Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall find mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
Blessed are ye, when they reproach and persecute you, and say every wicked thing against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and exalt, for your reward is great in the heavens: for thus have they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
We shared before on this matter of the word of the cross. We mentioned that the cross of our Lord Jesus is not only a fact, but it has a message for each one of us. We need to know the fact, to believe, and receive the message that comes out of the cross.
We also shared about this matter of the way of the cross. The cross is not only an act, but it is a way in which we are to walk throughout our life, following the Lamb whithersoever He goes.
Now this morning, we would like to share together on this matter of the spirit of the cross. The cross is not only a fact. It is not only dealings with us. It is not only a way in which we can walk. But we do find that the cross is a spirit.
Unless that spirit of the cross comes upon us, we still have not entered into the significance of the cross.
I read a book written by Godfrey Whatcott, and the title of that book is The Meaning of the Cross. There is a subtitle there, and the subtitle is The Mould of the Cross.
He said, “Our Lord Jesus Christ has just one mould for producing Christian character, and that is the cross. You and I cannot reach our goal except in the way in which He reached His goal. And the cross is the mould through which He puts each one who is to express Him here and reign with Him.”
In other words, when we really know the cross, it will develop within us a character—a spirit. We may call it the spirit of the cross. It will mark us out as people with that spirit. It becomes our very character.
It is more than just an understanding, an appropriation, a dealing, or even a surrender. It becomes a life, a lifestyle, a life principle. It becomes supernaturally natural to us in all our actions and reactions. It marks us out as such a people.
We remember our Lord Jesus. He is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The Lamb of God has become His name, His title. From the foundation of the world, He is the Lamb slain.
When He was on earth, He was called the Lamb of God. And, of course, we know that as the Lamb of God, He went to the cross, and there He died for us.
After He was resurrected, you remember how He showed His wounds to Thomas. Even after He was ascended, there you find the Lamb slain in the midst of the throne.
Wherever you find our Lord Jesus, He has with Him that spirit of the Lamb. That Lamb spirit is the spirit of the cross. And we who follow the Lamb need to be marked with the same spirit.
You remember the apostle Paul. When he concluded his epistle to the Galatian believers—it was a very difficult letter for him to write—he concluded with these words:
From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.
— Galatians 6:17
In other words, you find there are the stigmata of the Lord Jesus, the marks of the Lord Jesus, in the life of the apostle Paul.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the challenge to each one of us is this: We may have heard the word of the cross. We may have experienced something of what the cross has done for us. We may know forgiveness, separation, deliverance, and even something of the victory of the cross.
We may even walk somehow in the way of the cross. We may know something of the dealing with the selfhood, with the “I,” with the ego. But, dear brothers and sisters, it is not just a dealing, a surrender, or an experience here and there.
The meaning of the cross is that we should be so moulded by it that we will be characterized as the people of the cross. In other words, we have that Lamb spirit with us all the time. That is the meaning of the cross.
To illustrate it, I think probably the best illustration will be found in the seven words that our Lord Jesus spoke on the cross. We know that words are really openings by which the spirit within our being pours out.
So on the cross of our Lord Jesus, when He spoke those seven words, through these words He poured forth His spirit to us. By this, we can understand somewhat of what the spirit of the cross is.
The first word that our Lord Jesus spoke on the cross is found in Luke 23:34.
And Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
— Luke 23:34
He was just being nailed to that cross. He was just being lifted up on that cross. And then you find the first word He uttered was, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Now, brothers and sisters, think of the circumstances. These men had just nailed Him to the cross. They surrounded the cross, mocked Him, abused Him, ridiculed Him, and laughed at Him.
In that kind of circumstance, suddenly you find our Lord Jesus began to pray: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” What a different spirit this is. There is no bitterness; there is only love.
Our Lord Jesus had every right to ask the Father for vengeance, that He would bring judgment upon the world. He had every right to do that. And yet, instead of calling down revenge, He asked the Father to forgive.
As a matter of fact, He could pray that prayer because there on the cross He offered Himself as our substitute. God is just, and His justice has to be satisfied. God cannot forgive without His justice being satisfied.
