The Greatness
of the One Offering
Read: 1 Chronicles
29:21,22; 1 Kings 8:62,63; 2 Chronicles 4:1; 7:1,4,5,9; Ephesians
1:6–8; 3:17–19; 5:27.
In those chapters of the Book of
Chronicles we have already seen Solomon so lavishly and
overflowingly dealt with by God because He had in view One
greater than Solomon whom He was seeking to interpret to men by
way of illustration; so also in the different records of Solomon’s
reign we find the intimation of the greatness of the Cross given
by God by the same means of illustration. The great altar,
pointing to the Cross, is brought into view, and then in the
double connection—the exaltation of the king and the
consecration of the house of God—the greatness of the
significance of that altar is intimated by the immensity of the
sacrifice.
We but glance, in passing, at
that double connection of the Cross. Its greatness is seen
firstly related to the enthronement of the king. There is a
good deal about that in the New Testament—that enthronement,
that exaltation being because of that immense work which was
accomplished in the Cross.
“... obedient unto
death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God
highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above
every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the
earth” (Philippians 2:8–10).
Then secondly we see how the
house of God is established upon the greatness of the Cross, and
how the Church takes its significance from the Cross. We
have read something about that in the Ephesian Letter, which has
more to do with the Church than any other letter or any other
part of the Bible. You find that the very foundations of
the Church are in the Cross of the Lord Jesus.
We leave that for the moment,
and seek to speak for this time solely about the greatness of the
Cross.
Myriads of
Sacrifices Unavailing
We are impressed when we read of
this sacrifice which was made by Solomon. It is almost
bewildering to think of it—battalions upon battalions of
oxen! The highways must have been thronged with cattle and
with sheep during those days, for there were thousands upon thousands!
It does not do to let our imagination dwell upon that! And
there must have been literally rivers of blood. It is a
terrible picture, and but for the moral support which was found
in the meaning and spiritual value of it, I am quite sure the
priests, during those days, must have been overwhelmed by the
ghastliness of it. They could only have gone through the
slaying of those thousands and thousands of oxen, sheep and
lambs, with the support given by the realization of what it
meant. All that which is beyond our imagination—and we
do not want to dwell upon it too much—is indicative in the
type of how great is the Cross of the Lord Jesus. It should
lead us to think again. If that is a type of the Cross, a
type of Christ the Offering for sin, and if it is true that types
are always far less than that which they typify, how great must
the Cross be! By mere logical deduction, the Cross in the
Divine mind must be immense. And yet we are distinctly and
definitely told that all that offering in Solomon’s day,
both at his enthronement and at the dedication of the temple, and
all that had led up to it through many generations from the first
recorded sacrifice (the offering of Abel), and every subsequent
sacrifice, aggregating millions in number, was unavailing in any
sense of finality.
It was unavailing in two
ways. First, because it never reached a final end; it had
to be repeated again and again. There was no end to this
thing. Yes, this morning the sacrifice has been offered,
and perhaps for the moment it has secured a kind of ceremonial
adjustment to God, an acknowledgment of God which is taken
account of by Him; but it has to be repeated this evening, and
again tomorrow, and every morning and evening throughout all
life; and when life at its longest is finished the thing is not
concluded; the next generation must take it up and go on, and
then the next.
And in this second and included
sense it was unavailing, in that it never really dealt with
conscience; that is, it never rolled the burden of sin from the
conscience. It was merely external and ceremonial; it was
religion which, though very thorough going, had really no relatedness
to the inner life. “...gifts and sacrifices that cannot,
as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect”
(Hebrews 9:9). Positively and definitely it was unavailing.
The Cross—One
Offering Availing For Ever
And look at the immensity of
it! I say again that it is overpowering to contemplate all
that tremendous offering made by Solomon. But then gather
up the generations! Then come to these simple but
marvellous statements: “...once at the end of the ages hath
He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”
(Hebrews 9:26); “...the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all” (Hebrews 10:10); “...when He had offered
one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of
God” (Hebrews 10:12). One offering, and only
one! What a work that must be if in one single act it does
what all this other, in its immensity through generations, has
never been able to accomplish! “By one offering He
hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews
10:14). All the other, it says, could never make the worshippers
perfect; but He, by one offering, perfected for ever. What
a sacrifice! What a Cross! Twenty and two thousand
oxen, and all the thousands of sheep and lambs, yes; but one
single offering did it once for all! There is no harm in
reiteration, in dwelling upon it, that we may really register the
significance of this. One single offering, just one, and
all that other is swallowed up!
