ly writers speak of Jesus' death primarily as an example. This can be very misleading unless the de scription is also coupled with the recognition that Jesus died for oth ers as their Sin-bearer. He is their example only because He is first their Saviour and their Lord. A man who is drowning in the ocean may wish that he had taken swimming lessons, but before he receives an example of the art he primarily and desperately needs someone to save him! Even so, the Lord must be our Saviour before He can ever be our Example. Once we have received Christ as our Redeemer, we find that His sufferings do have tremendous value as an example. Peter, in his first epistle, stresses the patient en durance of Jesus for the benefit of those who were suffering under the unyielding Roman rule. Jesus suffered innocently which certain ly cannot be said even of the most devoted and pious other human beings. At best, men suffer by and for themselves. Christ's suffering was for us as He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The Bible carefully underscores the truth over and over that Christ died to remove sin. His death not only satisfied divine justice but also re vealed God's love. The remission of our sin was realized when the Lord bore the penalty of our sins on Himself (Hebrews 9:26). While this all might sound strange to modern ears, it certainly was not a new thought to the people of Christ's day. Sacrifices were well known to them. As an example, one ceremony enacted in Israel on the Day of Atonement gives us a graphic picture of what it really means. Early on that most impor- Page 35
vary is the central feature of the New Testament. All of the Gospels devote an unusually large portion of their writings to the final week in the life of Christ, culminating in His death and resurrection. It is no exaggeration to say that the cross of Christ even overshadows His life as far as the amount of space the gospels give to the truth. Ap proximately two-fifths of Matthew is concerned with the final weeks of Christ in Jerusalem. The events of the same week take up three- fifths of Mark's writings and a third of Luke's. When we come to the Gospel of John the total coverage is about one-half. Right from His birth there was saving significance. The angel announcing Christ's birth to Joseph declared, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins" (Mat- he w1:21). The Saviour linked the success of His own mission in the world to the cross, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). In a real sense, the cross is the central theme of the Old Testa ment as well. All of the sacrifices prefigured our Lord's suffering. The prophets explicitly foretold it. The typology of many of the key per sonalities of the early books of the Bible are rich in illustrative truth concerning His life and death. How sad that He would have to say to us, as to those disciples in days of old, "Oh foolish ones, and slow at heart to believe all that the proph ets have spoken." They should have known the Scriptures. It is a fact that the cross stands at the focal point of our Christian faith. Without it, this life, as well as life to come, is an empty hope. How unfortunate that some world
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