But here you find our Lord Jesus, because He had offered Himself as the sin offering unto God, had the right to pray such a prayer: “Father, forgive.” And His prayer was answered.
Brothers and sisters, what is the spirit of the cross? The spirit of the cross is forgiving love.
Do you remember, from the day that our Lord Jesus was crucified through church history, from the first Christian martyr, Stephen, down to our time, the last cry of the martyrs has always been this: “Do not lay this sin upon them. Forgive.”
The spirit of forgiveness is the very spirit of the cross. Brothers and sisters, our greatest problem in the church today is the lack of the spirit of forgiveness.
We find among God’s people that, because we are so close to each other, there are many opportunities for offense. If we can keep a distance from each other, we can afford to be kind, gentle, and courteous. But because God has thrown us together in such an intimate way, we work together, serve together, and worship together.
Because we are so close together, we begin to know each other better, and we begin to step upon each other more. Because of that, it is inevitable that among God’s people there will be plenty of opportunities for us to be offended.
Brothers and sisters, when such things happen, what is our spirit? Is it our spirit that we will call for vengeance on our brothers and sisters? Or is it the time that we ask our Father to forgive?
An unforgiving spirit hinders the blessing of the Lord—not only to the person himself or herself, but it hinders God’s blessing to the whole church.
If we are followers of the Lamb, do we have such a spirit of forgiveness? No matter how much our brothers and sisters may offend us—and these offenses may be very real and deeply hurt us—if we look at the Lamb, we know the spirit of the cross.
There is nothing else we can do but forgive.
You remember Peter. Peter was a very open person—straightforward, blunt, rough. One day he came to the Lord and said, “My brother has offended me seven times, and I forgave him.”
Now, that was very difficult for Peter, so he felt that he had quite an accomplishment. But after forgiving his brother seven times, he felt that eight times did not seem logical anymore. So he came to the Lord and said, “Will that be enough?”
And you remember the Lord said, “I do not tell you seven times; it is seventy times seven.” It does not mean that you count and multiply it. It means that you just forget it. It has come to such a great amount that you do not count them anymore. You do not remember them anymore. In other words, you forgive, forgive, forgive, and forgive.
The Lord used a parable, because sometimes what the Lord says does not sink into our hearts. We may think, “Well, that is very unreasonable.”
A master had servants, and one of the servants owed him ten thousand talents. I do not know how he accumulated that amount, but he owed ten thousand talents. He could never repay that amount, and he begged for mercy. The master forgave him.
When he left the presence of the master, he found another fellow servant who owed him only a hundred denarii—the wages of a hundred days, a little amount. He said, “Pay me, otherwise go to jail,” and he put him in jail.
The master heard about it and said, “Now, if I have forgiven you so much, should you not forgive your brother?”
Brothers and sisters, is it not true? If we only realize how much we are forgiven, we are those people who owe the Lord ten thousand talents. Even if we sell ourselves, our family, everything, we cannot pay. It is beyond us.
And yet our Lord Jesus, in His great mercy, asked the Father to forgive us. We are forgiven much. Should we not forgive those who offend us? This is the spirit of the cross. Are we a people marked by such a spirit?
You know, we have such wonderful memories. The good that others do for us, we forget altogether. But if our brother or sister does us just one tiny little thing that hurts us, we just cannot forget.
We cannot forget. We cannot forgive. It is always there. Every time we see that brother or sister, there is something stirring within us—an unforgiving spirit, a bitter spirit.
That is the reason why we do not grow properly in the Lord. That is the reason why we find so many problems in the church. Brother and brother, sister and sister, brothers and sisters cannot be of one mind, one spirit, and one love. It is because of an unforgiving spirit.
Remember this: the spirit of the cross is the spirit of forgiving.
The second word that our Lord spoke on the cross is also found in Luke 23:43.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.
— Luke 23:43
Our Lord Jesus was crucified between two robbers. Even at the beginning, both of these robbers were wicked people. Even when they were crucified on the cross, they mocked the Lord Jesus and ridiculed Him.
But something happened. I wonder whether it was when one of the robbers heard the prayer of our Lord Jesus: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” I wonder if that prayer touched the heart of this robber.
