can be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly that believeth in Jesus. CONCLUSION.-1. When we behold Christ bearing our sins, we should learn to look on sin with shame and horror. How intense must that evil be which demands such a sacrifice! 2. When we behold Christ bearing our sins, we should see in Him the object of saving faith. In all the universe of nature and grace-this is the point for the eye of a convinced sinner. 3. When we behold Christ bearing our sins, we have before us the greatest of all motives to personal holiness. When temptation comes in a like tide, cast your eyes to the Cross (H. E. I. 4589, 4590).—J. W. Alexander, D.D.: The Preacher's Monthly, vol. iii. pp. 222-226. (a) All the ancient sacrifices wrote in letters of blood the word Substitution. For what, after all, is the idea of sacrifice but the innocent dying for the guilty? It was an emblem which the feeblest mind might comprehend. There, on the altar, is a spotless lamb-the emblem of innocence. Here am I, a polluted sinner. I lay my right hand on the unblemished victim, and straightway it becomes in type a sinner, I should have died-but now the victim dies: it dies for me-it dies in my place. It was thus the way was prepared for the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. It is not here and there, but everywhere, that the Bible thus represents the method of our salvation (Isa. liii. 5, 6, 10-12; Gal. iii. 13; 2 Cor. v. 21). This doctrine is taught in expressions which cannot be mistaken by an unbiassed mind. And we never find unsophisticated persons troubled with those difficulties which have made this doctrine a stumbling. block to Jews and philosophers. There is something intelligible and lovely in Christ's coming into our place and dying for us. Especially when a soul is overwhelmed with a sense of sin and dread of eternal wrath, the truth is the only thing which can give life. -Alexander. Divine Love IN CHRIST'S PASSION. liii. 6. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. "I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil," said the Lord to His people. And if we could know the thoughts He thinks towards us, we should hardly tell how to admire sufficiently His love for us, or to humble ourselves enough for our baseness towards Him. The love which God hath for us is manifested in our creation, and in His continual care over us ever since we were born. But in a measure far beyond that in all other instances of His love, it is displayed in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ. But, unhappily, after all that is said of the redeeming love of God, with all the proofs of it in the wonderful things done for our salvation, many have little notion of the Divine kindness exercised in this great and glorious work. Were it better understood, more hearts would be melted into sorrowful contrition for sin, and thence brought to faith and holiness, and so prepared for the kingdom of God. Let us consider, then, how awful is the accumulated weight of sin laid upon Jesus" the iniquities of us all," of the entire human race! (1 John ii. 2). Oh, how can we calculate the weight of this burden? how can we number and measure the sins of the whole world? how can we estimate the punishment due to them which our Saviour endured in our stead? The sins that began with the sins of Eve and Adam, and have been increasing in all times and climes ever since, how appalling their number! When we call to mind that one sin was sufficient, in the judgment of the righteous God, to condemn men to sorrow and death, we wonder not that the contemplation of the burden that awaited our Saviour in atoning for "the iniquities of us all" laid Him prostrate in Gethsemane, caused Him to sweat "as it were great drops of blood," and to pray that if it were possible that "cup" might pass from Him. No man with his present confined faculties can form an adequate notion of the weight of affliction which Christ endured, when He stood in the place of a world of sinners. All we can say is, that it was something which 509 was equivalent, in the scales of Divine justice, to the eternal punishment due to the sins of all mankind (1 Pet. ii. 24; Rom. ii. 26). After all the notions I can form of the sufferings of Jesus, all that I can do as a thinker is to stand with awful astonishment contemplating the cross, overwhelmed with thoughts of the unseen and unknown sufferings of my Redeemer. I. Now, our apprehension of the love of Jesus must run parallel with our apprehension of His sufferings. The more He had to endure, the greater effort of love must have been required to urge Him to undergo it. If a man, seeing another whom he loved condemned to a cruel death, were to go and suffer in his place, we should stand amazed at such a man, and say that he was possessed of an extraordinary measure of charity. How much more, if he were to endure for him the everlasting sufferings of