The Cross of Christ

SELF IN PLACE OF CHRIST

Who was on that cross?-Self. The power of the cross of Christ is the power of His life, the power of an endless life. The power in our crosses was only the power of our own life, which is nothing, and could not bring us nearer to God. We were crucifying ourselves on our own crosses; and as we thought that those crosses were the cross of Christ, we were putting ourselves in the place of Christ. We were very antichrist ourselves. And all the time we were doing that, we were throwing stones at the Pope. Christ said those who were without sin might throw stones; and whoever indulges in stone-throwing, thereby tacitly proclaims himself to be sinless. CRCH 5.3

And those who do as described above are claiming that very thing; because the cross is a sacrifice for sin, and atonement for it, and they are “bearing the cross.” Didn’t we do this duty? Didn’t we perform that uncomfortable service? Didn’t we deny ourselves? And thus by all these crosses, had we not, in our own minds, freed ourselves from sin, so that we could throw stones at other people? Again we put the case rather strongly, perhaps, and yet we are assured that we are giving the experience of the natural heart. Many who have found Christ indeed testify to these old experiences, and there are many who are living through these experiences now, and are finding the way hard and wearisome and deceitful. CRCH 5.4