted the deadliest poison ever to exist. This poison affects not the physical man but the spiritual. Left untreated, this poison will result in eternal spiritual death. Thanks be to God, the great physician has the antidote. That antidote is His own blood (Mat. 26:28). However, that antidote came at a cost that we as finite beings cannot grasp. The humility on display by Christ, being willing to be the sacrifice we needed, is of the highest form (Phil. 2:5-11).

Take the most lavish and coveted possessions in all the world, multiply their worth by infinity, and they will still be completely worthless in comparison to the price paid at the cross for my soul. My sin has separated me from God (Isa. 59:1-2). All have sinned and come short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). Without a perfect sacrifice to pay the price of sin, we would have no hope (Rom. 5:2). As the song says, “He paid a debt be did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone, to wash my sins away.” The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross gives all of humanity the opportunity to have their sins washed away through the avenue of baptism (Acts 22:16, 1 Pet. 3:21). The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was not an accident, an afterthought, or anything other than the fulfillment of divine prophecy in God’s plan for the salvation of man which was in His mind before the creation of the world (Gen. 3:15, Isa. 53, 1 Pet. 1:9-12, Eph. 1:4, 2 Cor. 4:5-7). 

The beloved disciple John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:7-10).

The cross of Christ was a picture of perfect, sacrificial love. The love that God had for us when he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross, to be the propitiation of our sins. Notice what the apostle Paul told the church in Rome “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Rom. 3:23-25).

Our consideration of the cross of Christ should be a daily occurrence. The apostle Paul told the church in Rome, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). Our bodies are to be a living sacrifice to God to be used for His service. Christianity is not something I do on Sundays, it is a life I live. Let's encourage one another this week to make our faith a part of our daily lives, iron sharpening iron, provoking one another unto love and good works (Proverbs 27:17, Heb. 10:24). A good way to ensure this happens is by taking time this week, and every week, to survey the wondrous cross!