hell! But, how incomprehensibly great would his charity appear, if he could call down. upon himself sufferings equivalent to the eternal sufferings of the whole race of mankind! Yet when we contemplate Jesus on the cross, we see one having thus acted. How infinitely great, how stupendous, this makes the love of Christ appear! The manner in which He suffered also manifests His love for us. With all the mighty love with which He was urged through His sufferings, with all the strength of firmness and resolution with which He endured to the end, with all the immeasurable greatness of His passion, and the vast amount of good He was accomplishing, still there was no vain display of His love or of His endurance, no boast of the great things He was effecting. Not a word did He utter of what He was enduring, or what He was purchasing for us. Humble and quiet lowliness and gentle meekness were the dispositions manifested in Him, through all that He did and suffered for us (ver. 7). Now, it is always true 510 love that is the secret of lowly suffering for others. Who can see lowly sorrow, and humble patience and resignation in bitter affliction, especially when it is endured for the benefit of others, without a feeling of love towards the charitable sufferer? Must not that which we see manifested in Jesus attract us to Him, and excite in our hearts admiring love? (P. D. 2340, 2341). II. In proportion to the sorrow and pain which were laid upon the Son of God, is the measure of the Father's love in giving Him up to such suffering abasement for us. Here also we see that the Divine love is beyond all bound or measure of ours. If the sufferings and abasements of the Son were infinitely, immeasurably great, the love of the Father, who gave Him up to the pain and humiliation of the cross, must be incomprehensible also. Oh, where is our heart, that we are so little affected with God's redeeming love; that our return for it is ingratitude and sin? But our very worthlessness magnifies the Divine love. Had it been for unhappy creatures in misery, but not in fault, that God gave His beloved Son, had it been even for those who would one and all prize, highly value, and abound in love for what was done for them, still the love of God in this unspeakable gift would have been immeasurably great; but how incomprehensibly vast does it appear, when we consider how offensive in God's sight sin has made mankind, how great a portion of mankind. never take any notice at all of the Divine love in the great redemption, and how slow the best of us are to see and be grateful for "the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness to us through Christ Jesus!" We feel that it rises above all speech or thought of ours (Rom. v. 7, 8. H. E. I. 23182337. P. D. 1468, 2345).-R. L. Cotton, M.A.: The Way of Salvation, pp. 78-91. OUR SAVIOUR'S SUFFERINGS AND SUBMISSION. The whole field of Scripture is of infinite value, yet the Christian peculiarly prizes those parts of it wherein Christ, the hidden treasure, the one pearl of great price, is most fully exhibited to the view. This chapter holds a first rank in His esteem, because here, long before our Redeemer's incarnation, He was evidently set forth crucified. Isaiah here discourses of Him with a pathetic tenderness and minuteness of detail, as if he had been an eyewitness of His sufferings. Had he stood with John at the cross, or watched with Mary at the sepulchre, he could scarcely have presented a more vivid and touching picture of the sufferings of Christ and the glory by which they were followed. The purport of the chapter is, that the Messiah would devote Himself as a voluntary sacrifice, a real and effectual expiation, suffering the heaviest woes and all the bitterness of death, in concurrence with the gracious intention of Jehovah, and for the salvation of rebellious men. I. THE OVERWHELMING NATURE OF THE REDEEMER'S SUFFERINGS (a). As it was no common sufferer who is here pointed out, so they were no common sufferings He endured. "He was oppressed." Who? "The brightness of the Father's glory!" We are so constituted as to be more affected by the afflictions of distinguished men than by those of the multitude; our sympathy is awakened when princes endure great reverses and hardships; when sickness clouds the royal brow, and death enters the pavilion of the mighty, whence we are ready to imagine every care is excluded. But here you have the extreme of greatness in conjunction with the extreme of suffering. "HE was oppressed!" The union and combination of various forms of suffering is implied: "despised," "rejected," "Man of sorrows," "acquainted with grief." Described as bearing griefs, carrying sorrows, stricken and smitten of God, afflicted, wounded, bruised, subjected to chastisement and stripes, and here "oppressed." It did not suffice that He was shorn as a sheep-stripped and deprived of His riches, ornaments, and comforts; but His life is demanded. "He is brought to the slaughter." 