The Cross the Expression of Man's Unbelief
“They cried, saying, Crucify him! crucify him!” — Luke xxiii. 21.
Crucifixion was the death of the outcast only, the Gentile outcast. Stoning was the Jewish death, crucifying the Gentile death, or rather the Roman death; the death devised and inflicted by the fourth great beast of Daniel, when exercising his power in trampling down the nation of God with his iron feet. “Crucify him,” then, meant, Let him die the worst of deaths, the Gentile death, the death that is so specially connected with the curse; the death that proclaims Him to be not merely an outcast from Israel, an outcast from Jerusalem, but an outcast from the Gentile, an outcast from the race.
He to whom this cry is directed, is a Gentile ruler; and it is striking to observe the Jew handins: over his fellow- Jew to the abhorred Gentile, the conqueror of his city and nation. With what a hatred must these crucifiers have hated their victim, when they give him over to the Gentile to have their utmost malice executed upon him!
He, against whom they thus furiously shout forth their bitterness, is the Son of God; not merely a holy man, but one in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells; one who has been sent of the Father to carry out his purpose of love. It is against “the Word made flesh,” the “only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” that the cry is raised, “Crucify him! crucify him! let him die the worst of deaths; not this man, but Barabbas.” It was not his human holiness merely that excited the hatred and the outcry; it was his divine perfection. It wras not merely man hating man because better than himself; it was man hating God; man seeking to rid himself, and rid his wTorld of God altogether; man seizing the opportunity he had now got, in having God in a human form within his power, of making away with Jehovah, as the Being to whose absolute dominion he would not submit, and whose presence on the earth, in human form, was altogether intolerable.
“Who wTere they who raised the cry and made this awful demand, in the name of justice and religion, upon a Gentile ruler, for the death of the Son of God?
They were the Jews, the Jews of Jerusalem; not the more ignorant and irreligious Jews of Samaria or Galilee, but the Jews of Jerusalem. Nay, and chief among these haters of Messiah were the men who professed most to be looking for his advent; the best educated, most learned, and, according to their ideas, most devout and religious of the nation. They wrere not Egyptians or Persians, or Greeks or Romans, worshippers of false gods; but children of
Abraham, men who studied Moses and the prophets, men well-read in the Scriptures, and worshippers of the one Jehovah. They were the choice men of a nation which had been trained up, for well-nigh two thousand years, m trie knowledge of God; with whom God had taken infinite pains, — to teach, to guide, to elevate, to keep from surrounding falsehoods, and superstitions, and sins. They were a people that knew more of truth, heavenly truth, than any other on the face of the earth. They were, beyond comparison, the best educated, most enlightened nation on the earth. No blessing had been grudged, no miracle withheld, no privilege refused, no cost spared, to make them the nation of nations, religiously, morally, and intellectually, nay, and physically as well. They were, then, the best specimens of the race, — the representatives of humanity in its best estate, — the exhibition of the natural man, improved to the uttermost, by knowledge, and law, and government, and religion.
It was to this people that Messiah was proposed, for reception or rejection. If they rejected him, who could be expected to receive him? If they hated him, who could be expected to love him? If they treated him with dishonour, who could be expected to honour him? If the best portion of the race, who had been expressly separated from the rest, and divinely trained, in order to be ready for his advent, refused him, what could be expected of the worst; what could be expected of the race as
160 THE CRO;S THE EXPRESSION”
a whole? As God gav3 Adam, and to our race in him, all advantages for standing, so did he give to Israel, and to our race in them, all advantages for receiving his Son. Yet, with all these advantages and privileges, they rejected him! “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Their cry was not, “Crown him,” but “Crucify him ;•” not, Let the King live for ever, but, Let him die the worst of deaths.
It was thus that man rejected Christ, — civilised man, educated man, religious man! It was thus that the natural heart spoke out, and shewTed the depths of its enmity and atheism, — the extent of its desperate unbelief. Yes, it was the unbelief of the human heart that here told itself out, and cried, “Crucify, crucify!”
