John R.W. Stott - The Cross of Christ
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
1873 William Holman Hunt - The Shadow of Death
Description: The work of a lifetime, from one of the world’s most influential thinkers, about the heart of the Christian faith.
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?”
“Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading us to repentance). Indeed, ‘only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross…may claim his share in its grace.’ Horatius Bonar (1808-89), who has been called the ‘prince of Scottish hymn-writers’, expressed it well:
‘Twas I that shed the sacred blood;
I nailed him to the tree;
I crucified the Christ of God;
I joined the mockery.
Of all that shouting multitude
I feel that I am one;
And in that din of voices rude
I recognize my own.
Around the cross the throng I see,
Mocking the Sufferer’s groan;
Yet still my voice it seems to be,
As if I mocked alone
In my ongoing, ten-year love affair with Mark’s Gospel, I’ve decided to post some of my observations here, verse-by-verse over the next few months. To God be the glory…Mark 1:1 - The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
