Oct 12
20
Sharper scourges tear His heart! (Charles Spurgeon)
“He had Jesus scourged, and handed Him over to be crucified.” Mark 15:15
“With His stripes we are healed.” — Isaiah 53:5
Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. The Roman scourging was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were inter-twisted among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down—these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the victim. The Savior was, no doubt, bound to the pillar, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this scourging of the Roman lictors—was probably the most severe of His flagellations.
My soul, stand here and weep over His poor stricken body. Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon Him without tears, as He stands before you—the picture of agonizing love? He is at once as white as the lily for innocence, and as red as the rose with the crimson of His own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing which His stripes have wrought in us—does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus—surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms.
“See how the patient Jesus stands, Insulted in His lowest case! Sinners have bound the Almighty’s hands, And spit in their Creator’s face! With thorns His temples gored and gashed
Send streams of blood from every part; His back’s with knotted scourges lashed.
But sharper scourges tear His heart!” We would sincerely go to our chambers and weep; but since our business calls us away, we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of His bleeding self—upon the tablets of our hearts all the day; and at nightfall we will return to commune with Him, and sorrow that our sin should have cost Him so dear!
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Our righteousness-Chris Cunningham.
There is but one human righteousness, and it is Christ, His Person and work. When we speak of “our Righteousness,” we are speaking of Him, for He is eternally, the Lord our righteousness (Jer 23:6). In this regard, as in all others, nothing can be added to, nor taken away from Him. Our gracious, loving Father has brought us the Best Robe, one woven throughout, without seam. Nothing we do can mar it, no matter how hideous our sin, and no imagined goodness that we perform can add a stitch unto it.
Do not presume that works of faith wrought in and through us by God, Who worketh in us both to will and do of His good pleasure (Php 2:13), are meritorious in any way or considered as supplemental to His. If we are considered in ourselves at all, even based on our best work, we are undone. And do not despair, though your sin become exceeding sinful to you. Of God are we in Christ Jesus, Who is made unto us Righteousness (1Cor 1:30). We have no other, and need no other.
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The Robe!
From Spurgeon’s, “The Treasure of Grace”
God’s children are wrapped around with a robe,a seamless robe, which earth and heaven could not buy the like of if it, were it once lost.
For texture it excels the fine linen of the merchants;for whiteness it is purer than the driven snow; no looms on earth could make it, but Jesus spent his life to make my robe of righteousness.
There was a drop of blood in every throw of the shuttle, and every thread was made of his own heart’s agonies.
It is a robe that is divine, complete; a better one than Adam wore in the perfection of Eden. Adam had but a human righteousness though a perfect one, but we have a divinely
perfect righteousness. Strangely, my soul, are you arrayed, for your Savior’s
garment is on you- the royal robe of David is wrapped about his Jonathan.
Look at God’s people as they are clothed also in the garments of ‘sanctification’.
Was there ever such a robe as that?
It is literally stiff with jewels. Every day he arrays the lowliest of his people as though it were a wedding day. He arrays them as a bride adorns herself with jewels. He will have them dressed in gold of Ophir.
What riches of grace then must there be in God who thus clothes his children!
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Righteousness revealed
“…I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ…for therein is the righteousness of God revealed…” Romans 1:16-17
The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ reveals the righteousness of God in the justifying work of Christ which He wrought for the elect and is credited to their account before God, and is imputed to them and imparted in them by the regenerating work of His omnipotent Spirit.
The gospel exalts the righteousness of Christ and condemns man’s self-righteousness. Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed”. God Almighty is just and righteous in accepting sinners clothed with the righteousness of their appointed Substitute. The righteousness of God is not revealed by the light of nature or by the works of man. Only the “good news” of the gospel of Christ reveals and declares this wondrous work and transaction.
Man has naught to accomplish or perform, therefore we glory in Christ and Him alone, and we are not ashamed – “To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:26. In the gospel of Christ is the answer to the unanswerable question in Job 9:2 “I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?”
The glory of His righteousness is revealed to us and in us here by His Spirit by the preaching of the gospel, and will one day be revealed openly and universally for all to behold and wonder – “In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.” Jer 33:16.
This is what the gospel is all about – He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Isa 53:11. We may rightfully be ashamed of any other so-called gospel. Any messenger with any other message is accursed of God – “As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed”. Galatians 1:9-Tommy Robbins.
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It must be perfect to be accepted-Tom Harding
“And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein” (Lev. 22:21).
