Apr 25
22
You will find no bottom!
(“Every Day!” Author unknown, 1872)
“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 53:5
Dwell, my soul, with wonder and adoration on the glorious grace of your great
Substitute. Perfectly pure and innocent-He took the place of the guilty, and
paid the penalty of the broken law! To redeem us from its curse-He was made a
curse for us! In the foresight of all He would have to endure as the Substitute
of transgressors-He came willingly from the throne of His glory, and “took
upon Him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross!”
With what clearness is the great truth of the substitution of
Christ stated in the Word of God:
“Christ died for the ungodly!”
“He was delivered for our offences.”
“He gave Himself for our sins.”
“He has once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust.”
“Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the
tree.”
The guilt of all who believe in Christ was imputed to Him-and
His perfect obedience is imputed to them. God “made Him
who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him.”
Dwell, my soul, upon the grace of the precious Saviour. Drop your
sounding line into this depth of redeeming love-but you will find
no bottom! No! not while you live here, or dwell in the realms of
glory-for the love of Christ surpasses knowledge!
“May be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge, that you may be filled withal the fulness of God.” Ephesians
3:18-19
“By
the grace of God I am what I am!“
1 Corinthians 15:10
(John
Newton)
As believers, we are often
affected with a sense of God’s distinguishing mercy to us. We
are debtors, great debtors to the sovereign grace of God, which alone makes us
to differ from the perishing world around us!
Yet it does not yet appear what we shall be. We cannot form a just
conception of the misery from which we are redeemed, much less of the
price paid for our redemption! How little do we know of the Redeemer’s
surpassing excellency, and of the unutterable agonies He endured, when His soul
was made an offering for sin, and it pleased the Father to bruise Him — that by
His stripes we might be healed! These things will strike us in quite another
manner — when we view them from the light of eternity!
May the cheering contemplation of the glorious hope set before us — support and
animate us to improve our short interval on earth, and fill us with a
holy ambition of shining as lights in this evil world, to the praise and
glory of His grace — who has called us out of darkness, into His glorious
light!
Encompassed as we are with snares, temptations, and infirmities, it is possible
(by His promised assistance) to live in some good measure above the
world — above the influence of its cares, its smiles,
or its frowns. Our citizenship is in heaven — we are not at home —
but only reside here on earth for a season, to fulfil our appointed service.
The Lord, whom we serve, has promised that He will guide us by
His wisdom, strengthen us by His power, and comfort us
with the light of His countenance, which is better than life. Every temporal
blessing we receive from Him, is a token of His favor, and a pledge of that far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which He has reserved for us in
heaven. Oh! to hear Him say at last, “Well done, good and faithful
servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!” will be rich amends
for all that we can lose, suffer, or endure, for His sake!
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9
We meekly knock at mercy’s gate
(Henry Law, “Family prayers”)
“But we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf;
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
Holy Father, Almighty God,
We feel our weakness, our ignorance, our deep corruptions. We meekly
knock at mercy’s gate. Regard us in tender love-for Jesus’ sake. Bend down
Your ear-and grant Your smile.
We are blind-be our light.
We are ignorant-be our wisdom.
We are steeped in selfishness-pluck all SELF out
of us.
In the deep sense of our guilt, we fly for refuge into the wounded side of
Jesus!
Be merciful, be merciful unto us-whose only hope is in Your unfailing mercy.
Our sins rise higher than the heavens-but Your merits in
our behalf surpass the very heaven of heavens!
Our unrighteousness would weigh us down to hell-but Your glorious righteousness
exalts us to Your heavenly throne!
All things in us call for our damnation-but all things
in You demand our forgiveness.
We appeal, then, from Your throne of perfect justice-to Your throne
of boundless grace!
Blessed Jesus, we hide ourselves in the sure covert of Your
wrath-appeasing wounds!
Grant us to hear Your voice assuring us: that by Your stripes we are
healed; that You have been bruised for our iniquities; that You have been made
sin for us-that we might have Your divine righteousness; and that all our vile
and grievous iniquities, are forgiven and buried in the ocean of Your
sin-concealing blood!
We are guilty-yet pardoned!
We are lost in ourselves-yet fully saved in You!
Enable us to cling firmly to Your cross-even as we now seek safety and repose
beneath its sin-atoning shelter!
