The man Jesus Christ!
Christ's Atoning Sacrifice (Part1)
Christ's Atoning Sacrifice (Part 2)
Central to Evangelistic Power
A third reason for the centrality of "The Cross of Jesus" is that by it sinners are drawn to salvation. Certainly sinners are drawn effectually by the Spirit of God who changes the affections and subdues the will. But the content of this drawing is the enlightenment of the mind in the knowledge of Christ and its action is the embracing of Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.
After an incomparable verbal barrage depicting the geographical and historical sweep of Christ's drawing power, Spurgeon said, "Christ's people shall be made willing in the day of his power; and the great attraction by which they will be drawn to him will be his death on the cross.
" In a discussion of the kingship of Jesus and how it applies to missionary endeavors he described the magnetic power of Christ's being set forth as a king at the lowest part of his humiliation. "This it is that touches men's hearts," he said. "Christ crucified is the conqueror."
Not in his robes of glory does he subdue the heart, but in his vestments of shame. Not as sitting upon the throne does he at first gain the faith and the affections of sinners, but as bleeding, suffering, and dying in their stead . . . . And though every theme that is connected with the Savior ought to play its part in our ministry, yet this is the master theme. The atoning work of Jesus is the great gun of our battery. The cross is the mighty battering-ram wherewith to break in pieces the brazen gates of human prejudices and the iron bars of obstinacy. Christ coming to be our judge alarms, but Christ the man of sorrows subdues. The crown of thorns has a royal power in it to compel a willing allegiance, the sceptre of reed breaks hearts better than a rod of iron, and the robe of mockery commands more love than Caesar's imperial purple. There is nothing like it under heaven.
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