Heaven blares about the cross!

Yesterday in the Adult Bible Fellowships at my church, the teacher spoke to us on Isaiah 53. I heard a message recently by C.J. Mahaney on this text which made a great impression upon me. As Charles Spurgeon said, "This chapter contains a topic that is worthy of an angel's tongue; it needs Christ Himself to expound it." This chapter is the Bible in miniature and the gospel in its essence.

Derek Tidball in The Message of the Cross submits, “Here then is the one of the peaks of the OT revelation of God. From its summit we can look across the intervening centuries and see the distant coming of Christ. From our vantage point we obtain a clear view of His work on the far off summit of Calvary and gain a definitive perspective on its meaning. This song takes us to the heart of the human problem and to the heart of the divine mind.”

And Franz Deilitzch thought, "It looks as if it had been written beneath the cross upon Golgotha."

This prophetic chapter depicts our crucified Lord and “When we behold the disfigurement of the Son of God, when we find ourselves appalled by his marred appearance, we need to reckon afresh that it is upon ourselves we gaze for he stood in our place.” (Calvin).

“Jesus Christ, who was moved to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the divine judgment for which I was otherwise inescapably destined. So he won for us forgiveness, adoption, and glory. To affirm penal substitution is to say that believers are in debt to Christ for this and this is the mainspring of all their joy, peace, and praise both now and for eternity.' (J. I. Packer)

The OT prophet focuses our attention on the cross. So do the Gospels. And Paul shows us that apostolic preaching featured Christ and Him crucified! Even in the book of Revelation the emphasis on the cross is great. It seems as if heaven does not get over the cross as if there are better things to think about. Oh no, heaven is cross centered and "quite blaring about it" (Jim Eliff).

If heaven is quite blaring about the cross, then may we never get over it. May we never be less than increasing amazed with the cross. For there Jesus suffered for us because of our sins!