He was deeply touched and convicted, because he knew he died because he deserved it. But that Man was innocent. He had done nothing wrong. Somehow the Spirit of God opened his understanding.
Brothers and sisters, you will be surprised at what an understanding the Spirit of God gave him at the very last of his life. He turned to the Lord and said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.”
Is that not wonderful? Here was a man crucified, and yet the robber said, “Remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.” He believed that this Man who was crucified was indeed the King. Even though He was crucified, yet His kingdom would come.
And the Lord Jesus said, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” Not in the future. You do not need to wait until the future. Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.
Paradise is the place where those who are accepted by God go. It is a resting place for those who fall asleep in the Lord. In other words, the Lord said, “You are forgiven. You are saved. You are redeemed.”
The first word of our Lord Jesus was spoken to the Father. The second word He spoke to the sinner. The first word to the Father was, “Forgive them.” The second word was, “You are forgiven.”
Brothers and sisters, what grace that is. This robber deserved nothing. He had done so much evil that, even in the eyes of society, he deserved to be put away. And he knew that he deserved it.
Yet you find our Lord Jesus poured forth His grace upon that robber and said, “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” So what is the spirit of the cross? The spirit of the cross is the spirit of grace.
Are we a people of grace? We who have received grace upon grace?
Grace is something freely given. Grace is something that you do not earn. It is something given to you freely, not because you are worthy, not because you deserve it, not because you have done something to earn it, gain it, or win it.
Grace depends upon the person who gives you grace. Here you find our Lord Jesus on the cross pouring forth His grace upon that robber. Now we who have received much grace, should we not have the same character as our Lord Jesus, that we be a gracious people?
We are to be people who give grace to other people. You know, brothers and sisters, we are very gracious with ourselves, but we are very strict with other people.
We forgive ourselves, excuse ourselves, pardon ourselves, and explain things away. We are very gracious to ourselves. But when we come to other people, how do we deal with them? We feel that we have to deal with them according to what they deserve.
We find that it is very difficult for us to be gracious to people. It is because we forget how much grace we have received.
The definition of grace, according to the original word, not only means that there is something beautiful, something pleasant, in that person or that thing. When you look at that thing or that person, it gives you a kind of peaceful, comfortable sensation, because there is something called grace.
Grace in the original language means not only that there is something beautiful in that person, but that this something beautiful and good is transmitted and passed on to you freely. That is grace.
But grace in the original language has a third meaning. It means that those who have received grace in turn become gracious.
Brothers and sisters, we all know that our Lord Jesus is full of grace. He is so beautiful. And thank God, we all have received grace from Him upon grace.
But has grace done its work in our lives? Has grace transformed us? Are we just receiving grace for ourselves, and yet it never transforms us? It never delivers us from our pettiness, selfhood, and selfishness.
Grace should transform us. Otherwise, we waste the grace of God. That is the spirit of the cross.
Then you find our Lord Jesus said the third word. It is found in John 19. When our Lord was crucified on the cross, some women were at the foot of the cross, and the mother of our Lord Jesus was there. Of all the disciples, only John was there at the foot of the cross.
Jesus therefore seeing His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, saith unto His mother, Woman, behold, thy son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold, thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home.
— John 19:26-27
How perfect is our Lord as a human being. You remember when He was a boy, when He was twelve years old, He was conscious that God His Father had called Him to be occupied with His Father’s business. He stayed behind in the temple.
His parents came back after three days and found Him in the temple, attending to His Father’s business. His mother said, “Why hast Thou done this to us?” And the Lord said, “Do you not know that I must be occupied with My Father’s business?”
Yet after He said that, He went home with His parents and obeyed them.
Probably one of the reasons our Lord Jesus did not begin His ministry until He was thirty years old is because, humanly speaking, He was the firstborn in that family. Joseph seemed to have passed away, because he was not mentioned anymore.
So probably the Lord had a responsibility in that house. He had to supply the need for the family. He had to work as a carpenter to support the family and help bring up His brothers and sisters.
Maybe it was because of this that He did not come out to minister until He was thirty years old. By then His brothers and sisters had grown up, and they could take over something.
But you find our Lord Jesus, as a human being, fulfilled all the duties and obligations that a human being carries. Sometimes we become so spiritual that we become unnatural. We become so spiritual that we forget our obligations and duties as human beings.
