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 Back to Samuel Chadwick Page Samuel Chadwick
The Meaning of the Cross Introduction
These sermons were delivered at the 25th Annual Winona (Indiana) Lake Bible Conference which was held in August of 1999. Some of the sermons were later published by the Winona Publishing Society. Other speakers included G. Campbell Morgan, Cortland Myers, and A. T. Robertson.
I. The Cross and the Modern Mind
An excerpt: "The Cross is especially repulsive to the modern mind. All the offences of all the ages outrage its sensibilities. It has all the loathing of the Jew and all the scorn of the Greek. The objections to the Cross have always been made in the interests of religion, reason and righteousness; and in these days they are an indignant protest for the honor of God, the humanity of Christ, and the defense of faith. They come from believers more than from scoffers and they are advanced from the highest considerations of spiritual religions and the coming of the Kingdom…. There is something deeply moving in the devout spirit and fine temper of much modern criticism. Objections from reverent scholars whose devotion is known in all the churches is much more impressive than from blatant and aggressive unbelievers, but the substance may be the same. Preachers and Professors say many things today that a generation ago were the stock-in-trade of infidel lectures and it is for this reason that inquiry into their value should be courageous and thorough. The foes of Theological beliefs have often been the friends of Truth…. Orthodox theology is not so wooden as its critics assume, nor so legal as they affirm; but is there not a substitute that is essential to the faith that saves? is there no vital meaning in the confession: He loved me and gave Himself for me? (Read the rest of The Cross and the Modern Mind) II. The Cross and Personality
An excerpt: “There is no saving efficacy in the cross apart from faith. The acknowledgment of the historical fact of Christ’s death brings no redemption. Neither does an orthodox belief of its theological interpretation save…. Faith reasons that His death was for me, and if He died for me, I died in Him. This is the vindication of the Cross as the ground of faith and Hope; and it explains how the saving power of the Cross depends upon personal faith. It is the power of God to them that believe; for faith accepts and appropriates by personal identification. Salvation is neither by the pity of God nor by the will of man, but by the Cross of Christ…. Faith is not an assent of the mind, so much as it is an attitude of consent. The Cross is accepted as a principle of life, as well as a fact of redeeming grace…. Christ in you! That is something more than a strong figure of speech to express the domination of Christ in the life of the believer. It is the statement of a living fact, realized vividly in the consciousness of tens of thousands. This is the testimony of countless witnesses whose sanity and integrity are beyond suspicion. It is this that makes a Christian. Nothing else can, for Christianity is unique in that it does not consist of systems of Truth, ordinances of religion, or codes of conduct, but in personal experience of fellowship with an indwelling Lord.” (Read the rest of the Cross and Personality) III. The Cross and the Lust of the Flesh The difference in method is that of a factory and a Garden. The flesh works; fruit grows. A factory works entirely in the realm of death; a Garden lies entirely in the realm of life. Man's work is always in dead stuff. It must die before he can use it. Fruit is God's work; not man's. Fruit comes from life, and all life is of God. Man's part in it is cultivation; but in works it is manufacture. The works of death have in them the elements of destruction. The fruits of life have in them the propagation of life. Painted fruits fade upon the canvas; living fruit brings forth after its kind. Factories are noisy places of contrivance, enterprise, and energy. Gardens are silent places of cultivation, spontaneity, and effortless production of fruit and beauty. God does not run a factory. He keeps a garden. (Read the rest of the Cross and the Lusts of the Flesh) IV. The Cross and the World "The reproach of the cross is still with us, and there are many that seek to avoid its offense by compromising its meaning. They deny its relation to Law, and misrepresent its relation to sin. The persecutors of Paul did it, that they might fasten upon those saved by grace the yoke of bondage, and there are still those who lay upon the children of God the burden of ordinances but there are those who make the cross of no account in the interests of intellectual accommodation. The whole controversy about circumcision and the law was incidental and temporary, but the principle at stake is vital and universal." (Read the rest of the Cross and the World) Top New Resources |
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