This shows us again that the cross is seen in all creation, for the everlasting power and divinity of God, even all that may be known of Him, are seen in the things that He has made. The power of God is seen in the things that are made, and the cross is the power of God. 1 Cor. 1:18. Out of weakness God brings strength; He saves men by death, so that even the dead may rest in hope. No man can be so poor, so weak and sinful, so degraded and despised, that he may not glory in the cross. The cross takes him just where he is, for it is the symbol of shame and degradation, and reveals the power of God in him, and in that there is ground for everlasting glory.
The cross cuts us off from the world. Glory! for then it unites us to God, because the friendship of the world is enmity with God; “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4. Through His cross Christ has destroyed the enmity. Eph. 2:15, 16. “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” Then let the world pass away.
“Fade, fade, each earthly joy, Jesus is mine; Break every tender tie, Jesus is mine. Dark is the wilderness; Earth has no resting-place; Jesus alone can bless; Jesus is mine.”
Jesus said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” This He said signifying what death He should die, namely, the death of the cross. He humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross; “wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” Phil. 2:8, 9. He descended “first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.” Eph. 4:9, 10. It was through death that He ascended to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. It was the cross that lifted Him up from earth to heaven. Therefore it is the cross alone that brings us glory, and so it is the only thing in which to glory. The cross, which means derision and shame from the world, lifts us away from this world, and sets us with Christ in the heavenly places; and the power by which it does this is “the power that worketh in us,” even the power that works in and upholds all things in the universe.