Book Review: The Cross He Bore

I regularly look for and purchase and read books about Jesus Christ — and particularly Christ and the cross.

The cross is of first importance for the believer. We cannot think about it too much. We often think about it too little.

So when I read an encouragement by Tim Challies to purchase The Cross He Bore, I was intrigued. When he wrote about it again, I got online and ordered a copy.

I finished reading it yesterday. I will look to it and read it again.

The size of the book is unimpressive (exactly 100 pages, divided into 13 chapters that each stand alone in their content).

But the writing is superb. In each chapter, Leahy contemplates a single verse, focusing on some aspect of the preparation for or the crucifixion of Christ itself. The texts are all familiar, but his insights are almost always unique, sobering, and helpful for worship and communion preparation.

An example. In the chapter, "The Butt of Mockery," considering Matthew 26:67-68, he writes this:

Many hands were raised against him, both human and demonic, but Christ knew that there was one hand above all others that smote him. And as he bore our sins that hand did not spare him. 'It was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief…' (Isa. 53:10).

In the same chapter, he later he adds,

…in many ways all Christians fail to be as sensitive to the presence of evil as they should be. But the sinless one was totally sensitive to the presence of evil. We must not, therefore, limit his redemptive sufferings to the last few days of his life before the crucifixion and to his actual agony on the cross. William Symington rightly affirms, 'In every case He suffered for us, never for Himself'; and he adds, 'Not one throb of pain did He feel, not one pang of sorrow did He experience , not one sigh of anguish did He heave, not one tear of grief did He shed for Himself. If not one of His sufferings was personal, it follows that they were all substitutionary…'. During the whole period of his [earthly] life the Saviour 'was a-slaying'.

And writing about the cup of judgment given to Him by the Father, Leahy says this:

The cup that the Father placed in the Son's hands was brimful of wrath and judgment. Its every drop brought torment. Yet this cup he would drink to the glory of God! This cup he would drink in honour of God's holiness and righteousness. This cup of death he would drink in order that not one of his people might ever taste a single drop of it. 'Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?' (John 18:11). Yes, indeed! He would drink it to its dregs. He would drain that cup. Not one drop would be left.

Similar insights abound throughout the book. Not only does Leahy instruct the mind, but he stimulated my heart into deeper gratitude and affection for Christ — the very thing a book about the cross should do!