Why one, and once and for
all? Well, surely there is present in the one thing that
which was absent in all the others. What was that?
Simply the full satisfaction of God in the matter of a perfect
nature. Although these animal sacrifices were ceremonially
perfect, typically without spot or blemish, actually that related
only to the physical side. They were selected sacrifices
which were of a special breed and pedigree, and from which there
were absent certain flaws of mixture, but this was merely
external. If you got right into the bloodstream you would
find the old creation there. Those oxen could fight as well
as any others! It was there in the blood, for it was
nature, the old creation. Only in a sort of ceremonial way
were they perfect. But He—not ceremonially, but
actually, intrinsically perfect—offered Himself—not
ceremonially, but actually—without spot unto God. In
His blood there was no corruption. Somewhere, in the mystery of
God, there was a clean cutting in between His inheritance from
His earthly mother, and His own Divine nature; the tainted thing
was cut off, and in Him there was none of the Adam
corruption. “The prince of the world cometh: and he
hath nothing in Me” (John 14:30). It was the
essential, intrinsic perfection of nature in the one offering
which was not found in all the others. That was what God
was looking for: a perfect being, a perfect human being, a
perfect specimen of creation, one who in essential nature fully
satisfied the thought of God in making man. God found that
in Him; and that being offered unto God, there need be no more
offering. It was once and for all and for ever. It is
finished, for God is satisfied. That is the great foundation
of our faith; the greatness of the Cross in the light of Who it
is that is on that Cross; for it is the greatness of Christ which
gives the greatness to the Cross.
The greatness of the Cross in
such terms is the basis of our salvation, our hope, our
justification, our righteousness. Then let us once and for
all cease to look for perfection anywhere else, in ourselves or
in others, and keep our eyes on the object which satisfies God—the
sole and final object of His satisfaction.
We have to see the Cross, then,
in those Divine terms, in its four dimensions—breadth and
length and height and depth—and until we have so seen it our
salvation is still lacking in essential qualities, and we, as
saved people, will not be the people that God means us to be.
The Range of
the Cross
The next thing that I want to
say is that the Cross of our Lord Jesus is different from all
that foreshadowing and typifying in the Old Testament, and
different from this immense representation in the days of
Solomon, in this second respect—that it is
super-historical. That sounds technical, but what I mean is
that it is something bigger than time, and time is only another
word for history. I wonder if you have noticed that in the
earliest Christian literature, that is, the epistles of the New
Testament (not the Gospels, for they were written after the
epistles—bear that clearly in mind, for it will make a lot
of difference!) Calvary is never once mentioned. The story
of the crucifixion, of the Cross, is never referred to in the
earliest Christian literature. Reference is always made to
the death of Christ; not to the crucifixion, nor Calvary, but to
the death. There is a vast deal of difference. One is
just historical, a fact, something that took place at a certain
time in a certain place in the history of this world; that is the
crucifixion, and it is historical. The death of Christ is
not that. The Apostles, when they wrote their epistles,
were occupied with something spiritual and not historical;
universal and not local; eternal and not just in time; they dealt
with the death of Christ, and it is set in an immense setting,
against an immense background. The death is referred to a
very great deal, and yet the story of the death is never once
told in the epistles. That is not without significance, and
is because in the epistles we have got away into the real realm
of the meaning of the Cross. The crucifixion was less than forty
years old when the epistles were written. I venture to
think that if something like that had happened in our lifetime
and we were writing within forty years of the event, we should
tell the story, giving all the details and saying what had happened,
and where, and who was present. We should give the details
that we have in the Gospels. And yet the Apostles, when
they wrote their epistles, left all that out, although they were
writing on what happened. But with them it was spiritual,
it was in another realm altogether, for it was inner. The
Cross of the Lord Jesus was to them something infinitely greater
than an historical happening on a hill outside Jerusalem.