All unbelief, then, is rejection of the Son of God. Whatever be its evasions, and subterfuges, and excuses, and fair pretences, this is its essence, — rejection of the Christ of God. In thousands of cases it does not reach the length of the rejection in Pilate’s hall; but not the less true is it that such is its true and ultimate form of expression; that to such a height all unbelief is tending, and would assuredly rise, did circumstances call it forth; and that the great reason why, in so many cases, it does not ripen into this awfulness of aspect, is, that man is not so directly confronted with the Son of God, face to face, and the natural heart is not so explicitly shut up to the choice between Christ and Barabbas, nor so immediately and peremptorily called to decide upon the reception or rejection of the Son of God. Were the natural heart, even in its best estate, called upon to speak out, by the demand being made upon it for immediate and unreserved affection and allegiance to Messiah, it would rise up into the same awful attitude of enmity, and manifest its unbelief, in the same terrific outcry for the crucifixion of the Son of God.
And why this desperate rejection; this feeling of man towards the Christ? For many reasons; but chiefly for this, that God’s religion, of which Christ is the beginning and the ending, is so thoroughly opposed to man’s religion, or man’s ideas of religion, that to accept Jesus of Nazareth would be a total surrender of self, a confession of the utter absence of all goodness, an overturning of every religious idea or principle, which the flesh had cherished and rested on. In such a case, and with such an alternative, it does not seem so incredible that man should resist to the uttermost the claims of Christ upon his faith and his heart. His alternative is, — the denial of self, or the denial of Christ; the rejection of his own claims to be his own saviour, or the rejection of the claims of Christ; the crucifixion of the flesh, or the crucifixion of Christ. With such an alternative, what will the natural unbelief of the human heart not resort to; and what but the almightiness of the Divine Spirit can effectually oppose the claims of self, and prevent the most daring rejection of Christ, or turn that rejection into a cordial and trustful reception? Nothing else will overcome the unbelief, or turn it into faith and love. Allow it to take its own way, and run its course, and it will end in the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. It will prefer self, the flesh, the devil, — the worst of criminals to Christ. “Not this man, but Barabbas!”
It is supposed by many that such a thing as the rejection of Christ could only have occurred among uneducated, uncivilized, lawless, irreligious men. But no.
Education will not hinder rejection of Christ. They who crucified Him were educated men; not ignorant and brutal.
Civilisation will not hinder rejection of Christ. It was the civilised Roman, and the more civilised Jew, that crucified him. Civilization is a poor rampart against the assault of man’s natural unbelief.
Law will not hinder rejection of Christ. The Roman is the representative of man’s law, and the Jew of God’s; yet both combine to reject Christ’s claims, and to crucify himself.
Religion will not hinder rejection of Christ. Christ was crucified by men who had more of what man calls religion than any other on the earth. They prayed, they lasted, they gave alms, they multiplied sacrifices; yet they crucified Christ! It was the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious and respectable men of Israel, that were the foremost in rejecting Messiah. God’s way of dealing with them, as announced by Christ, was so opposed to their ideas of the way in which they ought to be dealt with, that rejection of the claims of Jesus, and hatred of his person, were necessary elements in, or at least indispensable deductions from, their religion. How often among ourselves, does a man’s religion, or religiousness, or ritualism, form the great hindrance to his reception of the gospel! It is not Christ that is his religion; it is his religion that is his Christ! This being the case, the Christ of God cannot be prized, or loved, or trusted in; he can only be rejected, hated, crucified.
This rejection of Christ shewed itself in various aspects, in the different characters and events described by the evangelists, in this last scene in Jerusalem. In all of them, however, it is unbelief that is shewing itself, — the same unbelief that still induces opposition to Christ, the same unbelief that keeps an anxious sinner oftentimes so long in darkness and distrust. And, as we judge of the real nature of a thing best, when fully developed and carried out, so we learn the true nature of all unbelief, from the modes in which it expressed itself at this great scene of rejection, enacting at Jerusalem, from the hour that Judas sold his Master, up to the moment when the thief railed on him from the cross.
Look at Judas then, — there is unbelief. The traitor is neither more nor less than an unbelieving man carrying out his unbelief in betrayal of his Lord. His is the unbelief that treats Christ as a piece of merchandise, bought and sold between man and man! 0 unbelieving man, thou art Judas, thou art the traitor; for all unbelief is betrayal of the Lord.
