I will pick up from where we left off in Part 1 of Notes on Alexander MacLaren’s Sermon “The Cross the Proof” – Learning to Live by Faith and start writing notes about Alexander MacLaren’s sermon “The Cross the Proof.” Here is a link to the full sermon: The Cross the Proof by Alexander Maclaren | SermonIndex. The text he is preaching on is Romans 5:8 KJV in which the apostle Paul says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

MacLaren begins his sermon by explaining that the word “proves” conveys the full sense of what is being said in this verse rather than the word “commends.” He says that the word “commends” means to speak of persons or things with praise or confidence. Another definition for “commend” is to present something as suitable for approval or acceptance; to recommend something. MacLaren says that if the word “commend” is used in this verse, it would mean that the death of Christ sets forth the greatness, the excellence, the transcendency, of God’s love in a manner to win our hearts. The meaning of the verse would be: God recommends His love to us in the death of Christ; or God presents His love to us as suitable for approval or acceptance in the death of Christ. While those are true statements, MacLaren says there is more meaning than that in the words of this verse and that it would be more accurate to use the word “proves.”  MacLaren says, “The expression here employed strictly means ‘to set two things side by side,’ and it has two meanings in the New Testament, both derived from that original signification.” Sometimes it means to set two persons side by side, in order to introduce and recommend the one to the other. And sometimes it means to set two things side by side, in order to confirm or prove the one by the other. He says that the expression is used in the latter sense here of confirming/proving one thing by the other. When the expression is used this way, the meaning of the verse is not merely that God “commends” or recommends His love to us as praiseworthy, excellent, and transcendent, but actually “proves” His love for us in the death of Christ. MacLaren says, “[Christ’s death] is the one evidence which makes that often-doubted fact (of God’s love) certain. Through it alone is it possible to hold the conviction that, in spite of all that seems to contradict the belief, God is Love. And so I wish to take the words in this sermon.”

The Need for Proof That God Does Love

MacLaren says, “To hear some men speak, you would suppose that one of the simplest, clearest, and most indisputable of all convictions was the love of God.” But there are also “people found in plenty who reject the distinctive teaching of Christianity because they say that the sterner aspects of the evangelical faith seem to them to limit, or to contradict, the great fundamental truth of all religion, as they take it, that God is Love.” MacLaren says that he thinks that “instead of the love of God being a plain, self-evident axiom, there needs [to be] evidence to give it a secure lodging-place amongst our settled beliefs.” And that evidence is Jesus’ death on the cross.

MacLaren asks, “Do the world’s religions bear out the contention that it is so easy and natural for a man to believe in a loving God? I think not.” He makes an interesting point that if you look at the gods in mythology, the gods were not loving like God is towards us. He says, if you look at “all that assemblage of beings before whom mankind has bowed down. What would you find? Gods cruel, gods careless, gods capricious, gods lustful, gods mighty, gods mysterious, gods pitying — with a contempt mingled with the pity — their sorrows and follies of mankind. But in all the pantheons there is not a loving god.” So when MacLaren asked the question of if the world’s religions bear out the contention that it is so easy and natural for a man to believe in a loving God, the answer would be no. I think he is saying that throughout history, people have readily believed in gods that were not loving and people living today still have so many doubts about God’s love. Therefore, there needs to be evidence of God’s love given to people for them to have it as a settled belief in their hearts that God is love. MacLaren says, “It is Christ who has brought the fire of this conviction (that God is love), in the broken reed of His dying flesh, and lodged it in the heart of humanity. So I say the love of God, as is proved by men’s thoughts about Him, surely needs to be established on a basis of unmistakable evidence.”

Next, MacLaren says that all other evidences are insufficient. He then goes on to talk about the evidences of God in creation. He says they are insufficient to prove the love of God because people can still have doubts. He says, “you speak of the goodness of God around us. What about storms, earthquakes, disasters, contrivances of producing pain, the law of destruction by which the creatures live by the slaying of one another – what about all these things? ‘Nature, red in tooth and claw with rapine, shrieks against the creed,’ that God is Love. And if we have nothing but the evidence of nature, it seems to me that there are two voices speaking there: One says, ‘There is a good God;’ the other says, ‘Either His power is limited, or His goodness is partial’.”

We can talk about this more over time, but I will quickly say right now just to make a note of it that storms, earthquakes, and animals killing each other only started taking place after the fall. Life was completely peaceful and balanced for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Then when Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered the world and brought in destruction, death, decaying, and imbalances in the environment. So, life was completely peaceful before the fall of mankind and life will be completely peaceful again when we are in heaven. There are verses that indicate there will be animals in heaven and  that animals will not be fighting there. We will be at perfect peace and rest because sin and all of its effects will have been removed.

