The eternal state of men is decided by their character.
The Scriptures teach us, that in the day of judgment, God "will render to
every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in
well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;" while to
"those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness," he will render "indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish." Every good man will then receive the rewards of heaven, and every
wicked man will be condemned to the pains of hell. "The hour is coming, in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come
forth; those who have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and those
who have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." With the exception
of those who die in infancy, therefore, all have the opportunity of forming
the character by which their eternal state is to be determined. Nor is there
anything that exerts so powerful an influence in forming the characters of
men as the cross of Christ. To some, it is the savor of life unto life; to
others, the savor of death unto death. To some, the Savior is the object of
interest, of love, of confidence, and of glorying; to others, he is the
object of indifference, and then of hostility, of distrust; and they turn
away their faces from him for very shame. "The preaching of the cross is to
those who perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the wisdom
of God, and the power of God." The cross is the great test of character.
This is a very plain truth, and needs illustration rather than proof.
I begin this illustration by remarking, that the cross
presents a vivid manifestation of those excellences of the Divine character
to which all wicked men are hostile, and in which all good men have high
complacency. We have already contemplated the truth that the glory of God
shines in the face of Jesus Christ. All the perfections of the Divine nature
there appear in the greatest fullness, richness, and splendor, in which they
ever have been, or ever will be, revealed to men. No principle in the moral
constitution of men is more obvious, than that those objects which they most
hate are most hated when most clearly seen; and those which they love, when
most clearly seen are loved the most. Wicked men there are who are slow to
believe that they are the enemies of God, because they have not deep
impressions of his being, nor just conceptions of his character; nor do they
always admit the thought, that he is so holy that he cannot look on sin, and
so just that he will by no means clear the guilty. And good men there are
who doubt their love to him, because they do not always enjoy the light of
his countenance, nor behold his beauty as they have sometimes seen it. The
cross brings God near to both. Wicked men may see the low estimation in
which they hold the God of heaven, by the contempt with which they regard
the method of salvation by his Son; and good men may discover the high
esteem they cherish for him, by the high regard they pay to him, when, in
the person of his Son, they discover him to be glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders. Very few men in the world look upon themselves as
such enemies of God as to refuse to be reconciled to him on any terms; nor
is it until they discover their hostility to the terms of mercy proposed in
the gospel, that they have a practical demonstration that their enmity is
vigorous and unrelenting. Very many good men know not how much they love
God, until they enjoy those refreshing and repeated views of his loveliness
which are so often imparted to them as they gather round the cross. Wicked
men, who enjoy the faithful preaching of the gospel, have a fair trial of
what is in their hearts; for the cross is continually disturbing them, and
sometimes excites their enmity almost to madness. They are often led to see,
when contemplating the truths of the cross, that they not only have not the
love of God in them, but cherish a deeply-rooted aversion to his character,
and give way to blasphemous thoughts, if not to thoughts of malice, against
the Holy One of Israel. They have no desire to exalt God, or to see him
exalted. The principal reason why they do not fall in with the method of
mercy by the cross is, that it brings glory to God in the highest. While
good men, on the other hand, have the same trial of their hearts, by the
same gospel; and it brings out and shows their love, their delight in God,
their gratified and grateful love. The cross does not repel their hearts,
but attracts them—attracts them to God their supreme good and joy; and if
there be a thought that gives more value to the cross than any other, it is
that it secures the highest glory to God, while it announces peace on earth
and good-will to men. The only reason why wicked men continue to reject the
cross is, that they are enemies to God; and it is because good men are his
friends that they accept it. There is no surer test of character, and no
greater proof that a man is the enemy of God, than that he is a despiser of
the cross; and there is no greater proof than attachment to the cross, of
honest and supreme attachment to the God of heaven.