But even to the very last, when our Lord Jesus was on the cross—how He must have suffered at that time—He was not thinking of Himself. He was still thinking of His mother. He wanted to provide for His mother.
So He said, “Mother, look at your son,” and to John, “Look at your mother.” John took Mary to his home and took care of her. Even to the very last, our Lord Jesus fulfilled all His duties and obligations as a human being.
Brothers and sisters, shall we be less human? It is a gross mistake to think that to be spiritual, you have to be inhuman.
I remember our dear brother Watchman used to say, “First be a human, and then you can be spiritual. If you are not human, you can never be spiritual.”
But I think what our Lord Jesus said in this third word means much more than this physical arrangement. To me, when the Lord Jesus brought His mother and the disciple together to be one family, it speaks something to us.
In other words, it is the cross that brings us together into one family. We belong to different families. We may have many distinctions and backgrounds. But the cross takes away all the distinctions.
By the cross, He has made peace—not only between us and God, but peace with one another. He has brought us together to be one family.
Do we have this family feeling? Do we really see that we belong to each other? Or are we just taking care of ourselves?
Our Lord Jesus said we need to love one another as He has loved us. We need to care for one another as He has cared for us. Why? Because we belong to one another. We are of one family, and it is the cross that brings us into the family.
It is the cross that maintains us in the family. We are of the family of God, but sometimes we feel that we would like to leave that family. Sometimes we feel we do not belong. Sometimes we feel we want to go somewhere else.
Maybe it is because what we want is not supplied. Maybe it is because we are hurt by our brothers and sisters. Maybe it is because our earthly backgrounds and things are too strong for us, pulling us away from our brothers and sisters.
Through the cross of our Lord Jesus, all distinctions—social distinctions, cultural distinctions, racial distinctions, national distinctions—are removed.
There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female: for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.
— Galatians 3:28
The cross has dealt away all these distinctions. We belong to one family, the family of God. We belong to one another. But sometimes we try to bring our earthly distinctions into the church.
When we bring these things into the church, they divide the family. But if we look at the cross—what our Lord Jesus has done for us, what suffering He has gone through, what it cost Him in order to bring us together into one family—do you not think we need to allow the cross to work in our lives?
We need the cross to cross out all these distinctions and find that in Christ we are one. We are one family. That is the spirit of the cross.
Our Lord Jesus was on the cross from approximately nine o’clock in the morning until twelve noon. During those three hours, He was surrounded by people mocking Him and laughing at Him. In the unseen world, during those three hours, He was surrounded by powers of darkness attacking Him.
He suffered. But then at twelve o’clock, the whole thing changed. The sun was darkened. Nobody could see Him anymore. There, alone and hanging there, He cried out:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
— Matthew 27:46
Brothers and sisters, it was at that time that God accepted Him as the offering for sin. According to Isaiah 53:10, God Himself crushed Him. God Himself bruised Him. Why? Because He was made a sin offering for the world.
Our Lord Jesus was with the Father even before time, in eternity. He and the Father had sweet communion. There was no shadow and no shade.
Even when He was on earth, He always pleased the Father. Heaven opened and said:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
— Matthew 3:17
From eternity through time, His communion with the Father was never, for a second, interrupted. There was sweet communion, and it was this that gave Him strength to endure all the ridicule and suffering from the seen and unseen worlds.
But there at that time, you find the Father left Him. For three hours, He literally tasted hell. He literally tasted for us the second death.
What is hell? What is the second death? It is separation from the living God. There you find our Lord Jesus was separated from the living God. He could not cry out, “Father.” He could only say, “My God, My God.”
Because He took our stand as a man, for that He died. It was the supreme sacrifice. There He willingly sacrificed Himself.
Brothers and sisters, we can never understand how much He sacrificed for us. This is the spirit of the cross, and this spirit must characterize us.
It is true that we have no part in that atoning work of our Lord Jesus. He trod the winepress alone for us.
Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
— 2 Corinthians 5:21
He was alone there. We have no part in that atoning work. We can only receive from it forgiveness. But we are called to have fellowship with His sufferings. There is a part of His sufferings with which we are called to have fellowship.
