FIRST DAY. The Redemption of the Cross.
第一日 十 字 架 的 救 贖
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” – GAL. iii. I3.
Scripture teaches us that there are two points of view from which we may regard Christ’s death upon the cross. The one is the redemption of the cross: Christ dying for us as our complete deliverance from the curse of sin. The other, the fellowship of the cross: Christ taking us up to die with Him, and making us partakers of the fellowship of His death in our own experience.
In our text we have three great unsearchable thoughts. The law of God has pronounced a curse on all sin and on all that is sinful. Christ took our curse upon Him, yea, became a curse, and so destroyed its power, and in that cross we now have the everlasting redemption from sin and all its power. The cross reveals to us man’s sin, as under the curse, Christ becoming a curse and so overcoming it, and our full and everlasting deliverance from the curse.
In these thoughts the lost and most hopeless sinner finds a sure ground of confidence and of hope. God had indeed in Paradise pronounced a curse upon this earth and all that belongs to it. On Mount Ebal, in connection with giving the law, half of the people of Israel were twelve times over to pronounce a curse on all sin. And there was to be in their midst a continual reminder of it: “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Deut. xxi. 23, xxvii. I5-20). And yet who could ever have thought that the Son of God Himself would die upon the accursed tree, and become a curse for us?
But such is in very deed the Gospel of God’s love, and the penitent sinner can now rejoice in the confident assurance that the curse is for ever put away from all who believe in Christ Jesus.
The preaching of the redemption of the cross is the foundation and centre of the salvation the Gospel brings us. To those who believe its full truth it is a cause of unceasing thanksgiving. It gives us boldness to rejoice in God. There is nothing which will keep the heart more tender towards God, enabling us to live in His love, and to make Him known to those who have never yet found Him. God be praised for the redemption of the cross!
“基督為了我們受了咒詛，救贖我們脫離律法的咒詛”。（加三：13）
當我們思想基督死在十字架上時，聖經就指教我們有關的兩件事：第一是十字架的救贖：基督的死使我們完全脫離罪的刑罰；其次是十字架的交通：由於我們與基督一同釘死在十字架上，因此在交通中分享了祂死的經歷。
在今天的經文有三個極大的思想：神的律法對罪和所有犯罪的人宣佈了刑罰；基督為我們受了咒詛（刑罰）因此除去罪的權勢，藉著十字架我們現在有永遠從罪和其權勢力得贖；十字架向我們人因有罪本應受到刑罰，但基督代替並且勝過了，救我們完全而永遠脫離其刑罰。
這些思想使本來迷失而無助的罪人因此有信心和希望的確據，神在樂園中已宣佈地和其上萬物的刑罰，在以巴路山神再次重申律法，向一半的以色列人十二次的宣佈各樣罪的刑罰，而且“被掛的都是神所咒詛的”。（申二十一：23，二十七：15-20）但他們又如何能想到神的兒子，卻親自掛在木頭上擔當我們的刑罰？神的愛卻在福音裏實在表現出來，以使所有相信基督耶穌的人都得免其刑罰。
傳揚十字架救贖的福音，是我們得到永遠救恩的基礎，對於那些相信這福音是完全真的人，因此有說不盡的感謝。我們無法向神保持易碎的心，然而卻能活在祂的愛裏，並使相信而得救的人認識祂，神啊；我為十字架的救贖向祢獻上讚美。
