The commanding theme of the gospel is
Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected and glorified. God so loved the world
that He gave His Son to die for the redemption of sinful humanity. The
Son so loved the world that He laid down His life for all sinners (Romans
5:7-8).
The Lord’s life was not an ordinary life and
His sufferings were not ordinary sufferings. In His deepest agony He tasted
death for every man (Hebrews 2:9). Words are incapable of describing the
horror of that awful and atrocious day. The Son of God died in unbearable
pain, while brutish men, looking on, mocked Him and reviled Him.
The sun was darkened as God refused to let
the light shine upon such a scene. The foundations of the earth were shaken
with a mighty earthquake. The rocks rent asunder and the graves of the
saints were emptied. On that day in the long ago there was a fountain opened
for cleansing and millions could be delivered from dismal darkness to marvelous
light.
In Matthew 27:36, we read, “And sitting down
they watched Him there.” What do we see at Calvary? We see three things
of eternal importance.
We first see: Sin At Its Blackest.
Down through the ages, sin has left a dark and slimy trail. Sin made havoc
with the world’s first home (Genesis 3). Sin made a murderer of the world’s
first baby (Genesis 4). By Noah’s day the octopus of iniquity had stretched
its poisonous tentacles into every imagination and thought of the heart
of man.
The book of Genesis is a microcosm of the
human race. In Genesis 1:1 we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth.” But sin became part of earth’s picture. And now read the
last verse in Genesis, “...in a coffin in Egypt” (Genesis 50:26). That’s
a perfect picture of the result of sin’s black work. Truly, “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). When we see Calvary we see sin
at its worst.
Next, we also see: Compassion At Its Best.
No love can compare with heaven’s love. The love of God is heightless,
depthless, breathless, limitless, endless and ageless. If no one else in
the whole wide world loved you but God, you still would possess a vast
treasure.
The Bible from
cover to cover shouts of God’s
care and compassion. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth His
love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Also
see Jeremiah 31:3; Ephesians 2:4-5; 1 John 4:8-10, 16). The compassion
of Christ is higher than the heaven; deeper than the ocean; sweeter than
the honeycomb; fresher than the dew and greater than the universe.
But, at Calvary, we lastly see: Salvation
In Its Completion. Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
“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).
Calvary was God’s final solution to man’s
problems. Man’s sin problem could never have been solved apart from the
interposing of the blood of the dying Lamb of God. Today, the cross of
Christ at Calvary cries out to a world deafened by empty echoes of pleasure.
Calvary screams out, “Look unto me and live!”
Jesus Christ saw our sins; realized our guilt;
knew our despair; weighed our burdens; witnesses our dejection and observed
our hopelessness and died that we might live. Will you live for him? Jesus
said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).
Let the things pictured and portrayed at Calvary
draw you to Jesus in all His greatness.—Taken from the book, Gospel Truths
Briefly Told, by Bill Dillon, 704 Arkansas Avenue, Mountain Home, AR 72653