Pardons and Sanctifies Me
Let’s listen to verse 3 of The Old Rugged Cross, and my friend Samuel Simalinga sings it today:
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine
A wondrous beauty I see
For twas on that old cross, Jesus suffered and died
To pardon and sanctify me
I love that line about the cross being stained with blood so divine. We tend to make ornaments of the cross today. And they're beautiful and clean and pure. But the cross would have been stained with blood. It would have had holes from the nails. It would have been quite a gruesome sight.
The Beauty of the Cross
But the songwriter says, “in that old, rugged cross stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see”. A beauty because it “was on that old cross that Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me”. That's a beautiful, beautiful verse. Do you look at the cross with great awe and wonder because of the beautiful act that Jesus did there? You see on that cross Jesus gave himself up. He was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world by dying and atoning for the world’s sins.
God is a holy God and He needs sins to be washed away. He can't be in the presence of sin. And so Jesus came and said, “I'll take that sin on me, become a curse and bear the sins of the world, bleed and suffer so that those who place their faith in me can go free for eternity.”
That last line says it all. “He suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me.” This is amazing, friends. Jesus died on the cross because it would affect, number one, the pardon or the forgiveness of those who placed their faith in him. In other words, you don't need to live in shame. You don't need to think, “I'm too bad.” Nobody's too bad to come to the cross. The blood that he shed can wash away even the worst, most awful sin. His pardon awaits if you come to the cross and place your faith in him.
The Power of Pardon and Sanctification
And then, even better news, friends, it's to pardon and sanctify us that he died. Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection broke the power of darkness for those who would come to him. And so, instead of living under sin's curse, we can be sanctified or made wholly cleansed from our sins, and walk in the light and love of Christ!
The old rugged cross may be stained with blood, but it's a wondrous, wondrous thing because those who fall at the cross in repentance find the pardon of God, the forgiveness and the power of God as they stand up and go on with their lives.
Come to the cross today. And may the blood of Christ pardon you and sanctify you.
