... Jesus was not murdered - no one took His life from Him; He laid it down freely as a ransom for many.
You probably know that Calvary was a place close to Jerusalem, where the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified. We know
nothing else about Calvary beside this. I call this tract "Calvary," because I
am going to speak to you about the sufferings and crucifixion of
Christ.
I am afraid that much ignorance prevails among people on the
subject of Jesus Christ's sufferings. I suspect that many see no peculiar glory
and beauty in the history of the crucifixion: on the contrary; they think it
painful, humbling, and degrading. They do not see much profit in the story of
Christ's death and sufferings: they rather turn from it as an unpleasant
thing.
Now I believe that such persons are quite wrong. I cannot agree
with them. I believe it is an excellent thing for us all to be continually
dwelling on the crucifixion of Christ. That is a good thing to be often reminded how Jesus was betrayed into the hands of wicked men,-how they condemned
Him with most unjust judgment,-how they spit on Him, scourged Him, beat Him, and
crowned Him with thorns, -how they led Him forth as a lamb to the slaughter,
without His murmuring or resisting, -how they drove the nails through His hands
and feet, and set Him on Calvary between two thieves, how they pierced His side
with a spear, mocked Him in His suffering, and let Him hang there naked and
bleeding till He died. Of all these things, I say, it is good to be reminded. It
is not for nothing that the crucifixion is described four times over in the New
Testament. There are very few things that all the four writers of the Gospel
describe: generally speaking, if Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell a thing in our
Lord's history, John does not tell it; but there is one thing that all the four
give us most fully, and that one thing is the story of the cross. This is a
telling fact, and not to be overlooked.
People
seem to me to forget that all Christ's sufferings at Calvary were fore-ordained. They did not come
on Him by chance or accident: they were all planned, counselled, and determined
from all eternity; the cross was foreseen, in all the provisions of the
everlasting Trinity for the salvation of sinners. In the purposes of God the
cross was set up from everlasting. Not one throb of pain did Jesus feel, not one
precious drop of blood did Jesus shed, which had not been appointed long ago.
Infinite wisdom planned that redemption should be by the cross: infinite wisdom
brought Jesus to the cross in due time. He was crucified by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God.
People
seem to me to forget that all Christ's sufferings at Calvary were necessary for man's salvation. He
had to bear our sins, if ever they were to be borne at all: with His stripes
alone could we be healed. This was the one payment of our debts that God would
accept; this was the great sacrifice on which our eternal life depended. If
Christ had not gone to the cross and suffered in our stead, the just for the
unjust, there would not have been a spark of hope for us; there would have been
a mighty gulf between ourselves and God, which no man ever could have passed.
The cross was necessary, in order that there might be an atonement for
sin.
People
seem to me to forget that all Christ's sufferings were endured voluntary and of His own free
will. He was under no compulsion: of His own choice He laid down
His life: of His own choice He went to Calvary to finish the work He came to do.
He might easily have summoned legions of angels with a word, and scattered
Pilate and Herod, and all their armies, like chaff before the wind; but He was a
willing sufferer: His heart was set on the salvation of sinners. He was resolved
to open a fountain for all sin and uncleanness, by shedding His own
blood.
Reader, when I think of all this, I see nothing painful or
disagreeable in the subject of Christ's crucifixion; on the contrary, I see in
it wisdom and power, peace and hope, joy and gladness, comfort and consolation.
The more I keep the cross in my mind's eye, the more fullness I seem to discern
in it; the longer I dwell on the crucifixion in my thoughts, the more I am
satisfied that there is more to he learned at Calvary than anywhere else in the
world.
[J.C. Ryle]
✞ ✞ ✞
John 10:11 … I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
John 10:17-18 … Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Hebrews 9:26 … For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9:28 … So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Hebrews 10:12 … But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; ❤
