UK 23:27-49{THESE verses detail the solemn circumstances connected with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would invite your earnest attention to it, reader, and to some of the lessons which may be learned from them:-
"And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him."
Have you ever pondered over all that is unfolded in that little word Him? Who was He? The only-begotten of the Father, the Son of God, the brightness of His glory, the Christ, the wisdom of God, and the power of God. He whom they thus crucified was all this, and much more beside.
Have you ever pondered over all that is unfolded in that little word "they"? Who were they? The religious world of that time, the heads of the nation of Israel, the chief priests and scribes-but it was man in his rebel hatred of God and His Christ, letting out his true character, showing there was not a spark of latent good in his heart. If, then, I look at “Him," I learn, 1St, what sin is. Reader, do you know what sin is? The evil deeds of men whose names darken the calendars of crime will not teach you; the wail of the lost and damned, even if you could hear it, would not teach you; but the sorrow of the soul of Him, the Christ, the God man, as He cried, when under the judgment due to sin, and forsaken of God, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This and this alone tells me what sin is in its own nature, and how intolerable to a holy and righteous God it is. Oh, reader, is it not sufficient to make you blush to think it was on your account that blessed One suffered all this terrible judgment? 2nd, I learn what God is. He it was who gave His only-begotten Son; He it was who undertook to remove the distance which man by his sin brought in between himself and God. I learn what His love to the poor sinner is at the same place where I see that He cannot tolerate sin. It was man who introduced the distance, and, therefore, it was man who was bound to repair the breach thus made, but man had neither the ability nor the will to do so. Oh, how it magnifies the riches of His grace to know that on the side and part of the blessed God was the thought of removing the distance, as well as the providing, at the cost of His own Son, the only way by which it could be effected.
But there are two other crosses. Let us look a little at each.
In one I see a blessed and wonderful illustration of what God meant by the cross of Christ. He means a salvation, that is, pardon and forgiveness, and a place in Paradise with Christ, for the very vilest sinner that believes in His blessed Son. Observe the change which has taken place in this man-
1St, He has the fear of God in his heart; he rebuked the insolent mocking of his companion with these words, "Dost thou not fear God?" This is what man has not in him by nature. “There is no fear of God before their eyes."
2nd, He justifies Christ in words which tell out the simple story of His life, "This man hath done nothing amiss," at the same time that he fully condemns himself, for he says, "We indeed justly (are condemned), for we receive the due reward of our deeds."
3rd, His simple confidence was in the person of the Lord Jesus; his request was to be remembered when Christ came into His kingdom; he asks for no present relief in his suffering; he urges no plea; he seeks not to make good a claim; his simple utterance is perfectly magnificent, "Lord, remember me." And, reader, mark well the answer, "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." This is what God's salvation is and means-a full deliverance, and a place with the Savior, all on the ground of the blessed redemption accomplished by the death of the Son of God.
But there is another lesson, and a deeply solemn one, which may be learned at the cross of the other thief. Mark it well, reader, how near a man may be to Christ and perish. Here was one that witnessed all that we have had before us, one who being beside the Son of God, who was in that sense outwardly, at least, near to Christ, and yet he perishes. He spends the last moments of a life of shame and infamy in railing on the Savior, and the tongue which soon would be silent in death is raised to revile and mock. Oh, reader, are there not many who pass away from the busy scenes of life, like him, who have left no memory after them but that which brings pain and sorrow with it? Some who have been in their day as outwardly near to Christ, surrounded with privileges, making a profession of Christianity, religious it may be and respectable, who have never known Christ, and who died as they lived, and are now lost forever; over whose tombstone the truthful inscription would be, " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and they are not saved."
I write these few words, reader, amid the closing hours of a dying year, with the earnest prayer that you may be warned to flee from the wrath that is coming, if you have never yet trusted in Christ, and to find Him, not only your salvation, but your full and abounding portion forever. W. T. T.