Aug 20
16
This is mercy!
(Letters of William Romaine, 1714-1795)
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner!” Luke 18:13
“Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;” Psalm 103:4
My dear friend,
What thanks ought we to give to our gracious Lord for all of His mercies to us!
I can look back upon every part of my life, and upon it all I can write, “This is mercy!”
Oh, it is all, from first to last, to those who are chosen and called and believe and live by faith in the Son of God, MERCY—from everlasting to everlasting! Mercy before time, mercy in time, mercy beyond time!
Where is the fountainhead, the spring of this mercy? What gives rise to it?
Nothing but the sovereign grace and free love of the purpose and heart of God Himself.
But on whom do the streams of this fountain flow with their quickening, comforting, sanctifying, glorifying streams?
On the miserable sinner, and none else; for none else are the objects of mercy. On such as you and me! Mercy has made a rich provision . . . to supply all our needs, to pardon all our sins, to save us from all punishment, to entitle us to all glory!
“I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever!” Psalm 89:1
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1
THE DIMENSIONS OF CHRIST’S LOVE
Ephesians 3: 18: May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Psalm 103 gives the dimensions of Christ’s love
• The height—Ps 103: 11: For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
• The breadth—Ps 103: 12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
• The depth—Ps 103: 13: Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 14: For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
• The length—Ps 103: 17: But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.
At no time is it ever acceptable to sin. All sin is an infinite evil. When Christ cried from the darkness of the cross, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me”, it was because of sin. There are no little inconsequential sins. John said, “These things write I unto you that you sin not.” In the world to come God’s elect will no longer be sinners, but while in this world it is always good to be a sinner. It is not good to commit sins! But it is good to be a sinner. Why? It is sinners that Christ came to save! It is sinners Christ came to call! He was called the friend of sinners. The only way you can hear the Gospel as the Gospel is if you hear as a present tense sinner. The only way you can trust Him as your righteousness is if you have none of your own. You only trust Him as all when He is all you have. I really believe what the hymn writer said – “A sinner is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost hath made him so.”
~~Todd Nibert (TRGC, KY bulletin 2.23.2020)
THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST – A MYSTERIOUS CREATURE
The path of the Christian is indeed a mysterious one, full of harmonious contradictions and heavenly paradoxes. He is never easy when at ease, nor without a burden when he has none. He is never satisfied without doing something, and yet is never satisfied with anything that he does. He is never so strong as when he sits still [Isaiah 30:7], never so fruitful as when he does nothing, and never so active as when he makes the least haste [Isaiah 28:16]. All outstrip him in the race, yet he alone gains the goal, and wins the prize. All are sure of heaven but himself, yet he enters into the kingdom, whilst they are thrust out. He wins pardon through guilt, hope through despair, deliverance through temptation, comfort through affliction, and a robe of righteousness through filthy rags. Though a worm and no man, he overcomes Omnipotence itself through violence; and though less than vanity and nothing [Isaiah 40:17 2 Corinthians 12:11], he takes heaven itself by force [Matthew 11:12.]
Thus amidst the strange contradictions which meet in a believing heart, he is never so prayerful as when he says nothing; never so wise as when he is the greatest fool; never so much alone as when most in company; and never so much under the power of an inward religion as when most separated from an outward one. Strange mysterious creature! He cannot live without sinning, yet cannot live in sin; cannot live without prayer, and yet for days together cannot pray; continually finds religion a burden, yet would not part with it for the world; lusts after sin as a delicious morsel, yet hates it with a perfect hatred; esteems Christ the Chiefest among ten thousand, and yet is at times tried with doubts whether He is a Saviour at all.
J.C. Philpot
Put to death by His own creatures!
(Spurgeon, “The Great Mystery of Godliness”)
The condescension of Christ became most
extraordinary when, at last, our Lord stooped
to be put to death by His own creatures!
Arraigned before human tribunals, condemned
as guilty of the gravest crimes, He is fastened
to the accursed wood, and put to a death of
deepest shame, and bitterest torture.
What a wondrous sight was the dying Redeemer!
Jesus comes to save His people from their sins,
by taking the sins of His people upon Himself!
This is a mystery surpassing all comprehension!
O you whose loving eyes have looked upon the
ensanguined rills which gush from the wounds
of your bleeding Lord, and have delighted to
behold the Lily of the valleys reddened into the
Rose of Sharon with the crimson of His own blood;
behold in the writhing form of the Crucified Man
at once the vengeance and the love of God.
Behold divine power sustaining the load of
human guilt, and divine compassion enduring
such agonies for rebels so ill deserving!
Why was His soul troubled?
(Octavius Winslow, “CONSIDER JESUS” 1870)
“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow
to the point of death.” Mark 14:34
In this lay our Lord’s greatest suffering:
His soul sorrow. Compared with this . . .
the lingering, excruciating tortures of the cross,
the extended limbs,
the quivering nerves,
the bleeding wounds,
the burning thirst;
were, as nothing.
