Our Chinese hymnal has approximately eight hundred hymns. Even though some of the hymns were selected from outside sources, none of them were simply copied exactly or compiled without being revised. Some originally were old English hymns that were spread to China one or two hundred years ago and translated into Chinese. When we adopted these hymns, we revised and edited all of them.
Among the collection of old hymns there were certainly some good ones, but even in these good hymns some of the wording was not according to the truth. For example, one hymn says, “In tenderness He sought me, / Weary and sick with sin, / And on His shoulders brought me / Into His flock again” (English Hymns, #1068). The original hymn speaks of being led back to His “fold,” which is not according to the Bible. The fold refers to Judaism as a religious organization. In John 10 the Lord said that He would lead His sheep out of the fold. He also said that there were other sheep which were not of this fold; He would lead them both and they would become one flock (v. 16). The fold is where the sheep are kept temporarily on winter nights, which signify times of trouble. Therefore, the fold is the product of abnormal times. However, the writers of the hymns in Christianity regard the fold as a pleasant thing. This was contradictory to the truth. The Lord Jesus leads people out from the fold, but the hymn writers have opened the fold wide again and called the sheep back in.
A century ago hymns written in English often ended with something related to the “heavenly mansion.” One of these hymns is based on the historical fact of the Israelites’ crossing the Jordan River and entering into the land of Canaan. Canaan is considered the heavenly mansion and the Jordan as the river of death. There are frequent references to things such as this. Therefore, although an original hymn was actually good, we still revised it, even if only one of the stanzas or a few of the sentences were not according to the truth. In our English hymnal every word and sentence of the eight hundred hymns we use were considered diligently. Afterward, the Chinese hymns were composed based on the English hymns.
Lesson eleven of Life Lessons is entitled “Knowing the Cross of Christ.” It begins by speaking of “the cross of Christ...according to the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory.” Here are three sources of requirements: righteousness, holiness, and glory. The Lord has fulfilled all these so that He “accomplished God’s eternal redemption for us...to become the basis of our eternal salvation.” Here we see both redemption and salvation. Salvation is different from redemption. Redemption was accomplished on the cross, while salvation is the application of the redemption of the cross to us. We receive redemption, and redemption becomes salvation to us. Therefore, redemption is objective and was accomplished on the cross, whereas salvation is subjective and is applicable to us. These are the things that we need to know.
First, we need to know that the cross was prophesied by God. Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf (Gal. 3:13). In verse 13 the Scripture says that Christ has become a curse on our behalf, but the Chinese Union Version says that Christ was cursed on our behalf. We need to see that Christ not only was cursed, but He actually became a curse on our behalf to redeem us out of the curse of the law. In Genesis 3 the first thing that happened to man after the fall was that he was cursed. Because of man’s fall sin came in; therefore, all of fallen mankind is under God’s curse. Thank Him, the Savior Christ came to fallen mankind, and having been born under law and being under the law, He became a curse on our behalf to bear our curse so that we would be redeemed out of the curse of the law. As it is written, “Cursed is everyone hanging on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). In this way we can see that the cross was prophesied by God.
The Old Testament also prophesied that crucifixion was not an ordinary punishment or execution but an extraordinary one. In the Old Testament there is a prophecy that uses the phrase “hang...on a tree” (Deut. 21:22). Therefore, when the apostle Peter spoke of the crucifixion of Christ in 1 Peter 2:24, he used a similar phrase: “Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree.” Galatians 3:13 also says, “Cursed is everyone hanging on a tree.” In the Old Testament the cross was prophesied at an early time, in Deuteronomy 21:22-23. The tree here refers to the cross that was made out of wood. In Deuteronomy the ordinance of the law which God established with man explicitly speaks of a man being cursed by hanging on a tree. As a result, the words in that ordinance became a prophecy, prophesying that Christ would hang on a tree, that is, be crucified on the cross.
Second, we should know that crucifixion was a Roman form of execution. The Jews cried to Pilate, saying, “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him!” Then Pilate, the Roman governor, said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar,” the ruler of the Roman Empire (John 19:15). This shows us that the punishment of crucifixion was a Roman form of execution. The Jewish form of execution was to stone a criminal to death (Deut. 22:24). However, about sixty years before the Lord’s birth, the Jewish nation fell to Rome. Not long before the Lord was put to death by the Roman governor, the Roman Empire had adopted crucifixion from other nations as the form of execution for the most evil persons.
Thus, when the Jews sought to kill the Lord, they crucified Him through the hands of the Roman governor, fulfilling God’s prophecy in Deuteronomy 21:23 concerning how the Lord would die. This was done by the sovereign hand of God. If the Roman Empire had not adopted crucifixion, or if the Jewish nation had not fallen to the control of the Roman Empire, or if the Romans had destroyed the Jewish nation, then the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus could not have taken place. This shows us the sovereign hand of God—to allow the Jewish nation to fall to Rome and to cause the Roman Empire to adopt crucifixion as the form of execution at that time. These were all for the preparation of the Lord’s death.