Brothers and sisters I want you to read the post with an open mind. Here is Ralph Earle! Ralph Earle, Professor of New Testament at the Nazarene Theological Seminary, said:The death of Jesus differed from that of every other man. He dismissed his spirit.2 His was a completely voluntary decease-No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.3 Death was not forced upon Him. He accepted it as the will of God for the salvation of man.What did Jesus’ death mean for Him? The answer is best suggested by His prayer in Gethsemane. There He cried out in agony of soul, 0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Then, He bowed his head in humble submission and said: Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.What was this cup from which He prayed to be delivered? Carping critics have said that Jesus cringed cowardly fear at the thought of death. But such cavilers are utterly ignorant of the true significance of that hour. Jesus was not afraid to die!What was it, then, from which He shrank, in anguish of spirit? It was His Fathers face turned away from Him in the awful hour when Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.5 Our Substitute took the tortuous trail of a lost soul, walking out into the labyrinthine depths of outer darkness. He tasted death for every man. That means more than physical death. When Christ cried out on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was experiencing something far deeper. He was paying the penalty for sin-not His, but ours. The penalty for sin is separation from God. This was the price that Jesus had to pay for our salvation. There was no alternative. The final words of Christ in the Garden were these: The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? To secure man’s salvation, the Son of God let the blow of divine justice fall on Himself. He who could say, I do always those things that please him had to endure the displeasure of the one He delighted to serve.In those few but fateful hours on the cross Jesus tasted the unspeakable horror of eternal death. Spiritual darkness shrouded His soul. His cry of dereliction is the measure of His sacrifice. Olin A. Curtis has well expressed it thus: And so, there alone, our Lord opens his mind, his heart, his personal consciousness, to the whole inflow of the horror of sin-the endless history of it, from the first choice of selfishness on, on to the eternity of hell; the boundless ocean and deso1ation he allows; wave upon wave, to overwhelm his soul.
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 20:42:09 +0000
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