March 1932
109
T h e K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
panied by a fulfilling corollary. Embraced in them all we may find the fullness of the content of the gospel. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” Thus is set forth the past and perfected element of the gospel. It is attested by the prophetic record of the Old Testament Scriptures. The event has taken place in exact accord with that which was written aforetime. Consider the occasion for the event—“our sins.” From the fact of sin, as recorded in Genesis, every succeeding portion of the inspired Record has followed. The Old Testament is the record of human sin and failure. It ends with the warning, “Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Consider the significance of the event-—“Christ died.” Turning the page from that last ghastly word of Malachi, our eyes fall upon these words: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” The failure of human provision is complete, and manifested as complete. God sends forth from the heart of His love that provision which is all-sufficient. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head! Our load was laid on Thee; Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead — To bear all ill for me , A victim led, Thy blood was shed; Now there’s no load for me. Surely, this is the gospel. The record of the fact is made complete by the fulfilling phrase, “And that he was buried.” This, however, is not all the gospel. The fullness of the good news is not received until that other momentous event is attested unto u s : “He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Thus is set forth the continuing and prophetic element of the gospel, which also is in accordance with the record of the Old Testament Scriptures. Unless the crucified Christ has become the living Christ, “your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” The first element of the gospel leaves us with only a dead hope. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most mis erable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” Our hope is not a dead hope, but “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begot ten us again unto a lively [living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died, And I have died in Thee; Thou’rt risen: My bands are all untied; And now Thou lii/st in me. The Father’s face of radiant grace Shines now in light on me. Surely this is the capstone of the gospel. The signifi cance of the fact is further suggested by the fulfilling phrase—“and that he was seen.” He was seen as the risen Christ by many witnesses; and then He was not seen, for “he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” Because He is risen and ascended, and because “ Christ died for our sins,” “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Some day He will be seen again, and “we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see hint as he is.” This is the gospel in all of its glorious fullness. Let us declare it through all the days.
The Wounded Christ
I . , B y H. A. C ameron “Fie was woutmed for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon h im : and with his stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). / / I ounds , according to the definition of the surgeon, V j LI are divisions of the soft parts of the body by a me chanical force applied externally, and they are clas sified by their different characters as (1) contused, (2) lacerated, (3) penetrating, (4) perforating, and (5) in cised wounds. It is remarkable that in the simple state ment, “He was wounded” (Isa. 53:5), there is included each kind of wound. The contused wound : a wound produced by a blunt instrument. Such would result from a blow by the rod, as foretold in Micah 5:1: “They shall smite the Judge of Is rael with a rod upon the cheek,” and fulfilled in Matthew 27:30: “They took the reed, and smote him on the head,” and John 18:22: “One of the officers struck Jesus with a rod.” The lacerated wound: a wound produced by a tearing instrument. Laceration of the tissues was the result of scourging, and. scourging had become a fine art among the Romans at the time of our Lord’s submission to its inflic tion. The Roman scourge was a many-tailed lash, each thong tipped with metal or ivory, so that, in the hands of a cruel expert, the sufferer might truthfully say, “The ploughers ploughed upon my back: they made long their furrows” (Psa. 129:3). Thus the prophetic word of Isaiah 1 :6: “I gave my back to the smiters,” finds its ful fillment, as recorded in Matthew 27:26, and in John 19:1, where we read, “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.” The penetrating wound: a deep wound caused by a sharp pointed instrument. This we have exemplified in the wounds upon the head produced by the crown of thorns. The Jerusalem thorn, from which that “victor’s crown” was platted, bore spicules four inches long, and as the soldiers pressed down the cruel diadem upon His head (Matt. 27:29, John 19:2), a circlet of wounds ensued, wounds which were deepened by the blow of the reed when they smote Him on the head (Matt. 27:30). The perforating wound: from the Latin word meaning “to pierce through.” “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psa. 22:16). The iron spikes were driven between the bones, separating but not breaking them. Crucifixion was not practiced as a means of capital punishment by the Jews, and the words must therefore have puzzled even the writer of the psalm.. But at that early date, God was thereby “signifying what death he should die.” The prophetic question in Zechariah 13:6: “What are these wounds in thine hands?” was ever before the Lord. The incised wound: a cut produced by a sharp-edged instrument. “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34). This wound was inflicted by the practiced hand of the Roman soldier, to make certain that whatever vestige of life was present would be extinguished. While it did not cause death in His case, it is an assurance to all men that death had actually occurred, and it is also a ful fillment of the scripture which saith, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.” And from the wound (so large that Thomas could have thrust his hand into it) “came there out blood and water” : the water that flowed from the pericardium, and the blood that flowed from the heart. ■—T he R eaper .
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