Throughout the centuries there have been people who knew that fellowship. Think of Moses. When the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf, God wanted to wipe out that nation and make Moses a nation.
Moses pleaded before God. In Exodus 32:32, he said:
Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.
— Exodus 32:32
In other words, Moses was willing to be blotted out of the book of life in order to save this rebellious people. That is the spirit of the cross.
In the New Testament, we have another example: Paul. In Romans 9:3, he said:
For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
— Romans 9:3
His love for his kinsmen, his brethren, was so great that he was willing to be accursed if they could be blessed. That is the spirit of the cross.
Brothers and sisters, are we marked by that spirit? Have we been moulded by the Spirit?
The Lord Jesus said, “Love one another, as I have laid down My life for you. Lay down your life for your brother.” Is any sacrifice too great for us, for our brothers and sisters? Are we willing to lay down our life for others?
What a difference we have. We want our brothers and sisters to lay down their lives for us, but for us to lay down our life for them is out of the question.
We do not have the spirit of the cross. How much has the cross moulded us? Are we still the same as if we knew nothing about the cross?
If we know something of the cross, brothers and sisters, to sacrifice ourselves to complete our brothers and sisters is nothing hard.
Toward the end of the six hours on the cross, we come to the fifth word. It is found in John 19:28.
After this Jesus, knowing that all things were now finished, that the scripture might be accomplished, saith, I thirst.
— John 19:28
When our Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” that was a spiritual cry, a cry of spiritual suffering. So far as the spirit of our Lord Jesus was concerned, He suffered to the fullest extent because His spirit was separated from God the Spirit.
That intense suffering in His spirit caused Him to cry out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But here you find He cried out again. He said, “I thirst.”
This is a cry due to His physical suffering. It is a fulfillment of Psalm 69:
They gave me also gall for my food;
And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
— Psalm 69:21
Through those almost six hours on the cross, our Lord Jesus never thought of His physical sufferings. If you were crucified on the cross, what else could you think about? It was tremendous suffering.
But during those six hours, He never had a thought of Himself. He thought of the people crucifying Him. He thought of the robber beside Him. He thought of His mother and the disciple. He never thought of Himself.
Only toward the very end did He become conscious of His extreme, excruciating physical suffering. Do not think that our Lord Jesus, even though He was crucified, did not suffer because He was God. He suffered tremendously.
If you read Psalm 22, how the psalmist in prophetic foresight saw what our Lord Jesus went through on the cross: how His life was poured out like water, how His bones were all out of joint, how His heart was melted like wax, and how He was so thirsty that His tongue cleaved to His palate.
The blood of our Lord Jesus, from His whole body, had been so drained. When your blood is drained, of course you are thirsty. And He said, “I thirst.”
But I believe there is something more. It is said that the Scripture might be fulfilled, and He said, “I thirst.” I believe there is something more when He said, “I thirst.”
We read in Psalm 42:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
When shall I come and appear before God?
— Psalm 42:1-2
When our Lord Jesus said, “I thirst,” it was more than just a physical thirst. Being a sin offering on the cross, separated from God, and with the work of redemption almost done, at the very last He said, “I thirst.”
No matter what I have gone through, no matter God has hidden His face from Me, no matter God crushed Me, I still thirst for Him.
There is such absolute trust and confidence in God. Brothers and sisters, we remember Job. Job said:
Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
— Job 13:15
Our Lord Jesus was not offended by God. If anyone could be offended by God, He should have been. He had every reason to see the smiling face of the Father, but here you find God turned His face from Him.
But He was not offended. He said, “I thirst.” As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so His soul panted after God. His soul thirsted for the living God.
Dear brothers and sisters, how easily we are offended. Even John the Baptist was almost offended because the Lord did not do what he expected Him to do. The Lord seemed to neglect him. The Lord did good to many people, but forgot him, as it were.
But the Lord said:
Blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me.
— Matthew 11:6
In our Christian walk, sometimes the Lord does not do what you expect Him to do. You may have every right to expect Him to do it. It seems as if He goes back on His word. He allows things to happen, and you cannot explain it.
There seems to be no way out. It looks like death, the end. Brothers and sisters, are we offended?
