|
|
|
|
|
How Can One Man Bear the Penalty For
The Whole World of Sinners? |
|
|
|
|
|
An illustration: Mr. Harkness
has defrauded Mr. Jones of 1000
dollars. Being poverty-stricken,
unemployable and bankrupt, it is
understood that Mr. Harkness will
never be able to pay the money
back. He had broken the trust Mr.
Jones had in him, and Mr. Jones will
be the poorer because of his loss.
How can things be amended and trust
rekindled? Mr. Harkness has a very
wealthy friend who hears of the
situation and in compassion decides
to help. In less than a minute he
writes a check to Mr. Jones for 1000
dollars so indicating the debt is
paid in full. The lesson is
obvious. Mr. Harkness’ friend was
able to do in a minute that which
Mr. Harkness could never do. So at
Calvary, in the three hours of
darkness when bearing the penalty
for our sins, the fulness of the
moral perfections of Christ enabled
Him to alleviate in
righteousness the wrath of God
against me. |
|
|
|
This darkness is the supreme
demonstration of divine love and
ultimate compassion
When contemplating the words of
Scripture, “the Father sent the Son
to be the Saviour of the world” (1
Jn. 4:14), and “Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved
us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn.
4:10), we are in wonder of the
infinite moral wealth of Christ and
the unbounded love of the Father.
There are things in life that are
almost impossible to believe and
this is a truth that can only be
believed by faith. “The Son of God
loved me, and gave himself for me”
(Gal. 2:20 paraphrase).
Musing on such truths,
we stand
at the edge of a fathomless wonder
peering up at heights that are
inconceivable, and walk through the
scope of profoundness where every
concept of human intelligence
fails. Yet, at the same time, we
thank God that this is but the
beginning of insights into the
wonder of Christ and Calvary.
|
|
Did the Father turn away from the
Son?
The first observation is the Son was
never forsaken by the Father. He
was forsaken by God. Having been
forsaken the Lord cried, “My God, my
God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
(Matt. 27:46).
When the Lord speaks about God being
God, it is always in the context of
His humanity. When God is spoken of
as Father, it
is
in the context of relationship. It
is important to stay to what the
Lord said. In the first cry He
said, “Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they do” (Lk.
23:34); in the last cry He said,
“Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit” (Lk. 23:46).
|
|
What is the divine utterance that
conveys what Hell is?
When our Lord hung on the cross He
gave seven cries. The cry, “My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me” conveys what Hell is like. What
does it mean to be God forsaken?
What does it mean that He was made
sin for us (2 Cor. 5: 21)? What
does it mean, “Christ died for our
sins” (1 Cor. 15:3)? The
observation is, no one who is
redeemed will ever know what it is
to be God forsaken. No unsaved
person will ever know its fulness
for they have never known the height
of fellowship with God. Christ is
the only human being who lived in
unbroken fellowship with God yet was
forsaken by Him when bearing the
penalty for our sins and laying the
foundation for our forgiveness.
Christ knew nothing of human
compassion, it was a man alone with
God, standing as one reckoned to be
guilty of all the sins ever
committed by man and knowing the
dreadfulness of God’s abandonment.
He knew nothing of earth’s
addictions to help ease the pain.
In hell there will be no drink, no
drugs, no sex, no cursing, no
sports, nothing to give ease. It
will not be just bodily hurting but
spirit suffering. Added to God
forsakenness is the horror of the
terms used by God. It is a place of
never being able to die (Mk. 9:44),
therefore a place of eternal
hopelessness, no light at the end of
this experience, nothing to ease the
tormented mind, and no opportunity
for repentance (Lk. 16:23).
|
|
Was it fair or righteous for an
innocent person to suffer for the
guilty?
In daily life it is totally wrong
for an innocent person to suffer for
the guilty. In earlier days there
was a lad known as the whipping
boy. If a Royal did wrong then he
could not be chastised, but the
wrong doing deserved punishment.
That is where the innocent whipping
boy came in. He received the
whipping the Prince deserved for
wrong doing, but was this morally
right? Why should the guilty stand
aside and the innocent be punished
even though they did nothing wrong?
Everything in us
declares
this is wrong, then how was it right
for Christ to bear the penalty for
our sins when He was not the wrong
doer. The only way it can be
righteous is if the innocent
volunteer is motivated by love to
take the punishment. My Aunt Myrtle
was a
timid
child whereas her sister was a
strong strapping girl. One day
little Myrtle failed in her
homework. She was brought to the
front
to be strapped when Isobel, her
sister, stood up and of her own
volition
and love for her sister took the
strapping. This is how it is fair
for Christ to take the punishment
for us. It was an act of voluntary
love.
|
|
Is it fair for me to take that which
another suffered for and take it for
my own?
Of course it is not righteous unless
the one who suffers offers that
suffering as a gift, and I accept it
without any conditions of my own.
Here I
learn that God loved a world of lost
sinners, and that the Son of God
loved me. The measuring of these
truths is far beyond my heart and
mind. That which the Lord had been
experiencing
for three hours was suffering that
could never be humanly
comprehended. Herein love was
manifested beyond all understanding,
with mercy and grace immeasurable.
|
|
. . . .Rowan Jennings |
|
|
|
|