The way in which the death of Christ is introduced is simply:
“Once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26).
Simple, but, you see, it goes far beyond anything of time and
anything local. Is it not remarkable that, in their
writings, they never make it a date in the calendar? It
never was a date in their calendar naturally, and yet it was the
thing that had changed all calendars. To them it was not
just something historical; it was spiritual and much bigger than
an event to be marked upon the calendar.
God Vindicated
in Choosing Israel
Now let us get to something of
the meaning of that. In the first place, in the Cross of
the Lord Jesus all history is gathered up and transcended, and we
are brought into the great realm of the Divine sovereignty. Oh, I
find such a tremendous uplift and release and emancipation as I
contemplate more and more the sovereignty of God, especially
working through grace! Here in the Cross of the Lord Jesus we
have the vindication of God in His choice of Israel. The
story of Israel is history, but there is something behind that.
There is the choice of Israel, for they were chosen from among
all the nations and separated unto God, a sovereign act for a
sovereign purpose. What was the purpose? Why did God
choose Israel and separate them as a people unto Himself?
With one object—that by means of them He might reveal
Himself to all the nations and make them a blessing to all.
That was God’s purpose, and in order that they might fulfil
that great elect purpose they must be a separated people, cut off
from the nations, and having no communication with them.
They must be a holy people, separated, distinguished, completely
isolated in their moral and spiritual life from the nations, a
people wholly for God’s possession, in order that they might
bring God in revelation to all the nations. You see how
essential their separation was for that! It is a principle,
a law. If you are going to be an instrument, a channel, a
vessel of Divine revelation and blessing, you have to be
consecrated, sanctified, wholly cut off and separated unto
God. Hence Satan’s persistent and continuous effort
and labour to break down that distinctiveness and to get Israel
mixed up with the other peoples round about. The whole
history of Israel is the history of that effort of Satan to spoil
their consecration; and when Israel in decline lost the vision of
their elect calling and purpose, and that great Divine intention
concerning them faded from their view, then they became mixed up
with the nations, they intermarried, and the wall of
distinctiveness was broken down. And the prophets came in
and proclaimed Israel’s holy and elect calling in order to
remind them of how God separated them unto Himself from the
beginning, and to bring again into view the great thing which God
had done in choosing them, and accordingly appealing to them to
separate themselves again unto God and to destroy all this
spiritual fornication—a very prominent idea in the language
of the prophets—to get rid of it and again be holy.
You know that the prophets are full of that! And what did
Israel do with the prophets who preached their holy vocation and
appealed for their return? They persecuted and killed them;
and that is how we find things at the end of the Old
Testament. And then He appeared, born of the seed of David,
born under the law, a Jew; so far as things here on the earth are
concerned, He was a Jew, of Israel; holy, undefiled, separate
from sinners. You see the wide setting. He has taken
up in Himself all that which Israel was called and chosen to do
and to be. He is all that, and in offering that to God,
what does He do? He fulfils Israel’s whole destiny and
brings God and the blessing to all the world. He is Israel in
fulfilment. In this One God is vindicated in the choice of
Israel. In the Cross of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the
sovereignty of God is vindicated. He has fulfilled all and
God has been justified. That is why He came of the seed of
Abraham, and of the seed of David—to vindicate God’s
choice of Israel, to bring a blessing to all the nations; and in
the Cross of Christ, not only Israel but all the peoples of the
earth receive the Divine blessing, which was ever God’s
thought for them. Nothing like that was possible in Jewish
sacrifices. How great is this Cross, and how wonderful is
the Divine sovereignty!
God Vindicated
as Creator
I wonder if you are drawing
comfort from that wide application of the principle that, in the
sovereignty of God, all the tragedy and failure is met and
overcome in Jesus Christ, and all the going wrong is accounted
for in Him! The Lord has simply swallowed it up; and now,
not at this moment to Israel as a nation, but to every member of
that race as to other races, God says: ‘The tragedy of Jew
and Gentile is taken up in the Cross, and by means of that Cross
I am vindicated after all in ever having created man.’