Let floods of sustaining grace from Your inexhaustible treasury, enrich our
poor and weary souls.
If the enemy approaches, quicken our steps to flee into
the wounds of Jesus as our sure refuge! Sheltered in the ark
of safety, may we cease to tremble at all alarms. May You our good Shepherd
lead us this day into the green pastures of His refreshing Word, and cause us
to lie down beside the rivers of Your divine comforts.
These prayers we humbly offer in the name of Jesus Christ, and trusting only in
His saving merits. Amen.
“With His Stripes We Are Healed”
Isaiah 53:5
The Lord God treats our sin as a disease from which we must be healed, as well as a crime from which we must be pardoned. Here he sets before us the costly remedy he has provided for our healing – The stripes of sorrow and wrath endured by Christ as our Substitute. Meditate upon those stripes by which he was wounded for us.
THE BLOODY SWEAT – In the beginning of his sorrows, when he tasted the first bitter drops of the cup he must drink as our Sin-Bearer, the Son of God sweat great drops of blood so profusely that they fell to the ground. He was in agony in body and in soul as he anticipated being made sin for us.
THE BRUTAL SCOURGING – No sooner did he rise from the bloody sweat than Judas came to betray him. Arrested like a common criminal, he was hurried off to the high priest, then Pilate’s judgment hall. Pilate delivered him up to be scourged and crucified. The Roman soldiers seem to have taken great pleasure in brutality. They buffeted him with their fists, spit in his face, mocked him, and scourged him. Scourging by the Romans was one of the most terrible forms of torture imaginable. The scourge was made by tying knots with pieces of broken bone into strands of rawhide-like leather. With every lash of the scourge, the flesh of a man’s back was plowed to the bone.
THE BARBARIC SLAUGHTER – After he was scourged, the Son of God was nailed to the cursed tree. There he hung for hours suspended between heaven and earth, bearing the sins of his people and enduring the wrath of God. In agony of mind, agony of soul, agony of heart, and agony of body, he suffered all the hell of God’s wrath. Slaughtered by the hands of men as a vile wretch of a man, but all by the hand of God for the atonement of sin!
THE BLESSED SATISFACTION – Our Saviour endured the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross for the satisfaction of justice, that God might be just in putting away the sins of his people. Enduring the stripes of God’s holy wrath as our Substitute, Christ both satisfied the justice of God and healed us of the curse and plague of sin. “With his stripes we are healed!”
Don Fortner
Sharper scourges tear
His heart!
(C.H.Spurgeon)
“He delivered Jesus, when
he had scourged him, to be crucified.”
Mark 15:15
Pilate delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged.
The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of
torture. Sharp bones were inter-twisted in the whip, so
that every time the lash came down, these pieces of bone
inflicted fearful lacerations, and tore off the flesh! The
Saviour was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus
beaten. He had been beaten before; but this scourging
by the 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 agonising love?
He is at once fair as the lily for innocence–and 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 readily go to our chambers and weep and
pray our Beloved to imprint the image of His bleeding
self upon the tablets of our hearts–and sorrow that
our sin should have cost Him so dear!
“With His stripes we are healed!” Isaiah 53:5
These scars!
(C.H.Spurgeon)
“ And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of
the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”
Revelation 5:6
Why should our exalted Lord appear in heaven—with
His wounds? The wounds of Jesus are—His glories, His jewels, His
sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is lovely, because He is
“white and ruddy”; white with innocence, and ruddy with
His own blood. We see Him as the Lily of matchless purity—and
as the Rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely in
His life and His teaching—but oh! there never was such a matchless
Christ as He who hung upon the cross! There we behold all His beauties
in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His
character expressed!
Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more
lovely in our eyes—than all the splendor and pomp of kings! The thorny
crown is more attractive than any imperial diadem. Jesus wears the
appearance of a slain Lamb—as His court dress in which He wooed our
souls, and redeemed them by His complete atonement.
Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ—they
are the trophies of His love and of His victory! He has
redeemed for Himself a great multitude whom no man can number—and these
scars are the memorials of the fight! Ah! if Christ delights to retain
the thought of His sufferings for His people—how precious should His wounds
be to us!
“Behold how every wound of His,
A precious balm distills,
Which heals the scars that sin had made,
And cures all mortal ills.
Those wounds are mouths that preach His grace;
The ensigns of His love;
The seals of our expected bliss,
In paradise above!”