Creation and the Cross

 The eternal power of God is clearly seen in the things that He has made. Romans 1:20. Creation is the measure of God’s power. Not that anyone save God can measure it, because it is infinite; but the power manifested in creation is the same power that saves men from sin. Romans 1:16, 17. So, the Gospel is simply creative power applied to sinful men. (See Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17). But the preaching of the cross is also the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17, 18, 23, 24. Christ crucified is the power and the wisdom of God, and so it is the Gospel. On the cross Christ shed His blood to reconcile us to God, in the forgiveness of our sins. Colossians 1:14; Romans 5.9, 10. The blood is the life (Leviticus 17.11, 14); so that it is the taking of the life of Christ that reconciles us to God. But we have redemption through His blood, because in Him were all things created. Colossians 1:14-16. He is the source of the creation. Romans 1:14. All created things sprang from His life. So that the power of the cross, by which we are saved, is the power by which the worlds were made. Thus it is that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, or a new creation. Only as we consider the power of God as manifested in creation, can we learn the wonderful power of the cross. David said, “For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy works; I will triumph in the works of Thy hands.” And Paul wrote, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And both of them gloried and triumphed in the same thing.