Men reason about this creation and say: ‘Tragedy! God’s
defeat! God’s failure! God’s mistake!
Look at it! Why did God ever make this world, and
man? Did He not know what would happen? Seeing how it
has gone, He is not justified in having created this world!’
But as in Israel, so in the whole race, the Cross of the Lord
Jesus is the vindication of God, and that is the meaning of such
words as: “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”
(Revelation 13:8). It means that God, in the Cross of the
Lord Jesus, took the whole history of this world and swallowed it
up. For now, while the world is as it is, the sovereignty
of God through the Cross of the Lord Jesus would turn the tragedy
to good account, the suffering to value; and then afterward He
would deliver the whole creation from its present condition.
Heavenly
Powers of Evil Overcome
That leads us to the closing
word. The Cross of the Lord Jesus is not only
super-historical, it is extra-terrestrial in its range. The
Word of God reveals to us that this world is not something in
itself, and what is happening on this earth is not limited to the
earth. What is revealed is that there is an immense
struggle going on over, around and outside this world for the
government, the mastery, of the universe. Intimations are
given in such passages of Scripture as Ephesians 6:12: “world-rulers
of this darkness... spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenlies.” There is a conflict going on. We
have intimations of it in the Book of Daniel—spiritual
princes withstanding the archangel in relation to the Lord’s
interests as wrapped up in this world (Daniel 10:13,20). Over and
around this world the struggle goes on for the mastery of the
universe. The Cross of the Lord Jesus had its meaning in
that realm. In His Cross He moved right out into those
circumferences of spiritual conflict and contention when He
stripped off from Himself the principalities and the powers and
“made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it”
(Colossians 2:15). Yes, right out in that realm the Cross
of the Lord Jesus had its ultimate and supreme meaning, and the
issue of the lordship of this universe was settled in the
Cross. So, in this letter to the Ephesians, which we are
holding all the time in the background of our mind, we have it
inclusively and comprehensively stated: “...when He raised
Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the
heavenlies, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in
subjection under His feet” (Ephesians 1:20–22).
That is the triumph of the Cross! That is the range of the
meaning and value of the death of Christ! He, in dying,
slew death; in being delivered to Satan, He overcame him; in
going to the grave, He robbed the grave of its sting for ever.
Here is the sovereignty of God! How great it is—super-historical,
extra-terrestrial! How great is the Cross of the Lord
Jesus! Who can describe it, and who can reach unto it?
But, dear friends, while we
contemplate it in that way, let it not remain merely as wonderful
language and ideas. Oh, what this Cross says in the
language of hope and of certainty for us! Have you
despaired of yourself, of others, or of this world? The
Cross of the Lord Jesus answers all your despair. There is
nothing impossible since Jesus died and rose again. You and
I are not so impossible as we may have thought. No,
everything is possible since Jesus rose from the dead. In
the resurrection the seal of His universal triumph was given by
God. Ours is a Gospel of hope since Jesus died.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who
according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are
guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time” (1 Peter 1:3–5).
The Physical
Creation Redeemed
I have said nothing about the
Cross and the redemption of this creation. Between Israel
and God’s vindication in relation to Israel on the one hand,
and the universe, that extra-terrestrial realm, on the other
hand, there comes the earth, and in the Cross the redemption of
this very physical creation is secured. The vanity under
which it lies, the curse and the corruption which are in it, have
all been met in the Cross of the Lord Jesus and overcome, and in
Him there will be an incorruptible creation—our bodies as a
part thereof, but more than they—a whole creation.
What a day that will be when this whole creation is delivered
from the bondage of corruption, when the groan that is now in it
gives place to a shout of deliverance and emancipation, when it
will be glorified! He will make the place of His feet
glorious (Isaiah 60:13),and that refers to a new earth under His
feet.
And then later there will be
“new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”
(2 Peter 3:13). That is the hope of the Cross of the Lord
Jesus. It is a great Cross, and, with all our struggles to
describe it, we cannot compass it. The Lord give us a new
heart appreciation of how great was that one offering made once
and for all!