There is another fact in relation to the cross, which
shows that it is a test of character. It establishes claims which wicked men
are not disposed to admit, and in which good men cheerfully acquiesce. One
great object of the death of Christ was to enforce the claims of the Divine
law and government, and give its sanction to the Divine authority over the
consciences of men. Not one principle of the Divine government is yielded by
this method of salvation, but every principle of it vindicated and
magnified. It is no compromise between the Lawgiver and his rebellious
subjects, but a method of mercy in which the majesty of the law is
protected, and emphasis and efficacy given to the immutable authority of the
great Creator and Governor of men. This is one reason why wicked men are not
pleased, and why good men are pleased with the cross of Christ. It proclaims
to those who God is their owner; and it is a claim which the wicked resist,
and in which the righteous rejoice. It proclaims to those who he is their
Lawgiver, and requires their constant obedience and their whole hearts; and
while the wicked complain of these requisitions, the righteous regard them
as holy, just and good. The wicked are restive under this omnipotent
authority, but the righteous submit to it. The wicked try all in their power
to break loose from God, and to throw off the hallowed influence of the
cross; while the righteous press these obligations to their bosoms, and feel
inwardly thankful that there is a power in the cross to bow their wills to
the Supreme Governor. The language of the wicked, in view of the cross, is,
"Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of your ways:" the language
of the righteous is, "It is good for me to draw near unto God." The language
of the wicked is, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" the
language of the righteous is, "I will delight myself in your statutes; I
will not forget your word." The language of the wicked is, "We will not have
this man to reign over us:" the language of the righteous is, "The Lord
reigns; let the earth rejoice!" Wicked men indulge the pride of human
intellect, and the still more inflated pride of the human heart, in
reasoning against the claims of the cross they even boldly affirm, that such
is their dependence on God, that they are not under obligations to become
Christians, and if they never become so, the fault will not be theirs;
while, on the other hand, good men adore that sovereign grace which makes
them "willing in the day of His power," and more and more, as long as they
live, wonder why this great salvation is thus revealed unto babes, while it
is hidden from the wise and prudent. Wicked men practically treat the claims
of the cross on their faith and obedience very differently from the way in
which they are treated by good men—the more clearly, the more tenderly, and
the more urgently they are enforced, the greater rigor and point do they
give to their resistance; while the conduct of good men shows, that the more
clearly they are taught these claims, and the more powerfully they are
enforced, the more do they honor them. The truths of the cross, and its
wonderful mercy, and its consequent authority, were designed to bring the
great subject of controversy between God and men within a narrow compass,
and to an obvious issue; and those who do not fall in with them, fall out
with them with all their hearts. The cross is a standing memorial to the
universe, that God is right, and that men are wrong; and therefore the
righteous are its friends, and the wicked are its enemies. It decides the
question in favor of truth and righteousness; and hence, the friends of
truth, of righteousness, range themselves on the side of it, while against
it are ranged the enemies of both. There is no difficulty, even by the
lights of nature, and reason, and conscience, in seeing that, in their
contest for supremacy, God is right and the sinner is wrong; much less is
there any difficulty in seeing this, under the stronger lights of gospel
truth and mercy. Here all the obscurity thrown around the question, by the
pride and obduracy of the human heart, is dissipated. Every man that looks
intelligently at the cross of Christ, must see that the claims of the God of
heaven are just such as they ought to be; just such as all men ought
cordially and cheerfully to acknowledge; and just such, that the cordial and
practical recognition of them decides their character. It is not easy for
them to have just views of their own character, until they see for
themselves how they treat the cross of Christ. Here the thoughts of many
hearts are revealed, and the child that was born proves the falling and the
rising again of many. The children of God always most clearly discover their
filial and obedient spirit when nearest the cross; and bad men, if once
awakened from their indifference and stupidity, and brought near the cross,
will be at no loss to see that they have a spirit within those who is not
subject to the Sovereign of the Universe. Here the obligations to piety come
down upon them with such force, that if they are resisted, the evidence is
painfully convincing, producing overwhelming solicitude and distress,
because they are "without God in the world."
