Focus: God's Altar

Text: Ex.20:25

"And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."

The altar represents the cross of Christ, and it is from there that the mercy flows to the sinners, and it is from there that the prayer of the saints ascends to God in heaven. The cross of Christ is the meeting point between heaven and earth and between God and man. 

For ages the cross of Christ has been described as 'the old rugged cross.' The sinless blood of the Son of Man was shed on it. Beholding that cross on which Christ died, you will see no desirable beauty. It's an ugly sight. Isaiah tells us that Christ "shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa.53:2). He goes on to say that "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (Isa.53:3). From the beginning of His ministry to the moment He died on the cross He was treated with disdain and greeted with rejection by the establishment and the powers that be. The misguided crowd shouted, "Crucify him, crucify him." Isaiah speaks on, "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isa.53:4). Our Savior Christ Jesus says through Isaiah, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting" (Isa.50:6). Indeed, His face was marred beyond recognition. His body was brutalized and bruised. His hands and feet were nailed to His wooden cross. Isaiah declares, "As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men" (Isa.52:14). He was pierced by His side, scorned, mocked, ridiculed and humiliated. Christ bore it all and endured the worst kind of betrayal, abuse and pain. He was killed like a criminal and suffered extreme torture in the hands of all humanity. The meanest form of injustice was meted out to Him. 

The cross of Christ reveals both the worst of man and the best of God, the strength of man and the weakness of God, the cleverness of man and the seeming foolishness of God.

God tells Moses to set up an altar of stones, and the stones must not be hewn stones. God did not allow any form of human instruments like hammer or chisel. The stones need no trimming or beautifying. Fleshly means are needless. Carnal garnishing is not allowed. Nothing to be added to the stones or subtracted from them. Moses must leave the stones as they were - no fancy, no decoration. No improvement or alteration. Any attempt to work on the stones amount to pollution or defilement.

The beauty and power of the cross of Christ are in its ugliness, ruggedness, roughness, or nakedness. We must preach it without removing its rough edges, for that is where the power to save lies. The cross causes offense - a stumbling block. Paul says, "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness" (1Cor.1:23). The cross is lackluster and offensive to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

When Jesus Christ told His followers about the cross and the suffering involved, Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him for saying such a thing. The cross is offensive, but the power to save the sinner and change his life forever flows from it.

The cross of Jesus Christ is Jacob's ladder. It is the link between heaven and earth. It is the way to heaven. Even angels are said to be ascending and descending from it. The cross is the end of the man we were in Adam and the beginning of the man we were originally meant to be in Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is the one who opens our eyes to see the beauty hidden in the ugliness of the cross and makes us to joyfully welcome into our hearts all that the cross spiritually signifies.

The Spirit gives us the revelation of the cross and exposes us to all its heavenly charms. Paul declares, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal.6:14). Paul took pride in the cross of Christ. He boasted of the grace of Christ and the glory of His cross. He says, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1Cor.2:2). All that mattered to Paul was the crucified and resurrected Christ. He makes a bold declaration, "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Gal.6:17). Hallelujah! What a man! 

To the man of faith, the cross is the wonder of all wonders. The cross is forever the altar of God. It cannot be tampered with or altered in any way. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, still bears the scars of the slain. Bow before this altar of God, which is the cross of Christ, and worship Him in truth and in spirit. Let your whole life be regulated by the standard or principle of this divine Christ-centered altar. Someone has said that "it is to the Cross that the Christian is challenged to follow his Master: no path of redemption can make a detour around it."

by Bishop Moses E. Peter