I
am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20
I
want to tell you what perhaps the greatest Christian who ever lived
(the Apostle Paul) thought of the cross of Christ. Believe me, the cross
is of deepest importance. This is no mere question of controversy; this
is not one of those points on which men may agree to differ and feel
that differences will not shut them out of heaven. A man must be right
on this subject, or he is lost forever. Heaven or hell, happiness or
misery, life or death, blessing or cursing in the last day – all hinges
on the answer to this question: “What do you think about the cross of Christ?”
Let me show you:
What the apostle Paul did not glory in.
What Paul did glory in.
Why all Christians should think and feel about the cross like Paul.
About the Author John
Charles Ryle (1816-1900) graduated from Eton and Oxford and then
pursued a career in politics, but due to lack of funds, he entered the
clergy of the Church of England. He was a contemporary of Spurgeon,
Moody, Mueller, and Taylor and read the great theologians like Wesley,
Bunyan, Knox, Calvin, and Luther. These all influenced Ryle’s
understanding and theology. Ryle began his writing career with a tract
following the Great Yarmouth suspension bridge tragedy, where more than a
hundred people drowned. He gained a reputation for straightforward
preaching and evangelism. He travelled, preached, and wrote more than
300 pamphlets, tracts, and books, including Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Principles for Churchmen, and Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century.
Ryle used the royalties from his writing to pay his father’s debts, but
he also felt indebted to that ruin for changing the direction of his
life. He was recommended by Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to be
Bishop of Liverpool where he ended his career in 1900.