Another fact which shows that the cross is a test of
character is, that it implies allegations of sinfulness and ill-desert which
the wicked deny, but which the righteous humbly acknowledge. The cross
speaks a language in relation to the sinfulness and ill-desert of men which
cannot be misunderstood. "If one died for all, then were all dead." "If they
do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" The
doctrine of salvation by the cross, is the doctrine of ruin by sin. We find
the only cause of the cross in the hopeless state of man without it. That
mighty movement in the government of God is the highest proof that man was
sunk so low in guilt and perdition, that no finite remedy was adequate to
his deliverance. The greatness and malignity of the disease are discoverable
in the Divine nature and wonderful method of the cure. When we see the
Eternal Son of God smitten by the sword of justice, and in the room and
place of man, we no longer doubt that man is vile, and that he deserves that
wrath of God, which, if endured in his own person, would sink him to
perdition. This is the reason why wicked men are so unwilling to look at the
cross, and why good men desire, with angels, to look into the combined
mysteries of its justice and its grace. This is the reason wicked men deny a
Divine Savior and a Divine atonement, and comfort themselves with the
thought, that inasmuch as their Savior is human and his death has none of
the properties of an expiatory sacrifice, their sins are neither many nor
great, and deserve no such punishment as the eternal curse of a violated
law. It is a just conclusion from false premises, and only shows how
repulsive a lesson the cross reads to a mind that does not submit to the
humbling conviction of its own sinfulness and ill-desert. Good men have been
taught to feel that they have broken the law of God, impugned the rights of
his holy government, despised his authority, and ruined their own souls.
They are willing to feel the force of this conviction, and desire to feel it
yet more deeply. Wicked men are not willing to submit to it, but resist it
as long as they are able. Good men look not on sin as a trifle; they have no
excuse for it, and urge no palliation. Bad men look upon it in a very
different light, and excuse and palliate it as a small affair. Good men are
sensible that they deserve to suffer all that God threatens—that they have
done things worthy of death—and prostrate themselves at the footstool of
sovereign grace, reigning through righteousness by our Lord Jesus Christ;
while wicked men reject that grace, because they are not convinced of their
ill-desert, and do not feel that the sentence of condemnation gone out
against then is right and just. Good men feel that there would be no cause
of complaint against God, should he execute the penalty of his law; wicked
men complain that he is a hard master and a severe judge. Good men wonder
how he can save; wicked men do not see why he should destroy. Good men
cherish the convictions of their vileness and ill-desert; wicked men
suppress and stifle them. Good men feel alarmed and suspicious of the state
of their own minds, when they lose sight of their own sinfulness; wicked men
feel a load thrown off from their consciences, and live at ease and in
security, when they can forget it. Good men feel ashamed and humbled before
God, and the more so that "he is pacified towards them;" while wicked men
remain hardened in their pride. This is one reason why these two different
classes of men regard the cross with widely different emotions. It discloses
their true character. It detects the deceptions of the wicked, and discovers
the honesty of the righteous. The cross is the proof of human guilt
inscribed in blood, which can never be erased from the records of the
universe; and which, wherever it is seen, and as long as it is remembered,
enforces the truth, that the sinner deserves to die.
The cross is also a test of character, inasmuch as it
rejects the confidences on which wicked men rely, and which good men have
been taught to renounce. Wicked men often suffer under the struggles of
natural conscience, and the convincing power of the Holy Spirit. They have
some partial view of their sins and their danger, especially in the
contemplation of their overt and more gross transgressions. At such seasons
they always have recourse to sources of confidence which the cross condemns.
They are very apt to compound with God, by proposing that their debts to his
justice should be liquidated by paying a part of them. They are willing to
give up one sin for the sake of indulging another; or to pay a part of the
debt themselves, and, to draw for the balance, upon the merits of Christ.
Some concessions they are willing to make; but God must come to some terms
of agreement with them, and make some abatement from his original and
rightful claims. They persuade themselves that they are able to make some
amends for their transgressions by works of righteousness which they have
done, or purpose to perform, rather than, after all they have done, and the
best they can do, come to the cross just as they are, and accept the
salvation of the gospel as the chief of sinners. They think highly of their
moral conduct and outward observance of the duties of religion, and at heart
feel that they give them a sort of claim upon the Divine mercy. They are
offended with the cross because it frowns upon all such sources of
confidence, and requires them, however blameless their outward morality, and
however exact and punctilious their forms of religion, to renounce them all,
and place all their confidence and hope in its own complete and entire
redemption. They feel it to be a hardship that they are allowed to do
nothing to merit salvation, or at least that they may not do something to
induce God to show them mercy. "Being ignorant of God's righteousness, and
going about to establish their own righteousness," they refuse to submit
"themselves to God's righteousness," as revealed in the gospel of his Son.
