Attraction of the cross - Spring - XIII - Chapter 14 (The cross the test of character)

Required reading
The attraction of the cross by Gardiner Spring (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 14 (The cross the test of character).

My summary
Today Spring shows us how the cross tests the character of man.

The cross:
(i) presents a vivid manifestation of those excellences of the Divine character to which all wicked men are hostile, and in which all good men have high complacency;
(ii) establishes claims which wicked men are not disposed to admit, and in which good men cheerfully acquiesce;
(iii) implies allegations of sinfulness and ill-desert which the wicked deny, but which the righteous humbly acknowledge;
(iv) rejects the confidences on which wicked men rely, and which good men have been taught to renounce;
(v) reveals a happiness, which is very differently suited to the taste of men, as they themselves are holy or unholy.

What grabbed me
I liked this point best: 'The Cross speaks a language in relation to the sinfulness and ill-desert of men which cannot be misunderstood...The doctrine of salvation by the cross, is the doctrine of ruin by sin.  We find the only cause of the cross in the hopeless state of man without it.  That mighty movement in the government of God is the highest proof that man was sunk so low in guilt and perdition, that no finite remedy was adequate to his deliverance.  The greatness and malignity of the disease are discoverable in the Divine nature and wonderful method of the cure.  When we see the Eternal Son of God smitten by the sword of justice, and in the room and place of man, we no longer doubt that man is vile, and that he deserves that wrath of God, which, if endured in his own person, would sink him to perdition.  This is the reason why wicked men are so unwilling to look at the cross, and why good men desire, with angels, to look into the combined mysteries of its justice and its grace.'

The cross is detestable to many because it demonstrates that they are detestable.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 15 (The cross the preservation from final apostasy).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.