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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
April, 1935
faultlessness; o f the centurion’s declaration as to His right eousness! Yet in cold blood the Jews crucified Him— the spotless Lamb, the Lord o f Glory. What a mystery! And yet so majestic was He, that as they slay Him, He returns good for evil, by praying for the forgiveness of His murderers. And when after His resurrection He commis sioned His disciples to be witnesses unto Him, He told them to begin at Jerusalem! What grace! In the suppos edly holy place where the supposedly holy people had cru cified Him—begin there! And, blessed be His name, His grace is unchanged, for
Crucified -------------- With usage we have lost the horror associated with this shameful, despicable word in the writings o f the New Tes tament. T o die Jews, crucifixion was a horrible, ignoble end, seeing that a cross meant the extreme limit o f punish ment, as execution does with us. As we would speak with bated breath if one in our family had been made to die upon the gallows, so crucifixion carried a terrible stigma with it. Why, it is impossible to depict the shame, ignominy, agony, and heartbreak such a death must have meant both to Jesus and to His loved ones'
the greater^ your sin a g a i n s t Him, t h e greater His mercy to ward you. His love never alters, although outraged and rejected. The very One you heartlessly d e s p i s e stands ready to for give and cleanse you. Although you h a v e spurned Him a thou sand times, He waits to save your precious soul. The hand you helped to nail to the tree is now lovingly knocking a t y o u r heart’s door. I f Jesus is still on the cross in so far as you are concerned, de spised and rejected and unwanted, t a k e Him down. Instead of cruel piercings, give Him your h e a r t ’ s
Crucified — dragged out; beaten with cords; nailed to a gibbet, naked and bleeding; hung up between heaven and earth to die a bitter, lingering, painful death! No wonder the natural sun hid its face, thus flooding the world with darkness, although it was the
Crucified A fresh S N A T C H IN G fiercely at the royal garments of Christ's deity, as though to tear them from His gracious form, so-called Christian ministers, with tragic zeal, urge forward the mob that would crucify the Lord afresh. When one of the most popular preachers in America— a man of learning and wide influence— de clares that it makes little practical difference whether Jesus sprang from the very heart of the eternal God as the only begotten Son, or whether He sprang from the racial stock with which He identified Himself as the Son of Man, the thorns of base denial are pressed anew into the flesh of the Saviour's holiness. When a teacher of theological students dares to say that "we may feel that it is highly improbable that so great and powerful a religious movement as Christianity should be founded upon an illusion; but even so, we cannot use the Resurrection for absolute proof of immortality, as the apostles did; it is itself, for us, something need ing to be proved," the nails of doubt are driven with heavy blows into the hands of the Crucified. When a prominent church leader of another continent publicly suggests that "Jesus Christ was a tremendous failure," the spearpoint of rationalism, lacking faith, makes a deep wound. Calvary is modern. The mob is there. The enemies are there. W ho weeps at the cross? Whose heart is melted with love for the Lord?
noontide hour. It was too awful a sight for creation to see the Creator dy ing in nakedness, s h a m e , and an guish; thus it pro vided Him with a robe o f darkness. Crucified! Ah,
He is still crucified, .or, as the W o r d puts it, “ crucified a fr e s h .” E v e r y time we turn away from Jesus, despise His mercy, resist H i s S p i r i t , we hurry Him to the cross o f rejection. Every time we yield to the devil, we crown the beautiful brow o f Jesus with more cruel, piercing thorns. But is one such terrible death n o t sufficient ? Is one Ca l v a r y not enough? Has Jesus not borne plenty, without the addition o f more grief and pain? When you drown the voice of conscience, and silence the inner call o f God, then in reality you are slaying the Son o f God afresh. When He presents Himself for your choice, all your passions and desires rise, crying, “ Crucify Him.” And the tragedy is that all too often you are on the side o f those forces, insisting upon the expulsion o f Christ from your life. The voices o f them, and of the chief priests prevailed, we read. And thus is it with many a sinner; the siren voices o f the world, the flesh, and the devil prevail over the inner voice of the Holy Spirit, as He urges the will to release Jesus, giving Him the throne o f the life. Him . ------------' All o f us can understand the death of the two thieves, for, on their own word, they received the due reward of their deeds ; but why should Jesus, the holiest and loveliest and divinest One who ever lived among men, die such a brutal death ? Think o f His own testimony— “ Which of you convinceth me o f sin ?” o f Pilate’s confession as to His
love! Say to Him in deep peni tence, “ Thou crucified Saviour, now living to save me, forgive and deliver my soul. Come, bury Thyself deep in my heart.” You shall not need to wait long for the divine answer. True to His Word, while you are yet speaking, the Lord will hear. And before your prayer is finally offered, this blessed Redeemer will enter your life and make you His own. The Resurrection Foreshadowed Resurrection was definitely foreshadowed in Isaac. Abraham himself built the altar. And Calvary was built by God— an altar for the Lamb slain from the foundation o f the world. From the moment his father’s will was re vealed, Isaac murmured not. And the Lord Jesus Christ, divinely aware of the Father’s purpose, “ opened not his mouth” (Isa. 53 :7 ). Did a corpse step from Abraham’s altar? Did a spirit issue from it? No, in Isaac’s case, body, soul, and spirit were committed to the altar; and body, soul, and spirit— a complete man and the same man—Abraham “ received him back.” Following His resurrection, the Lord Jesus could say: “ It is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Lk. 24 :39). Later, Isaac “ died, and was gathered unto his people” . (Gen. 3 5 :29). But Christ is “ alive for evermore” (Rev. 1 :18).— S e l e c t e d .
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