AND I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me,” were the words of Jesus, as He spoke of His suffering upon the cross. There is no fact like the attractive power of the cross of Christ. It stands alone in the world’s history. Men draw their fellow men after themselves by strength and victory; thousands follow a great conqueror to the battle-field to perish for his name and glory; God draws men to Himself by His Son dying for them, and the myriads who have been attracted to God have had their hearts knit to Him by the shame and suffering of Jesus.
Does our reader say, “We would see Jesus,” with those men of old, whose desires cheered the heart of the Lord, when He uttered the words we have quoted? Then repair to Calvary. “Behold the Lamb of God.” “Look on Him whom they pierced”―on Him who “suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God,” for “herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation far our sins.” There is a constraining power in the cross; thence from all its shame and sorrow come the words from the heart of the Crucified One, I will draw all men unto Me.”
The revelation of God’s righteous requirements from man draws not man to God; on the contrary, it repels man from God. The darkness flees from the light. Sinai’s thunders and voice of words shook, not only the mountain, but the hearts of those who heard. They did exceedingly fear and quake, so terrible were the words, “for they could not endure that which was commanded.” Could it be otherwise? If God reveal Himself in holiness, and demand holiness from unholy man, the inevitable result is that man must shrink away from God. If His light reveals our darkness, we cannot but seek, like the first sinner, to hide from Him.
The fool may say in his heart, “No God,” and bury his fears in his folly, and for a few short years rid himself of the reality of having to meet God about his sins; but his folly will bring him to hell. The religious man may attempt to keep the law and to satisfy its requirements; but, as a matter of fact, any honest religious person trying to keep the law, and thereby to draw near to God, knows that his efforts day by day increase his sense of weakness, for when he would do good he finds evil present with him. And his attempts to get near to God prove to him his distance from God. But Calvary reveals divine holiness and hatred of sift perfectly; yet the Christ on the cross draws man to God. The cross of Christ teaches God’s righteousness and hatred of sin, as the cross only can. He was the sin-offering; He stood in the sinner’s place; “He was made sin for us who knew no sin,” and, consequently, He was forsaken of the holy God. Nothing on earth, or in hell, teaches God’s holiness as this cry of Jesus. Nothing shows us what our sins are, what sell is, what our nature is, as the Son of God forsaken, because He stood in our place. Yet such is the miracle of the gospel, that it is by this revelation of God in His light and His love that man, in his sins and blackness, is drawn unto God Himself.
There is irresistible power in the cross. We come to Christ with our sins, just as we are; and we draw closer and closer to Him as we see Him made sin for us. “The Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Jesus died for me. Jesus gave Himself for me. Jesus bore my sins in His own body upon the tree. Those sufferings, those wounds, that blood, that being forsaken of God, were for me! This is the great attraction: “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.”
Looking upon Him, our sins are forgiven, our doubts vanish, our fears cease. In the cross we see God’s holiness and love. The more we look at Christ there, the easier, the sweeter is coming to Him. Away we fling the hindrances. Away go the rags of religion in which we wrapped ourselves; away is cast the love of sin in which we reveled. Our old hard, bitter, bad thoughts of God are completely burned out of our breasts by the matchless love of the Son of God dying in the stead of His enemies. Millions have been drawn to God by this great love wherewith He loved us. Reader, are you one of the happy multitude? This testimony of the apostles witnesses to the wonders of the cross. The triumphs of the martyrs witness to the power of the cross. Changed lives this day, changed hearts, changed homes, declare the might of the cross. All heaven shall resound with songs in honor of the cross, and these songs shall never die out through all eternity. Is yours the joy of delighting in God, and is the love of Jesus in dying for you, and washing your sins away in His own blood, your portion?