1. He suffered at the hand of God. "Smitten of God." Voluntarily standing in the sinner's place, He must endure the first penalty of sin. In nothing is the righteous displeasure of God against sin more displayed, His determination to visit us to the uttermost more exemplified, than in the sufferings of Christ. He, even He, must be smitten with the sharp sword of sinavenging justice (Zech. xiii. 7). It would seem as though all the former executions of justice had only been inflicted as with a sword asleep, or in the scabbard, compared with what Jesus felt. Against Him it was awakened, unsheathed, and made to descend with unmitigated force and severity. 2. He suffered at the hand of man. It was much that He was to be "a Man of sorrows," but more that He was "despised and rejected of men." He who was ready to relieve every burden and break every yoke, was Himself afflicted by those whom He came to redeem. He who would not so much as "break a bruised reed," was oppressed through the whole course of His life. Contempt, reproach, and persecution were the requitals for His acts of mercy (Matt. xii. 22, 24, ix. 2, 3; John v. 8, 9, 16). Let this console His suffering disciples, that they only follow the footsteps of the Prince of sufferers; they only drink of His cup. Let them ex amine, and they will find that the very grief that oppresses them oppressed Him. Be consoled by the consciousness of sharing His sympathy, and by the certain prospect of sharing His triumph. The cross, the grave, the stone, the seal, the Roman guard, and the watchful Sanhedrim were in His case all in vain; and He has promised that the rebuke of His people shall be taken away. 3. He suffered from the assaults of hell (Luke xxii. 53). The temptation in the wilderness, the agony in the garden, and the sufferings of the cross were all connected with Satanic agency. Satan will not fail to trouble even where he despairs to conquer. II. THE SILENT SUBMISSION WITH WHICH CHRIST ENDURED SUFFERING. "He is brought as a lamb," &c. The lamb goes as quietly to the slaughter as to the fold. By this similitude the patience of Christ is exemplified, not that He was absolutely silent, for more than once He replied to the falsehoods and slanders of His enemies; but it refers to His patience, submission, and moral fortitude. From the beginning to the end He was in a perfect calm; as in His external behaviour, so in His internal frame and temper of soul. Not one repining thought against God, not one revengeful thought against man, ruffled His spirit. What were the principles that supported Him? Pity for the world that knew not its Saviour; love for the Church He came to redeem; conformity of sentiment with the mind and will of His Father; devout anticipation of the happy results that should flow from His sufferings; the joy that was set before Him-the joy of saving souls. III. THE PROPER RESULTS IN US OF OUR CONTEMPLATION OF THE SUFFERINGS AND SUBMISSION OF OUR SAVIOUR. 1. Faith in His sacrifice. 2. Imitation of His example. 3. Devout remembrance of His love. 4. Exultant anticipation of His glory. Samuel Thodey. (a.) The suffering of Christ in Gethsemane was not bodily pain; physically he was in health and vigour, at the prime of life, and in the flower of His age. The torture of the cross was before Him, with all the preliminary accumulation of woe; but I cannot think that the mere apprehension of these will sufficiently account for what He endured. His mind had long been familiar with the death that He was to die, and He knew and had predicted His speedy resurrection to a glorious life. Now, it seems impossible that an event, however painful, which was to be immediately suc ceeded by "fulness of joy," could have thrown Him into such mysterious agony of mind. In after times, martyrs-men and women-had to entertain the prospect and undergo the infliction of death in forms as lingering and dreadful as His; and they anticipated and endured with cheerfulness, joy, magnanimity, rapture Some other cause must certainly be found for Christ's darkness and distress of mind, distinct from the mere apprehension of the cross. The seat of His suffering was the soul. But it is again and again affirmed that He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners;" that He was "without spot "—had no speck or stain of guilt upon His conscience. He could not therefore be oppressed by any feeling of personal demerit. He had no frailty, no defect; He had never erred in thought, word, or deed; He had no conscious deficiencies to oppress Him, nothing to acknowledge and confess with shame, no necessity to pray for mercy, no iniquity to fill Him with terror at the thought of God: in spite of all this, however, His soul was "troubled" -was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death"-overpowered and beset with bitter anguish. I know of no principle on which this mental