Returning to the point MacLaren is making, he is saying that the evidences of God in creation are insufficient to prove the love of God because people can still have doubts. We have talked before about how there are 2 types of revelation: general revelation and special revelation. Here are some quotes from an article about this topic on Biblehub.com:

What are General and Special Revelation?

Definition of Revelation

Revelation refers to the ways God makes Himself known. This includes both the broad evidence of His existence and nature, as well as the more specific, direct communications of His will and redemptive plan. The concept of revelation underscores that humanity does not discover God solely by human effort; rather, God graciously discloses Himself so that people can know Him.

General Revelation Explained

General Revelation refers to knowledge about God that is available to everyone through the created world, human conscience, and history. It encompasses all the ways God’s power, wisdom, and moral law are revealed to every individual, regardless of culture, time, or place.

Scriptural Support for General Revelation

… Paul writes here that the natural world testifies to God’s undeniable power and character, so that anyone willing to observe creation can perceive that a Creator must exist.

Limitations of General Revelation

While general revelation conveys God’s existence and attributes to all, it does not exhaustively unveil the fullness of His plan for humanity. Observing nature or feeling that “something larger” exists does not answer specific questions about salvation, grace, or the historical events crucial to faith. Thus, general revelation alone is not sufficient for a complete understanding of the gospel.

Special Revelation Defined

Special Revelation refers to God’s direct communication of truth to individuals, groups, or humanity as a whole. This category encompasses the Scriptures, the prophets, dreams and visions recorded in biblical events, and supremely, the person of Jesus Christ.

Scriptural Basis for Special Revelation

Throughout Scripture, God discloses specific information about His nature, purposes, and plan for redemption in a manner that surpasses what can be gleaned solely from nature…

The Incarnation and Its Centrality

Special revelation culminates in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh (John 1:14). God’s eternal Son took on human nature, lived on earth, taught about God’s kingdom, died for sin, and rose again. These historical events are crucial because they provide the means of salvation – something that nature alone cannot convey.

Convergence of General and Special Revelation

While general revelation points to a divine Creator, special revelation clarifies specific truths of God’s nature, His holiness, the necessity of reconciliation with Him, and the way to eternal life. Both streams of revelation testify to the same God. Creation lays the groundwork for acknowledging His existence; Scripture and the person of Jesus provide the knowledge of His character, commands, and plan of salvation.

Conclusion

General revelation and special revelation are both vital expressions of how God makes Himself known. From nature’s testimony to the precise records contained in Scripture, these revelations unite to proclaim God’s reality, character, and redemptive plan. Their comprehensive harmony ensures that no sincere seeker is left without a witness that points to the Creator and His offer of salvation. What are General and Special Revelation?

MacLaren says, “The same ambiguous issue comes from the evidence of human life. Ah! brethren, we have only to look into our own lives and to look round upon the awful sights that fill the world to make the robustest faith in the goodness and love of God stagger, unless it can stay itself against the upright stem of the cross of Christ. Sentimentalists may talk, but the grim fact of human suffering, of wretched, hopeless lives, rises up to say that there is no evidence broad and deep and solid enough, outside of Christianity, to make it absolutely certain that God is Love.”

That is important imagery that we can use in our meditation time when he says that our faith in the goodness and love of God must stay itself against the upright stem of the cross of Christ. “Stay” means to secure upright with or as if with. So if our faith is staggering – wavering, or reeling from side to side – we must secure our faith with the upright cross of Christ. He will help us to stand strong in our faith in Him.

MacLaren says, “There is another thing that makes necessary some irrefutable proof far firmer and [better] than any of these that I have been referring to. That is, that conscience rises up and protests, when it is awake, against such a notion, apart from the cross. Everybody who honestly takes stock of himself and conceives of God in any measure aright, must feel that sin has come in to disturb all the relations between God and man. And when once a man comes to say, ‘I feel that I am a sinful man, and that God is a righteous God; how can I expect that His love will distill in blessings upon my head?’ there is only one answer – ‘Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’

So, for all these reasons I venture to lay it down as a principle, in spite of [modern] teaching of another sort, that the love of God is not a self-evident axiom, but needs to be proved.”

I will stop here for today. In my next post we will keep going through MacLaren’s sermon where he will explain how Jesus’ death on the cross proves the love of God.