In Leviticus 21 and 22, the Lord instructed Moses and Aaron with the most vital and fundamental information on how to approach and worship Him. The high priest could not have any defect, deformity or blemish (Lev. 21:16-21). Likewise, the sacrifice could not have any blemish at all (Lev. 22: 17-24). If the priest had no defect, yet brought a sacrifice with blemishes it would not be accepted, for it “must be perfect to be accepted” (Lev. 22:21). Likewise, if the sacrifice had no blemish, but the priest that offered it had any blemish, the sacrifice would not be accepted at all, for it “must be perfect to be accepted.”
All of this declares the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect and great High Priest without blemish, spot, defect, deformity or sin (Heb. 4:14-15; Heb. 7:26; 8:1). Not only is that true, but He is also the perfect sacrifice. He is the Lamb without blemish or spot (John 1:29; 1 Peter. 1:18-20). It is only through the Lord Jesus Christ and His glorious sacrifice, that we can be justified from all sin (Acts 13:38-39; Heb. 9:12). In the Lord Jesus Christ every believer is a priest with no blemish, no sin (Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10). Likewise, in Christ’s precious blood atonement we can approach the throne of grace with boldness (Heb. 4:16; 10:19-22), because we have a perfect sacrifice that fully, eternally satisfies the holy justice of God (Rom. 3:24-26; Col. 1:19-22; Jude 1:24-25).
Through Christ, we meet God’s standard of perfection, “It must be perfect to be accepted,” all of this, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6).
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The Righteousness of God
One of the more important phrases in our English Bibles is the phrase, “The righteousness of God.” Martin Luther claimed that a proper understanding of this phrase led to his salvation. But a word or phrase has no power unless we understand what it means. There are at least three ways the Scriptures use this phrase:
1) God’s essential righteousness that directs all His works. In all God does, He is righteous, for righteousness is among His essential attributes. When He condemns, He is righteous. When He saves, He is righteous. His wrath is a righteous wrath and His love is a righteous love.
2) The gift of righteousness that comes from God to all who believe. This is the righteousness of the Gospel and is set forth as distinct from the righteousness of the Law. In the Law, we must render righteousness to God; in the gospel, we receive righteousness from God. In the book of Romans, this righteousness is seen primarily as the righteousness of justification. That is, it describes the righteousness imputed to every one of God’s elect which makes them accepted by God and legally secures to them all the blessings of God.
3) A righteous nature given to every one of God’s elect. The “legal” righteousness of God makes every elect accepted by God. But salvation goes beyond making us accepted; it also includes fellowship with God. “Fellowship” means “to have in common.” For a man to know, love, believe and communicate with God, he must have a nature in common with God’s. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that all for whom Christ died are made to be the righteousness of God in Him. The word translated “made” is the word the Scriptures use for the creation of the universe, and is also the word Satan used when he tempted Christ with, “Make these stones into bread.” This word goes beyond what a thing is merely declared to be and touches the very being or essence of a thing. Because of Christ’s work on the cross, every believer’s essential nature is changed: At regeneration, every one of God’s elect is created in Christ with a new and sinless spiritual nature which is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. It is from this new nature that we know, love, believe and communicate with God. In the flesh, we can do none of these things, but from a regenerated spirit, every one of God’s people does all of these things. In time to come, this work begun in us in our spirits will be brought to perfection as even our bodies will be made like Christ’s glorious body, and will no longer be a hindrance to our regenerated spirits. In that day, we will no longer feel compelled to cry out, “O wretched man that I am,” for in that day, we will be, body and spirit, like Christ. –Joe Terrell
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The Man with the bruised heel & crown of thorns!
The following is from Bonar’s book, “The Night of Weeping”
Jesus’ crucifixion was but the closing scene of a whole life of crucifixion!
He was a cross bearer from the hour that He was laid in the manger. All His days He bore
the cross. His life was but a pilgrimage to Calvary with the cross upon His shoulders.
His whole course on earth was a mournful way. It was all reproach and sorrow from His
cradle to His grave. His was a sorrowing life; His death was but the summing up of His many
sorrows, the gathering of them all together and pressing them into His cup at once, until the
vessel burst, because it could hold no more. Throughout life He was the “man of sorrows.”
He was “acquainted with grief.” His bruised heel is only another way of expressing His character as the suffering, the crucified Son of Man. It is the Man with the bruised
heel who has won our hearts!
It is He whom we follow; and His bruised heel we engrave upon our banner as our
most honorable badge. We are followers of the Man with the pierced hands and feet, the Man who is covered all over with the marks of the buffet and the scourge and the spitting, the Man with the crown of thorns!