The most compelling drama in the Bible is the murder of the Son of God. From Genesis to Revelation, it is the central theme of Scripture. Forever it will be the theme of our song, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." The hands, feet, and side of the Lord Jesus Christ presently bear the marks of His redemptive work, as they did when He appeared in His resurrected body to the struggling disciple Thomas. We are called to remember the cross at all times. The Lord's Table was instituted for this very purpose: "to proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." 

Forgetfulness of the cross leads to complacency about our salvation, which leads to a life of sin. Peter said in 2 Peter 1:9 that he who is not increasing in godliness is "blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins." In other words, there is a direct relationship between sanctification and remembering his deliverance in salvation, which was purchased on the cross. 

There are times in life and ministry when I allow my heart to callous, my eyes to dry, and my knees to rest. When I sense that my soul is beginning to shrivel because the world is pressing in like this, there is one place I turn - to one of my favorite books of all time. The book is by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "The Power of the Cross of Christ." I keep this book within reach on my bookshelf because I need the penetrating meditations on the cross, where the Prince of Glory suffered and died. 

Jerry Bridges said in another favorite book of mine that if we are to draw upon God's grace for victorious Christian living, we must preach the Gospel to ourselves everyday, as believers! That does not mean that we ask God to save us over and again everyday, but that we remind ourselves with every breath that we are solely dependant upon God's grace, dispensed not because of our merit, but because of His great love with which He loved us, and showed it on the cross. Spurgeon's fabulous book will lead you there. 

Spurgeon is not so concerned with the theology of the cross, though that comes through, nor is he technical about the events of that wonderfully dreadful Friday morning. Spurgeon is a preacher who takes different portions of the crucifixion account and muses on them in language worthy of the Christ who hung there for our sins! Moreover, he takes those portions and shows how you might value the cross in a new and practical way. One of my favorite examples shows how needful it is to read this book, praying all the while, "Lord leave me here at the foot of the cross until I live every moment in its shadow." 

While thus we admire his condescension let our thoughts also turn with delight to his sure sympathy: for if Jesus said, "I thirst," then he knows all our frailties and woes. The next time we are in pain or are suffering depression of spirit we will remember that our Lord understands it all, for he has had practical, personal experience of it. Neither in torture of body nor in sadness of heart are we deserted by our Lord; his line is parallel with ours. The arrow which has lately pierced you, my brother, was first stained with his blood. The cup of which you are made to drink, though it be very bitter, bears the mark of his lips about its brim. He has traversed the mournful way before you, and every footprint you leave in the sodden soil is stamped side by side with his footmarks. Let the sympathy of Christ, then, be fully believed in and deeply appreciated, since he said, "I thirst."

From the Back Cover

Long before the megachurch, nearly 6,000 people crowded every service to hear Charles Spurgeon.  Discover why his masterful preaching astonished his era!

Spanning nearly four decades, Charles Spurgeon's remarkable pastoral and evangelistic ministry in the city of London during the 1800's built the Metropolitan Tabernacle into the world's largest independent congregation.  no building seemed big enough to house all those who wanted to hear the passionate biblical expositor who spoke the language of the common people and met them at the point of the deepest need.

At the core of Spurgeon's preaching was the work of Jesus Christ in His life, death, and resurrection.  Spurgeon was thoroughly convinced that "the doctrine of the precious blood, when it gets into the heart, drives error out of it and sets up the throne of truth."  His messages on the cross of Christ resonate with the amazing wonder of our reconciliation to God as well as the reason why a believer should put away sin from his life.

Come with Charles Spurgeon and glimpse the cross of Christ as he saw it.  Listen as he describes Christ's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the suffering of Christ on the Cross, the powerful words spoken from the cross, and finally the death of Christ.  Life-changing messages await you.

About the Author

Charles Haddon Surgeon (1834-1892) was the remarkable British "Boy Preacher of the Fens" who became one of the truly greatest preachers of all time.  coming from a flourishing country pastorate in 1854, he accepted a call to pastor London's New Park Street Chapel.  This building soon proved too small and so work on Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle was begun in 1859.  Meanwhile his weekly sermons were being printed and having a remarkable sale -- 25,000 copies every week in 1865 and translated into more than twenty languages.

Spurgeon built the Metropolitan Tabernacle into a congregation of over 6,000 and added well over 14,000 members during his thirty-eight-year London ministry.  The combination of his clear voice, his mastery of language, his sure grasp of Scripture, and a deep love for Christ produced some of the noblest preaching of any age.  An astounding 3,561 sermons have been preserved in sixty-three volumes, The New Park Street Pulpit and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, from which the chapters of this book have been selected and edited.

During his lifetime, Spurgeon is estimated to have preached to 10,000,000 people.  He remains history's most widely read preacher.  There is more available material written by Spurgeon than by any other Christian author, living or dead.  his sixty-three volumes of sermons stand as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity, comprising the equivalent to the twenty-seven volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.