THE KING’S BUSINESS
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full o f the love o f God. Read Psalm 103. The Scriptures which speak o f God’s love as being manifested in the gift o f His Son, tell us also o f another reason why He gave His S on : “ That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3 :16) ; “ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). W e believe that Christ’s cross reveals the love o f God, and that throughout all these ages men have been bowed in penitence' as they have caught a vision o f the One who hung thereon. But if you .were to question the multitudes that have believed in God because o f the cross, you would find that what moved them to repentance was not merely, if at all, certainly not primarily, that the cross revealed the love o f God in a supreme way, but the fact that there at the cross God had dealt with the great and awful fact o f sin, that the cross had for ever removed it. The title on the cross suggests to us that | “ even in . suffering Christ appears as a King.” 2. The witnesses to the crucifixion, 19:23-37. Among those who witnessed the cruci fixion were the enemies o f Christ, such as the scribes and Pharisees, priests, Jews, and the Roman soldiers who were used of God to fulfill the prophetic scriptures (Psalm 22:18). Some friends o f Jesus were also eye-wit nesses o f His death. There were the three Marys, Salome, and the Apostle John. The last words o f Jesus from the cross (19:28-30). It is o f interest to meditate on the “ Seven words from the cross:” “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they, do” (Luke 23:34). “ Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). “Woman, behold thy son ! . . . Behold thy mother!” (John 19:26, 27). “My God, my God, why hast thou for saken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). “I thirst” (John 19:28).
reverently—call Jesus as brave a man fac ing death as many another martyr has been? .W hy should Christ’s soul be filled with - anguish (Luke 22:39-46), while Paul the Apostle was exultant with joy (Phillip- pians 1 :23) ? Stephen died a martyr’s death, but Paul never preached forgiveness through the death o f Stephen. Such a view o f Christ’s death may beget martyrs, but it can never save sinners. Third. The moral example theory. Christ’s death has an influence upon man kind for moral improvement. The exam ple o f His suffering ought to soften human hearts, and help a man to reform, repent, and better his condition. So God grants pardon and forgiveness on simple repent ance and reformation. In the same way a drunkard might call a man his saviour by whose influence he was induced to become sober and industrious. But did .the sight o f His suffering move the Jews to-repent- ance ? Does it move men today ? Such a view o f Christ’s death does not deal with the question with which it is always con nected, viz., the question o f sin. Fourth. The governmental theory. This means that the benevolence o f God requires that He should make an example o f suffer ing in Christ in order to exhibit to man that sin is displeasing in His sight. God’s government o f the world necessitates that He show His wrath against sin. True, but we reply: Why do we need an incarnation for the manifestation o f that purpose? Why not make a guilty, and not an absolutley innocent and guileless man such an example o f God’s displeasure upon sin? Were there not men enough in exist ence ? Why create a new being for such a purpose? Fifth. The love o f God theory. He died to show men how much God loved them. Men ever after would know the feeling of the heart o f God toward them. True, the death o f Christ did stow the great love of God for fallen man. But men did not need such a sacrifice to know that God loved them. They knew that before Christ came. The Old Tetsament is
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