suffering of a perfectly innocent and holy being can be rationally accounted for, except that which refers it to the fact of His being a sacrificial and propitiatory victim. "His soul was made an offering for sin," &c. . . Can any account be given on this ground of the causes and nature of His extraordinary mental agony and terror? The Scriptures, I think, seem to refer to three sources of this distress and anguish. There was some mysterious conflict with the great adversary of God aud man, from whose tyranny He came to redeem us. When discomfited in the Temptation, the Devil, it is said, "departed from Him for a season,” and in Gethsemane he seems to have returned, for it was then, as Christ Himself expressed it, "the hour of the power of darkness." The combined forces of the bottomless pit were brought against Him, and in some way, impossible to be explained, overwhelmed Him with darkness, discomposed His spirit, and alarmned His soul by infamous suggestions. Then it is also said, that "it pleased the Father to bruise Him and to put Him to grief," that "Jehovah made His soul an offering for sin;" that He called for the sword, and awoke it against the Shepherd, and pierced and smote Him. Here was some mysterious infliction direct from the hand of God, some wonderful withdrawal of His countenance and complacency, or at least of their sensible manifestation; fire descended from heaven to consume the sacrifice. It is also said that our iniquities were "laid upon Him," and that, in some sense, He bore the curse and penalty of transgression. I need hardly say, that we reject the notion that He literally endured the punishment of sin; this would have been impossible, since that includes actual remorse, and Christ could never feel that He was a sinner, though He was treated as if He were; nor would it have consisted with the nature of the Gospel and the display of mercy, since, the penalty literally exacted, mercy would be impossible, and the sinner might demand his release from justice. Still there was suffering in the mind of Christ, flowing into it from human guilt; His pure mind had such an apprehension of sin, such a view of all its vile and malignant properties; its possible attributes and gigantic magnitude so rose and spread before Him, that He started in amazement from the dreadful object, and trembled, and was terrified exceedingly; sin was "laid upon Him," and it sank and crushed Him, and, in some sense, its poison and bitterness entered into His soul. The conclusion to which I am led, I confess, is this, that while I deem it impossible for Jesus to have endured that literal remorse, which is the natural and direct punishment of sin, yet I do think that His agony of mind was the nearest to this which it was possible for Him to experience. He was so affected by the pressure of sin on all sides, that He felt something like the terror, anguish, and agitation of a burdened conscience and a wounded spirit. His mind was in a tempest when His agony was at its height; it wrought upon His frame till His sweat was blood; the arrows of God seemed to have entered into His soul, He had all the appearance of a sinner stricken for his sins. I again repeat, that this could not literally be the case; I can only say that it was the nearest to it that Christ could feel or God inflict; and I see not that there is any more mystery in something of this nature being felt, than in the fact of a perfectly pure and spotless being suffering at all.-T. Binney, LL.D.: Sermons, Second Series, pp. 157-162. A SACRAMENTAL MEDITATION. Experimental piety does not exempt us from sufferings, but it teaches us how to bear them, especially when we contemplate a suffering Saviour (Heb. xii. 3). Let us take our stand once more by the cross of Christ, and we shall find our grief absorbed in the grief of Jesus, and as we look upon His sufferings, the remembrance of our own will be forgotten. I. Let us meditate upon the nature and extent of His sufferings. They were anticipated, voluntary, vicarious, unparalleled. II. Let us muse upon the salutary lessons which Christ's sufferings teach. 1. The immeasurableness of His love (John xv. 9). 2. The enormity of our sins. 3. The debt of gratitude we owe to Jesus. 4. The spirit we should evince in suffering. Renew your vows of perpetual fealty, and seal them at this sacramental board.-A. Tucker. CHRIST'S SILENCE UNDER SUFFERING. (Sermon before the Lord's Supper.) liii. 7. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. said, "This is no cup of mine; let them drink it that filled it by their sins." But no; He only cries that it may pass from Him. Prayer is the cry of one who feels no right to demand. (2.) On the cross. There God hid His face from Him. Yet, did He say it was unjust? No. II. The reasons why Christ was silent under His sufferings. 1. Because He knew His sufferings were all infinitely just. He was a substitute in the room of sinners. |