They think to purchase what God freely gives, and by such fancied
equivalents as are abomination in his sight, and which, even were they less
abominable, were no equivalent at all. This is one of the ways of
compounding with God, and of rejecting the cross, which, while it has been
reduced to a system by the church of Rome, nevertheless finds a place in
every natural heart. Men are all Romanists by nature, because they are all
by nature the enemies of the cross of Christ. But this whole doctrine of
human merit, whether found in the systems of Rome, or more covertly
cherished in the bosom of the self-righteous Protestant, is altogether
derogatory to the merit and sufficiency of the Savior's satisfaction. It
were strange to call that forgiveness, which men procure, either in whole or
in part, by their own merit; or to ascribe all the glory to the cross, when
men themselves "have whereof to glory." Just the opposite of all this, are
the views and affections of the real Christian. He looks upon the work of
Christ alone as furnishing the grounds and causes of his justification, and
attributes the forgiveness of sins, and restoration to the Divine favor and
eternal life, exclusively to the meritorious obedience and atoning death of
the cross. A godly man, and one who is truly humble, and of a contrite
heart, resorts to nothing else. He renounces every other confidence; places
his sole dependence upon Jesus Christ; glories in him as the "Lord his
righteousness;" looks to him for the supply of his every want; and finds his
love and grace a stimulus to every duty, support under trial, and the
progressive mortification of indwelling sin. His conscience is pacified, and
he has the inward sense of pardoning mercy, only from the blood of the
cross. Under the consciousness of his daily infirmities, his resource is the
same with that to which he first repaired, as a penitent sinner, under the
conviction of his dreadful and aggravated guilt. He has but this one hope,
that Jesus Christ "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him;" he has but this confidence, that "the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanses us from all sin;" he has but this cleansing, that he has washed
his "robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;" and he has but
this song, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own
blood—to Him be glory and dominion forever!" And thus the cross puts to the
test the characters of men by rejecting the confidences on which the wicked
rely, and which the righteous renounce; and because, while it shows that
there is a class of men who have fled for refuge to lay hold "of the hope
set before them," who have renounced all dependence on their holier
services, and yet have found "joy and peace in believing," and living "by
the faith of the Son of God," it at the same time not less certainly
indicates a class of men who are thankless for this grace, who, by the
unhallowed addition of other confidences, are guilty of the sacrilegious
impeachment of the merit and sufficiency of him who was crucified.
Nor is the cross less a test of character also, in that
it reveals a happiness, which is very differently suited to the taste of
men, as they themselves are holy or unholy. The characters of men are
decided by those things, in the pursuit and enjoyment of which they find
their highest happiness. There is a spiritual relish and taste in the heart
of every good man, that finds its gratification in objects that God
approves; and there is a sinful relish and taste in the heart of every
wicked man that finds its gratification in objects that God condemns. There
is a natural taste, common both to the righteous and the wicked, which has
no moral character, and by which they enjoy the beauty of natural objects,
and are gratified in the contemplation of a finished composition, a splendid
poem, an elegant garb, a polished demeanor, a fine painting, or an exquisite
piece of music; and there is a moral taste, which renders men sensible to
the beauties of holiness, to the excellence of God's word, to the pleasures
of religion, to the glory of the cross, and to the blessedness of heaven. To
some people, these things have the strongest attractions, and, in their
view, possess the greatest loveliness; while to others, they have no
attractions at all, and are viewed with indifference, if not with disgust.
It is not a blind instinct for which neither of these classes of men can
specify any sufficient cause; but consists in those moral principles and
affections which, in a good man, are the result of renewing grace, and are
cherished by the frequent contemplation of spiritual things, and which in a
wicked man are the result of his native sinfulness, and are strengthened by
his familiarity with things that are unspiritual and evil. Now the cross is
a sure and infallible test both of this spiritual and unspiritual character.
