NOTES AND QUOTES FOR TODAY:
“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, on the right hand, and the other on the left” (Luke 23:33).
Only faintly can we conjecture the agony of death by crucifixion. In the case of Jesus Christ, there was an additional weight of the sins of the whole world upon His shoulders. We should not have wondered at all if these six hours of anguish had been filled with groans of agony and screams of pain, but no sound of suffering comes from Him. No sooner is Jesus made fast to the cross with the crude nails than He breathes a prayer to His Father, pleading for forgiveness for those who ignorantly did what they did.
For six hours Christ hung on the cross. Three hours were in the light of the day; three in the deep, unnatural darkness. It seemed that some huge hand had been placed over the noonday sun. During this time, only one utterance is heard from the lips of the divine Sufferer, “…Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Here is bared the essence of spiritual death—separation from God. The beloved eternal Son is Himself separated, forsaken, and left alone by His Father with whom He had been in communion from eternity, before the world began. This was His atoning work.
At three o’clock the darkness ends. Two further words escape the Saviour’s swollen lips. To His Father He commits His spirit. Fellowship is restored. Then He said, “…It is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30). His redemption work is done. God’s Lamb had been slain. Jesus is dead. The unbelieving world always asks, “Why all this suffering? Why all this cruelty and pain inflicted upon Christ? For what purpose?”
The cross is necessary to meet the sin needs of mankind. Sin is the blackest page in human history; a deadly disease eating out the heart of the human race; the incurable cancer of the human soul. It is the very nature of fallen humanity; it is the blighting, damning, and crushing thing to the human race; it is the ugliest thing in human life.
When Christ came, He saw the ruin. He saw humanity groping in darkness (as we see it today), the helplessness and hopelessness of this world. He knew, but beyond that, He saw the rule of righteousness; He saw humanity blessed with the glory and joy of His Kingdom.
Yes, The Cross Called Calvary Was:
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A Place of Punishment:
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows…But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5). -
A Place of Pain:
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14-15). -
A Place of Pleasure:
“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). -
A Place of Purchase:
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). -
A Place of Propitiation:
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25). -
A Place of Purging:
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). -
A Place of Peace:
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:13-14).
Calvary is the place where God manifested His love and His patience!
Thank God For The Cross!
From the Staff of The Peoples Gospel Hour
http://tpgh.org