Scripture: "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."—ACTS ii. 36.
We have spoken of Christ as King in more than one respect. But there is one word more that may not be lacking. This King is none other than the crucified Jesus. All that we have to say of Him, His divine power, His abiding presence, His wonderful love, does not teach us to know Him aright unless we maintain the deep consciousness: This our King is the crucified Jesus. God hath placed Him in the midst of His throne as a Lamb, as it had been slain, and it is thus that the hosts of heaven adore Him. It is thus that we worship Him as a King.
Christ's cross is His highest glory. It is through this that He has conquered every enemy and gained His place on the throne of God. And it is this that He will impart to us too if we are to know fully what the victory over sin is to mean. When Paul wrote: "I have been crucified with Christ, Christ liveth in me," he taught us that it was as the crucified One that Christ ruled on the throne of His heart, and that the spirit of the cross would triumph over us as it did in Him.
This was true of the disciples. This was their deepest preparation for receiving the Holy Spirit. They had with their Lord been crucified to the world. The old man had been crucified: in Him they were dead to sin and their life was hid with Christ in God. Each one of us needs to experience this fellowship with Christ in His cross if the Spirit of Pentecost is really to take possession of us. It was through the Eternal Spirit that Christ gave Himself a sacrifice and became the King on the throne of God. It is as we become "comformable to His death," in the entire surrender of our will, in the entire self-denial of our old nature, in the entire separation from the spirit of this world, that we can become the worthy servants of a crucified King, and our hearts the worthy temples of His glory.
