The Death of Christ.
Zion's Advocate, November 1902, Vol. 41, No. 11, Part 2.
The precious hands of Jesus were employed in blessing while they were unfettered, but when spiked to the cross they blessed more powerfully than ever before. A few only were blessed by them while they were free, but when torn and bleeding the happy destiny of a countless multitude was infallibly secured. Every track made by his sacred feet was a holy track, but as they writhed with dreadful pain upon the rugged post of the cross they left a print that will result in the overthrow of all the enemies of his chosen people.But how wonderful is the sight! Look at him as he hangs, while streams of blood fall from his wounds and bedew the place of torture! That blood "speaketh better things than that of Abel." It is the blood of the everlasting covenant. Without this there could have been no forgiveness; hence it was "shed for many for the remission of sins." Through the death of the Prince of peace what is black becomes as white as snow, and what is polluted becomes as pure as the light of the sun -- aye, as pure as the suffering Saviour himself. The furious waves of the curse of the violated law break against this mysterious cross, and the thunder-bolt which would have crushed the entire human race is turned from the chosen family of God by this effectual conductor. Redemption from sin is thus effected, and a sure title to eternal glory is secured. It was this death that reconciled sinners to God, and all thus reconciled will be saved by the life of him who died. This is his eternal, priceless legacy to the church. He suffered for the sins of others, for he had none of his own. Here is a testator at the point of death, the legacy bequeathed by him, and the highly favored heirs. The testator suffers the full penalty of the law which he has never violated. The legacy is the full and complete redemption of vile sinners from the curse of that law and the bestowal upon them of an incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeless inheritance. The heirs are all for whom the testator died. There can be no failure in this, for it is God's arrangement. He chose Christ to this end, gave the heirs to him, and accepted him as their substitute. It is his own plan and he can but be satisfied with it.
But let us further contemplate his sufferings. Dreadful are the visible agonies, but these are light compared with all he endured. The curse of the law hovered over him. Fiery indignation and dreadful wrath were poured out upon him. Scoffing demons surrounded his dying form. His final draught was the distress and agony of an abandoned reprobate. His Father, who had loved him before the creation of the world - yes, from all eternity - even he forsook him at a time when there was none of the people to help. Oh, what a way of leaving the world!
But glancing up at Calvary we see three dying ones - all three suspended alike and bleeding together. In their apparent situation they are alike, each having arrived at the last stage of an earthly life, and swinging over the solemn brink of an awful eternity. He who hangs in the midst, though suffering a thousand pangs, is soon to enter the peaceful haven of endless repose, while the other two are about to be stranded and sunk to a dreadful ruin. The two had been carried on, unrestrainedly, from crime to crime, in the fancied pleasure and deceitful enjoyment of a sinful course, till they were compelled to suffer the rigorous demands of public justice only to land in the bottomless pit of endless woe if not redeemed from sin and arrested by grace. Alas! how short and fleeting is the pleasure of sin, and how dreadful and durable are its effects! The only booty carried off by these malefactors from their ungodly doings was the bodily misery in which we see them languishing and the worm in their bosoms that will never die though destined to perpetual distress. Such is the wages of sin!
By the foot of these crosses a multitude is passing who seem intent on rendering the case of the three as desperate as possible. Especially are their denunciations directed against the spotless one. They say, "Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." Not only is this said by the common rabble, but the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." Oh! what cruel, taunting words, charging Jesus with being an imposter and seeking to prove the charge by requiring him to come down from the cross, a thing he could not do and fulfill the will of the Father. He was thus "numbered with the transgressors," and "in his humiliation his judgment was taken away."
But listen! Is it possible? The two dying thieves join the surging throng below in casting vile charges in his teeth. Matt. xxvii.44; Mark xv. 32. Oh, the hardness of the human heart! It requires more than external circumstances, even more than fleshly tortures and the perils of an impending hell, to soften it into a repentant state. Though the two are suffering for notorious crimes, yet they escape the insult that is hurled at the harmless one, and presume to look down on him with derision and disdain. The scene is unparalleled! Not another instance can be found in all history in which any person, expiring under the tortures of an execution, was so shamefully treated by all ranks and orders of men. The remarkable patience and holy meekness of this precious sufferer, in the midst of such taunting provocations, which he had full power to avenge, is well worthy of our candid attention.
One of the guilty wretches that are dying with Jesus continues to revile him, saying, "If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us." "Save thyself and us!" He thus degrades the Lord of heaven to a level with himself, and presumes to lay claim to his help though his heart is hardened against him. What shameful audacity! No reply is made to his thrust, no resentment is offered to his bitter railing. This one is hanging on the left. The lips of the one on the right begin to move again, but the words that are spoken indicate a remarkable change. To his fellow criminal he first addresses himself: "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss." This confession and rebuke clearly implied a realizing belief of a future state, and of the cause the other had to fear the wrath of God for his crimes in another world, for neither of them could fear anything more in this life than what they were already suffering. The confession is here made of their guilt and of the entire innocence of the dying Jesus.
When first nailed to the cross he was like the other, but what a contrast there now is between the two! The divine Spirit has exercised a transforming influence upon the soul of this dying outlaw, and by a re-creating work changed it from natural to spiritual. In this appears a beautiful rainbow across the clouds of ignominy and accusation with which Jesus was covered, and the light of his divine beauty shines forth as a silver lining.
The work of grace in the heart of the malefactor takes away the last fetter and lifts the vail. After humbly and kindly rebuking his fellow-sufferer he turns his eyes toward him who has become his only hope and the object of his affections, and says to him devoutly and confidently, yet humbly and unpresumingly, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." What a prayer, and at such a time, and under such circumstances, and from the lips of such a man! He did not say master, or teacher, or even Rabbi, but "Lord," by which he declares him to be the King of glory, whose appearance was like a worm that is trodden upon. Jesus is recognized by this enlightened sinner as being infinitely greater than all the human race and going to his own kingdom on high.
J. R. D.
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