(Luke 23:40)
THIS question was first heard upon Golgotha's hill, and sounded forth from the lips of one malefactor into the ears of the other one beyond the person of the Son of God, who hung bleeding and dying between them; and now it is put to you—
“DOST NOT THOU FEAR GOD?”
seeing thou art in the same condemnation with this Christ-rejecting world,—that same condemnation spoken of by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He said, " He that believeth not is condemned already " (John 3:18).
These two who were being put to death with Jesus—the one on the right hand, and the other on the left—were but receiving the due reward of their deeds,—sinners, of course, and needed a Savior. But a far greater condemnation rests upon every unbeliever now. Theirs was a question of breaking the law, and getting the penalty of death. The one from whose lips this question came had learned not only that “the wages of sin is death," but that there is also" after this the judgment." This it was which brought forth that cry, and prepared him to receive another important truth, that the " gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The issue now is a far more important one, for this world has not only broken every one of God's laws, but worse than that. Look at that person hanging upon that middle cross. It is none other than the Son of God.
Yes, this world has denied and crucified the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer instead.
It has “killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead." This world, of which every unbeliever is a part, is guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only-begotten Son; and now in the face of this, the question is again asked,—
“DOST NOT THOU FEAR GOD?”
Is there no reason why you should fear God?
Know ye not that God is holy, and only such as have clean hands and a pure heart can stand in His holy place?
Yes, dear reader, there is every reason why you should fear God—
“For God must visit sin
With His displeasure sore,
For He is holy, just, and true,
And righteous ever more.”
Do you think God has forgotten that scene upon Calvary's hill, when both Jew and Gentile, energized by the power of Satan, cried out from their evil hearts, "Away with him crucify him!”
You may say you were not here in the world then; you may say you had no part with that God-hating, Christ-rejecting mob of two thousand years ago, but it will avail you nothing. If you are found linked with this world in the day of the Lord, or should you die in your sins, “know thou that for all these things God will bring you into judgment "(Eccl. 11:9)." Know you not that the friendship of this world is enmity with God?”
(James 4:4,) and that the " Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ "? (2 Thess. 1:7, 8).
These are solemn facts, dear reader; and if you have not yet learned that you are a guilty sinner, May God in His mercy carry these words in power to your heart and conscience, and give you that fear of Him which is the beginning of wisdom. Being born of the seed of Adam, you are a child of wrath even as others (Eph. 2:3). By practice God has proven all to be under sin, and the whole world guilty before Him, having broken all His commandments and come entirely short of His glory. (Read Rom. 3:9-23.) But above everything else stands the crowning sin of the rejection and murder of the Son of God.
And now, dear unsaved reader, if you have been brought to see yourself in the same condemnation with this world, let me point you to that same wondrous, blessed person who filled the eyes of that dying thief on the cross. The One whom God declared to be His Son, in whom He found all His delight; the One of whom Pilate could only say, “I have found no cause of death in him;" the One of whom the thief could say, “This man hath done nothing amiss." Yes, let me point you to that One who " hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,” and tell you, as God has already told you, that “through THIS MAN (Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and that by HIM all that believe are justified from all things " (Acts 3:38, 39), Here is manifested the rich mercy and grace of God; for instead of permitting just judgment to fall upon this earth at that time, He ushered in a day of grace by proclaiming salvation to every guilty sinner through faith in that precious blood shed by wicked hands upon Calvary's cross. By faith that guilty thief found perfect cleansing in Jesus' blood; and so may you, by taking your place before God as a guilty sinner, and owning Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as did the thief.
God declares that “the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," and this cleansing you may have, but not by works, for " by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).
It was too late for the dying thief to work, but faith in that One who was then finishing all the work for salvation upon that middle cross brought forth those gracious words from the lips of Jesus, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Faith in Him, dear reader, will bring you peace, forgiveness of sins, and will give you an entrance into the glory with Christ at His coming.
For nearly two thousand years God has been long-suffering, and not willing that any should perish but His day of grace will soon give place to His day of judgment; and so " Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart," for “how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? "
C. H. B.