WE shall soon have Christmas here, miss; that’s the time the young ladies like, isn’t it?” The speaker was a gasfitter, who was at work in the house where the writer lives, He was engaged in repairing a pipe, and he commenced a conversation with the above remark.
“Christmas merrymaking is a very awful thing,” was the reply.” What?” questioned he, in an incredulous tone.” A very awful and solemn thing,” was repeated.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what I say; here is the world pretending to keep the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom it has murdered.”
The last word seemed to strike him, for, after a few minutes’ silence, he said, “Murdered? But He came to die; God knew He was going to die; didn’t He, miss?”
“Yes, He did come to die, and God knew it; He knew everything from the beginning; ‘Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world’ (Acts 15:18); but His foreknowledge does not justify man’s deed in murdering His Son. We get both sides of the question in one verse in the Acts, ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain’” (Acts 2:23).
Another silence, which was broken with these words, said in a tone of relief, “Well, you and I were out of that job, miss.” “No, indeed; let me tell you that you and I were both represented there.”
“But it was the Jews who crucified Him.”
“Not the Jews only; they were unanimous in the rejection of their Messiah. But we read again, ‘Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together’ (Acts 4:27) against Jehovah and against His Christ. Gentile as well as Jew was there. All mankind―civilized Gentile and religious Jew included―was involved in that crowning act of wickedness and rebellion, the murder of the Son of God. There is ‘no difference,’ ‘both Jews and Gentiles’ are proved to be ‘all under sin,’ and all the world is guilty before God! Man’s heart is not changed; and if you have not accepted Christ as your own personal Saviour, you would join with the multitude in crying, ‘Away with him, crucify him,’ were He here on the earth today. Through grace I am forgiven my share in the foul deed; I pleaded guilty, and received the free and full pardon which God in His great mercy is offering to all who will accept it.”
Dear reader, if unsaved, you need His pardon. God delights to give; will you not take the place of receiver? There is no getting away from the truth that God holds man responsible for the death of His Son, His well-beloved, the One of whom He could and did say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He was the only one that received such a witness. The heavens opened while the Holy God told out to men, that at last there was a Man upon the earth who pleased Him well; and when the chief priests, in their murderous hate, led Him away to the judgment hall, the very one who delivered Him up to be crucified was forced to testify that He was a just person. Three times did Pilate say, “I find no fault in him” (John 18:38, 19:4, 6). The dying thief said to his railing companion, “This man hath done nothing amiss” (Luke 23:47); and the centurion “glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47).
This righteous man was the One whom man murdered; but God, who is sovereign, brought good out of man’s bad deed, and the blood man spilled is now the only plea for the sinner. The One who was the just, died for us the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). He who knew no sin, was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). “In him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). Here is the ground of peace for the poor sinner. If He had not been the holy spotless One, He could not have put away sin; but He was “without sin” (Heb. 4:15). “He offered himself without fault [marg.] to God” (Heb. 9:14). The lambs “without blemish” all pointed forward to the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36), whose precious blood, “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19), should redeem His loved ones. The Lamb of God “was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world,” for whom? “For you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory” (1 Peter 1:20,21).
Dear reader, do you understand? God is perfectly satisfied with that sacrifice. More, He is infinitely glorified by that one offering, which has met all the claims of His holiness, and given Him room to display His love to the poor lost sinner righteously. Now He can forgive. He could not pass over sin, but He says, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” We who have believed in Him, rejoice to know that He could not surrender one jot of His holiness.
Reader, pause! Do not neglect this great salvation. The time is fast approaching, when forgiveness of sins will no longer be proclaimed, but the day of the “wrath of the Lamb” will have come, and that blood will cry for vengeance which is now the ground of pardon. Then there will be no mercy, but all judgment, for those who have despised mercy’s call.
Where will you be in that day? With the Judge? or before Him, “without excuse”?
E. E. L.