Look at the disciples; “they all forsook him, and fled.” Professing to love him, they treated him as one unworthy to be suffered for. That act of forsaking was the unbelief even of the converted man, coming out and shewing itself again. Especially in Peter do we see it. In him there is open denial, and in that denial we see the old heart of unbelief again speaking out. 0 backslider! remember this, all unbelief is a forsaking of the Lord, a denial of the Master. Say what you will, this is your crime. You think you are not so bad as Peter. The difference is only in degree, hardly even that.
Look at Herod; he mocks him, and sets him at nought. Here is another phase of unbelief. 0 unbelieving man, thou art Herod; thou and thy companions are Herod with his men of war; for all unbelief is mockery of the Lord. Yon say you never mocked him; yet that unbelief, if unfolded, would make you a Herod.
Look at the Soldiers; they scourge and buffet him. There again is the natural heart acting itself out. These indignities and wounds are but another utterance of man’s enmity. 0 unbelieving man, thou art the executioner; for all unbelief is a buffeting and scourging of the Son of God.
Look at the Scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish crowds that demand his execution, and shout, “Crucify him! crucify him!” There is the evil heart of unbelief giving vent to itself. These crowds are fair specimens of the race; they are no worse than you are, 0 unbelieving man. In like circumstances, you would have said and done the same; for all unbelief is a crucifixion of the Son of God. Thou art the Scribe, thou art the Pharisee, thou art the vociferating Jew; it is the voice of thy unbelief that cries, “Crucify him! let him die the death, let him die the worst of deaths!”
Look at the thief that is nailed beside him; he rails at him there. Ah, surely unbelief might have been silent in such circumstances! Yet no; even upon the cross it reviles. 0 unbelieving man, thou art the reviler of the Son of God.
Look at the crowd around the cross; they wag their head, and taunt, and jest. It is still but man’s natural unbelief that is speaking out. 0 unbelieving man, thou art the taunter, thou art the jester, thou art the mocker, of Jesus of Nazareth.
Look at the soldier that pierces his side, after he has breathed his last. He is determined to make sure of his death. Unbelief will not bear the thought that there should be the very chance of life left. 0 unbelieving man, thou art the soldier: it is thy spear that is drawing out the blood and water; it is thy unbelief that not only says, Let him die the death; but, let us make sure of his death; let there be no mistake as to this.
Learn, then, the true nature of all unbelief; its deceitfulness and desperate malignity; its rooted hostility to Christ and to his claims upon man; its determination to be satisfied with nothing but his death; its resolute rejection of his person, and work, and grace; its natural and unchangeable watchword, “Not this man, but Barabbas; ’ “Crucify him! crucify him!”
Nor has this unbelief anything to say for itself. It cannot be accounted for by anything in the object presented. “They hated me without a cause ’ (John xv. 25). “For my love they give me hatred” (Ps. cix. 5). This is the plain statement of the fact. The object was most loveable, most trustworthy, most glorious; but man would have none of it. Here was the Being who, of all others, wTas most fitted to call up love and trust; for here was the only- begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; here wTas the embodiment of divine love and loveableness. But God’s love is met with man’s hatred; the most unambiguous revelation of divine love calls forth the most fearful utterance of human hatred and unbelief!
0 man! can that heart of yours be anything but evil, which thus deals with God and his love? Can that unbelief of yours be a trifle? Can it be anything but the most resolute and guilty enmity; enmity which, though it may often slumber for a season, yet which, the moment it awakes and recovers strength, breaks forth in mockery against the Son of God, and demands his instant condemnation and crucifixion, — “Crucify him! crucify him!” Be ashamed of it; abhor it; cast it utterly away.
When Christ comes again in his glory, how will unbelief appear? It will be seen to be rejection of the Son of God, — rejection the same as Israel’s. You will be of those that “pierced him.” All that distrust, these misgivings, that standing aloof, will be seen in their proper character. Your unbelief brings you amongst those who “have not obeyed the gospel,” and that brings you under the rod of him who comes to take vengeance upon such. Christ may come soon; but, whether or not, let the thought of the great day shut you up to immediate faith, immediate reception of Him whom Israel crucified.