Do you, at that point, cry out, “I thirst after You. No matter what You did to me, I believe in You. I trust You. You are trustworthy. I know it”?
That is the spirit of the cross. May we be a people marked as such.
Then the sixth word is also found in John 19:30.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.
— John 19:30
In the other Gospels, we find that He shouted with a loud voice, “It is finished.” In other words, He gathered up the last of His remaining strength.
A person who is dying usually has a very low voice because there is no strength anymore. But here you find our Lord Jesus gathering up the remaining of His last strength, and He shouted out, “It is finished.” It is a shout of victory.
It is not defeat. It looked like a defeat, but actually it was a victory. He said, “It is finished.” The work of redemption was done. The mission was accomplished. What a shout of victory it was.
When He shouted that shout, do you know what happened? There in the city of Jerusalem, in the temple, the veil was torn from top to bottom. The way to the Holiest was opened for us to enter.
Brothers and sisters, the spirit of the cross is not a spirit of defeat. Oftentimes we misunderstand. When we talk about the cross, it may give us a feeling of negativity, a feeling of defeat: “Oh, I suffer. Oh, I die.”
But that is not the spirit of the cross. The spirit of the cross is the cry of victory.
Oftentimes we find people saying, “Well, I am bearing the cross. Look at me. How I bear the cross, how I suffer.” Brothers and sisters, that is no cross.
If you are really bearing the cross, you will find strength in the cross of Christ. You will find rest, and you can shout the victory. By the cross, you conquer. That is the spirit of the cross.
Finally, the seventh word. After He said, “It is finished,” we come again to Luke 23:46.
And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said this, He gave up the ghost.
— Luke 23:46
Of course, this is a fulfillment of Psalm 31:5.
Into Thy hand I commend my spirit:
Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of truth.
— Psalm 31:5
During the three hours, the work of redemption was done, so He said, “It is finished.” After that work was done, His relationship with His Father was restored.
There you find He said, “Father.” That was His last word: “Father.” That relationship was restored, and He said, “I commit My spirit to You.”
No one took the life of our Lord Jesus away. You remember He said, “No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” It was not those people who crucified Him who took His life away. He dismissed His own life.
He said, “I commit My spirit to the Father.” He dismissed it. He laid it down for us, and He committed His spirit to the Father, knowing that His Father would raise Him from the dead.
Perfect faith. And sure enough, the Father raised Him from the dead to prove that He is the Son of God.
Brothers and sisters, the spirit of the cross is the spirit of perfect faith. He could trust Himself completely to the Father, knowing that the Father would do all things right.
Now this is the spirit of the cross. If we know the cross, brothers and sisters, the cross will give us that faith.
It is because we try to escape from the cross that we miss the opportunity of believing. But if we take up the cross, faith will be given to us. We can believe that God does all things well.
So here we find: if we know the cross, then the cross will not be just something external, outside of us, a teaching for us to talk about.
If we really know the cross, it is not just some dealings here and there. Of course, we need these dealings. But if we really know the cross, the cross will be planted within our soul, and it will reshape us and mould us.
Then we may have the Lamb spirit within us. We become the people of the cross, and that is what God is doing.
I read the Beatitudes at the beginning. I do not have time to go into them, but you find there that these are the people blessed by God. These are the sons of the kingdom of the heavens. Who are they? They are the people of the cross.
They are poor in spirit because the cross has worked in their lives. They are those who mourn because the cross has so worked in them that they are in continuous repentance, with a contrite spirit before God.
They are meek and merciful because the cross has crossed out their self. They hunger and thirst after righteousness. They are thirsty after God.
They are lowly and merciful because they know mercy. They are pure in heart. They have nothing in their heart but God.
They are peacemakers because they know what peace is. For the sake of Christ, they are persecuted, and yet they rejoice. Brothers and sisters, these are the people of the cross.
So the whole problem is: Do we know the cross? Is there any scar, any room, in our lives? Do we have the marks of the Lord Jesus in our body?
May the Lord have mercy upon us. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we can only come to Thee. May Thy cross be so implanted in us that it will transform us, fashion us, and mould us according to Thy beloved Son, the Lamb of God. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.