It touches a string to which every holy heart vibrates, and to which every
unholy one is discordant. It presents sources of happiness that are
attractive to the former, and to the latter repulsive. The sources of
happiness which the cross reveals, are spiritual. They are the discovery of
God, and the enjoyment of God, in everything—in his works, in his
providence, and in his word. They are those exercises of genuine piety
themselves, which are the fruit of the Spirit. They are God's word and
ordinances; the praise, the prayer, the communion and fellowship which he
has established in his church, and where his people sit at his feet and
behold his glory. They are the duties which God requires, rendering the ways
of wisdom pleasantness and all her paths peace; neither burdening the
conscience by inward remorse, nor dishonoring the character by the blush of
shame. They are the high ambition of living to some good purpose in the
world; of living, not to self, but to Him who died for us, and laboring to
be accepted of him. They are in aiming at the highest end at which a
creature can aim—"to glorify God and enjoy him forever." They are even in
the very trials to which the Christian is ordained; because they are for the
trial of his faith, and that he may learn what and where is his stronghold
in the day of trouble, and find, by his own experience, that "all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose." They are in retrospect and in anticipation—in
retrospect, as he looks back upon all the way in which the Lord has led him,
and with every recollected step and incident, magnifying the grace and
faithfulness of his Father who is in heaven; and in anticipation, as he
looks forward to victory over the foe, even to sin, death and the grave.
They are the hopes and blessed assurances which the cross imparts, of the
hour when, through Him who is the resurrection and the life, "death shall be
swallowed up in victory," and he shall possess "salvation with eternal
glory." They are the life and immortality brought to light in the gospel;
the heaven where God dwells, where Jesus reigns, where all the holy tribes
are assembled, where the inhabitant shall no more say, "I am sick;" where
sin shall never enter, and where all tears shall be wiped from every eye.
Such is the blessedness which the cross discloses, and of which every holy
mind has a quick discernment, and delicacy and readiness of perception, a
faculty of enjoyment, not only unknown to the unholy, but from which they
instinctively revolt. They have no power of receiving pleasure from such
objects and pursuits. They scarcely excite their attention, for they have no
disposition that is congenial with their nature. They cannot enter into
them; they are not suited to their taste. Their joys are elsewhere. They are
not found at the cross, but are crucified there, because there the world is
crucified to them, and they to the world.
Let the reader then try his own character, by bringing it
to the test of the cross. "What think you of Christ?" As you think of him,
so you think of God; so will your views of yourselves be in accordance with
his word, or in opposition to it; and so will you think and feel toward his
kingdom in the world, and your own duty toward death and heaven. The cross
is the great test. God designed it to be so, and so it has proved in every
age of the world. The nations that have received it have been favored of
God, while those who have rejected it have perished from the way, though his
wrath has been "kindled but a little." The individuals who have gloried in
it now live and reign with their once crucified Lord, while those to whom it
has been "a rock of offence" have stumbled over it into perdition. Capernaum
perished for her rejection of Christ; Chorazin and Bethsaida perished for
their rejection of Christ. For many a long century, the Jews have been given
over to blindness and perdition, for their rejection of Christ. Nor is there
any difference between Jew and Greek; be he Jew or Gentile, "he that
believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides in
him." God sent his Son into the world, to try the characters of men. That
Son of Mary has been set forth crucified, and his cross has been lifted up
before your eyes, in order to ascertain, and to give you, and the world, and
the universe the opportunity of ascertaining, your true character.
Nor may it be forgotten, that it is impossible for you to
be indifferent to the cross of Christ. No truth is more common or more
obvious than this, or more clearly taught throughout the gospel, or that
more certainly results from the whole system of its doctrines. The world is
full of those who are not with Christ. They take no interest in the truths
of the gospel, nor in the great concerns of his kingdom. They can scarcely
be said to know what they are, nor do they care to know. But this is
something more than absolute indifference. Men are too much the creatures of
feeling and sensibility, to regard such an object as the cross with perfect
apathy. The character and interests are too much affected by it, for time
and eternity, for them to contemplate it with an empty and barren
neutrality. What seems to be their indifference toward it, shows that it is
a stumbling-block to their proud and selfish minds—though unavowedly, yet
are they secretly hostile to its claims. Refusing to love Jesus Christ is
something more than neutrality. It is disobedience; it is rebellion. It may
not be open war; but it contains all the seeds and principles of opposition
and outrage. It is secret alienation to the character of the blessed Savior,
to his doctrines, his government, and gospel. Nor does it require much to
awaken and call it into action. It is an equanimity that is easily
disturbed, and changed to open hostility. Sooner or later, all such people
will be brought to feel that they can no longer shut themselves up in cold
indifference and neutrality. They will be pressed to decide one way or the
other; and because they are not for the cross, they will have reached the
point where their neutrality terminates, and be found against it.
