Blessings of the Cross

And being in agony He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Luke 22:44

It was the corruption and wickedness of men that contrived and affected his death. It was by men's wickedness that He was reproached, mocked, buffeted, and spit upon. It was by men's wickedness that Barabbas was preferred before Him. It was men's wickedness that laid the cross upon Him to bear, and that nailed Him to it, and put Him to so cruel and ignominious a death. This tended to give Christ an extraordinary sense of the greatness and hatefulness of the depravity of mankind. Because hereby in the time of his sufferings He has that depravity set before Him as it is, without disguise. When it killed Christ, it appeared in its proper colors. Here Christ saw it in its true nature, which is the utmost hatred and contempt of God; in its ultimate tendency and desire, which is to kill God; and in its greatest aggravation and highest act, which is killing a person that was God. But yet at the same time so wonderful was the love of Christ to those who exhibited this hateful corruption, that he endured those very sufferings to deliver them from the punishment of that corruption. -- Jonathan Edwards

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. 1 John 3:1

Learn this solemn truth that the Father loves you, the father wants you to be saved, the Father wants you to believe on the son; the very Father who commanded Christ to lay down His life for sinners, You will notice from this that the Father is clear from the blood of all men. He does not want you to perish. "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die." He is not willing that any should perish. "He willeth all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." He does not want you to perish. He commands Christ to go into the world and lay down his life for sinners. Oh! It is true: the Father does not want you to perish. "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son." "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." God the Father is as earnest in your salvation as Christ is. It was God's part to send the Son, and the Son's part to come and die. And as God the Son has done his part, so Gd the Father has done his. So that, sinners, if you perish, it is because you will not come to him, that you may have life. - Robert Murray McCheyne

Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Proverbs 4:26

Take heed thou dost not turn into those lanes which lead out of the way. There are crooked, paths, paths in which men go astray, paths that lead to death and damnation, but take heed of all of those. Some of them are dangerous because of practice, some because of opinion, but mind them not; mind the path before thee, look right before thee, turn neither to the right hand nor the to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. Tho the way to heaven be but one, yet there are many crooked lanes and by-paths are most beaten, most travelers go those ways; and therefore the way to heaven is hard to be found, and as hard to be kept in, by reason of these... the scarlet streams of Christ's blood run throughout the way to the kingdom of heaven; therefore mind that, see if thou do not find the besprinkling of the blood of Christ in the way, and if thou do, be of good cheer, though art in the right way. - John Bunyan

Yes, be altogether lovely. Song of Songs 5:16

Our lord Jesus makes sinners lovely. When our lord Jesus comes in and covers these sinful ones with his righteousness, and, at the same time, infuses into them His life, the Lord is well pleased with them for His Son's sake. Even in heaven, the infinite Jehovah sees nothing which pleases Him like His son. The Father from heaven loved his only son, and again and again he said of him, "this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." What higher econium can be passed upon Him? Our Lord's loveliness appears in every condition: in a manger, or in the temple, by the well, or on the sea, in the garden, or on the cross; in the tomb, or in the resurrection; in his first, or in his second coming. He is not as the herb which flowers only at one season, or as the tree, which loves its leaved in winter, or as the moon, which waxes and wanes; or as the sea which ebbs and flows. In every condition, and at every time, "He is altogether lovely." - Charles H. Spurgeon