Cross Quotes: April 7

By Christ Death Was Destroyed

Death used to be strong and terrible, but now, since the sojourn of the Savior and the death and resurrection of His body, it is despised; and obviously it is by the very Christ Who mounted on the cross that it has been destroyed and vanquished finally. When the sun rises after the night and the whole world is lit up by it, nobody doubts that it is the sun which has thus shed its light everywhere and driven away the dark. Equally clear is it, since this utter scorning and trampling down of death has ensued upon the Savior’s manifestation in the body and His death on the cross, that it is He Himself Who brought death to nought and daily raises monuments to His victory in His own disciples. How can you think otherwise, when you see men naturally weak hastening to death, unafraid at the prospect of corruption, fearless of the descent into Hades, even indeed with eager soul provoking it, not shrinking from tortures, but preferring thus to rush on death for Christ’s sake, rather than to remain in this present life? If you see with your own eyes men and women and children, even, thus welcoming death for the sake of Christ’s religion, how can you be so utterly silly and incredulous and maimed in your mind as not to realize that Christ, to Whom these all bear witness, Himself gives the victory to each, making death completely powerless for those who hold His faith and bear the sign of the cross? …Doubt no longer, then, when you see death mocked and scorned by those who believe in Christ, that by Christ death was destroyed, and the corruption that goes with it resolved and brought to end.

—Athanasius On the Incarnation

(I think this may be the same passage that Brandon Watson quoted yesterday, just a different translation. But I had this queued up already, so I’m going ahead with it.)

Other Cross Quotes

• Brandon has a quote from John of Damascus posted today. I’ll try not to copy that one.
• Update: Dorothy of Field Stone Cottage quotes a text of scripture.
• Update 2: Pam quotes John Murray at a rustling of leaves….

During this week in which Christians commemorate Christ’s death and resurrection, I plan to post daily quotes about Christ’s work on the cross. You are invited to join me. Just post a quote having to do with Christ’s death and/or resurrection and let me know about it in a comment here or by emailing me using the Contact link right below the header. I’ll link back to your post.

I think it’d be a wonderful thing to saturate our corner of the blogosphere and beyond with the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection.

I Started a Fight (con't.)

Episode 4: The Phone Call

(You may want to read Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3 to learn the back story.)

As we pick up the story, I am just waking on the Thursday morning after I attended an evening Bible study with my sister at her church. During the study, I had a short discussion with the teacher over the reason God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. The teacher had disagreed with me strongly, calling my view that God planned from the beginning for humankind to fall “twisted theology.” But it had been a short discussion and I hadn’t pushed my point much. I assumed, as I left, that the discussion was over.

But I was wrong. I woke Thursday morning to the sounds of the phone ringing. My sister took the phone call, and I could tell it was from the teacher of the previous night’s study. I could also tell he was at least animated, if not agitated, and he wanted to continue the discussion.

(If you are reading with a feed reader, now’s when you click through to read the rest.)

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Cross Quotes: April 6

(Scroll down for updates with quotes that are posted on other blogs during the day.)

They Are the Murders of Christ!

A sight of Christ on the cross will cause us to hate our sins. If you ever, by the eye of faith, see Jesus Christ dying for you, sin will never be sweet to you again. What was it slew our blessed Lord? It was our sin! “It was you, my sins, my cruel sins, his chief tormentors were; each of my crimes became a nail, and unbelief the spear.” When we discover that our iniquities put our dearest and best friend to death, we vow revenge against our iniquities, and henceforth hate them with a perfect hatred.

Let me illustrate this very simply—Here is a knife, with a richly carved ivoryhandle, a knife of excellent workmanship. Yonder woman, we will suppose, has had a dear child murdered by a cruel enemy. This knife is hers, she is pleased with it, and prizes it much. How can I make her throw that knife away? I can do it easily, for that is the knife with which her child was killed. Look at it; there is blood still upon the handle. She drops it as though it were a scorpion; she cannot bear it. “Put it away,” says she, “it killed my child! Oh, hateful thing!”

Now, sin is such a thing—we play with it until we are told it was sin that killed the Lord Jesus, who died out of love to us—pure, self sacrificing love. Then we say, “Hateful thing, get you gone! How can I endure you?”

See there the wounds of the Son of God; behold the crimson stains which mark his blessed body; mark the thorn-crown; gaze upon the pierced hands; weep over the nailed feet; see the deep gash which thelance made in his side! Sin did this cruel work, this bloody deed!

Down with our sins! Drag them to the cross! Slay them at Calvary! Let not one of them escape, for they are the murderers of Christ!

—Charles Sprugeon in his sermon Ephraim Bemoaning Himself

During this week in which Christians commemorate Christ’s death and resurrection, I plan to post daily quotes about Christ’s work on the cross. You are invited to join me. Just post a quote having to do with Christ’s death and/or resurrection and let me know about it in a comment here or by emailing me using the Contact link right below the header. I’ll link back to your post.

I think it’d be a wonderful thing to saturate our corner of the blogosphere and beyond with the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Update on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 2:02PM by rebecca

• At Plain Ol’ Vanilla, we have a quote from Philip Ryken on why the cross was not offensive to Jesus.

Update on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 5:11PM by rebecca

• At Hiraeth, Kim has posted a quote from Jonathan Edwards.