Nor ought the opposite phase of this truth to be
overlooked. "He that is not against us," says that same Savior, "is on our
part." The cross is not the standard of a party, but of Christianity; it is
not the badge of the exclusive few, but of the whole regenerated and
Christian world. I bless God, that however much men may differ in other
things, if they do not fall out with the cross, they are Christians. The
cross has attractions powerful enough to draw and bind good men together of
every name. We may not condemn men who "follow not us," so long as they
follow the cross. If they at heart believe in Christ, if they are doing his
work, if they are fighting under his banner, and for the cause and truth of
the Savior, and the extension of his kingdom in the world, they are most
surely not his enemies. No department of Christ's kingdom is without its
imperfections; and if his professed followers are judged by these, that
charity which "hopes all things" will have little scope for some of its most
heaven-born exercises. Amid all the multitude of his professed followers,
the Son of God would be found alone, if none were recognized as his
disciples save those who are faultless. God is more charitable than man,
because he is more holy. The more of the true spirit of Christ we ourselves
possess, the more cautious and reluctant shall we be to deny that spirit to
others. We may have an honest conviction and decided preference for our own
peculiarities, and so many others have the same conviction and preference
for their peculiarities; while both they and we should rejoice more
abundantly in those great peculiarities of the gospel, that are common to
all the followers of the Lamb. I look with great solicitude on the spiritual
condition of those who feel at liberty to set themselves up as a perfect and
complete model to all other churches, and who can allow themselves to say,
or even to feel, that there is no such thing as belonging to Jesus Christ
out of their own communion. I know of few greater errors, either in doctrine
or practice, than this unchurching system. Many a name will be found written
in the Lamb's book of life, that is not recorded on their church register.
It is not necessary to be associated either with them, or with us, in order
to be associated with Christ. It is not their name, or ours, that men must
confess, but the name of Christ.
Let me close this chapter with one more thought. The
fault is not in the cross, if any of my readers should finally perish. The
fault will be somewhere. "The curse causeless does not come." And it will be
a tremendous fault, that issues in the everlasting perdition of the soul. It
will be guilt that the ocean of eternity cannot wash away, nor its fires
burn out. It will not be the fault of the cross. No, never! The cross has no
such responsibility. The fault is in those who reject it. And let those
whose character does not bear the test of the cross, think a moment what a
sin it is to reject Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost,
and who drank the bitter cup that they might not drink it! O you who neglect
this great salvation! this is the sin which lies at your door. Do not repel
the charge. Your own consciences are witnesses against you. Your heart does
not beat for Jesus Christ. The fault is yours—it is yours who reject the
cross—it will forever be yours. That heart, that hand, perpetrates the
dreadful deed!—a deed one day to be bewailed—the hour for ever embittered
that looks back upon it; a deed to be regretted and wept over, and the day
ten thousand times cursed that gave being to the miserable man that
perpetrated it. In a short time, you must descend to the tomb. No tidings
from the cross will break the silence of that narrow house, and no spirit of
mercy ever enter the world of everlasting retribution. Christ will live and
reign long after you are dead. His cross will triumph, though you reject it
and make your bed in hell. It can triumph without you, for you are but a
poor worm. But it would sincerely carry you along in its triumphs; nor will
anything shut you out from this honor and blessedness, but your own
voluntary and cherished unbelief. You must go far, far away, to put yourself
beyond the reach of its attractions. You may perhaps be far, far away, even
now. But even now you can see it in the distance, and look toward it and
live. Far off as you are, you may yet smite upon your breast and say, "God
be merciful to me a sinner," and look toward it with hope.