So long as our blessed Lord endured the gibes
and insults and calumnies of mere men, not a
complaint escaped His lips.
But, when the wrath of God, endured as the
Substitute of His people, entered within His
holy soul, then the wail of agony rose strong
and piercing, “My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?”
Why was His soul troubled?
He was now bearing sin and, consequently,
the punishment of sin; the wrath of God
overwhelming His soul. Divine justice, finding
the sins of God’s elect meeting on His holy soul,
exacted full payment and inflicted the utmost
penalty!
A Bag, a Book, and a Bottle!
(Don Fortner)
God takes great care to comfort His people in their many trials and sorrows in this world. One of the goals which He commands His preachers to have, is the comfort of His people. He says, “Comfort, comfort My people.” Here are three things described in the Word of God that should be of great comfort to every believer.
1. God has made A BAG FOR OUR SINS. Job said, “My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity.” In ancient times when men died at sea, their bodies were placed in a weighted bag which was sewn together and sealed. Then they were cast into the depths of the sea.
That is what God has done with our sins. They are cast “into the depths of the sea.” When Christ died for our sins which were imputed to Him, He put them all away. They were buried in the sea of God’s infinite forgiveness, put away never to be brought up again. God almighty will never charge us with sin, impute sin to us, remember our sins against us, or treat us any less graciously because of our sin. That is the forgiveness of God! “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
2. The Lord has written A BOOK FOR OUR NAMES. Take heart child of God. Your name is written in the book of God! Before the worlds were made, the Lord God inscribed the names of His elect in the Lamb’s book of life. In that book God has recorded, not only the names of the chosen heirs of Heaven, but also all things pertaining to them. The Lamb’s book of life is the book of God’s eternal purpose of grace, predestination, and election. The fact that our names are written in that book means that our salvation is a matter of absolute certainty, and that all things work together for our good by God’s arrangement to secure our predestined end, which is perfect conformity to Christ. When our Lord says, “Rejoice because your names are written in Heaven,” He is telling us that we have nothing to fear. All is well with those whose names are written in Heaven.
3. Moreover, the Lord God keeps A BOTTLE FOR OUR TEARS. “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” It was customary at ancient Egyptian funerals for mourners to have a small cloth or sponge to wipe away their tears. Then they were squeezed into a small vial, a tear bottle, and placed in the tomb with the dead, symbolizing the care the mourners had for the one who had died. Even so, the Lord our God, our heavenly Father, our almighty Savior, and our holy Comforter tenderly cares for us. We are the very apple of His eye.
The Lord our God has . . .
put our sins in a bag and buried them,
written our names in a book to remember them, and
placed our tears in a bottle to show His tender care for us.
Could anything be more comforting in this world of sin, sorrow, and death?
“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
Octavius Winslow
How shall we account for the sufferings of Christ, which were intense, and mysterious, if not on the ground of their vicarious character? Those sufferings were intense in the extreme. There was a severity in those who, if not required by Divine justice, would be perfectly unaccountable. Heaven, earth, and hell, all were in league against Him. Survey His eventful history- mark every step which He took from Bethlehem to Calvary; and what do we learn of His sufferings, but that they were of the most extraordinary and intense character. His enemies, like dogs of war, were let loose upon Him. His professed followers themselves stood aghast at the scenes through which their Lord was passing- one betraying Him, another denying Him, and all, in the hour of His extremity, forsaking Him. Is it any wonder that, in the anguish of His soul, His suffering humanity should exclaim, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” In that awful moment, all the waves and billows of God’s wrath, due to the sins of His people, were passing over Him. The Father, the last resource of sympathy, veiled His face, and withdrew from Him His sensible presence; and on the cross, draining the cup of sorrow, He fulfilled the prophecy, which spoke of Him- “I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there were none with me.”
His sufferings, too, were mysterious. Why a holy, harmless being, whose whole life had been one act of unparalleled beneficence, should be doomed to persecution so severe, to sufferings so acute, and to a death so painful and ignominious, the denier of the atonement must be embarrassed to account. But the doctrine of a vicarious sacrifice explains it all, and presents the only key to the mystery. “He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” All the mystery now is gone. He was “made sin for us.” He was “made a curse for us.” He bore the sin, and consequently the penalty of sin. Had we been left, Christian reader, to bear our sins, we must inevitably have borne alone the punishment of our sins. But Jesus took upon Him our sins. For this, He became a party in the covenant of redemption; for this, He assumed our nature; for this, He sorrowed in Gethsemane; for this, the law of God exacted its utmost claim; and for this, the justice of God inflicted the utmost penalty. Oh, what a truth is this! The Son of God offering Himself up a sacrifice for sin! He who knew no sin- who was holy, harmless, and undefiled- not one thought of evil in His heart, yet made sin, or a sin-offering! Oh the greatness of the thought! If God had not Himself declared it, we could not have believed it, though an angel’s tongue had announced it. God Himself must proclaim it; and because He has so proclaimed it, we believe it. And God alone can write it upon the heart.