# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1881_S13 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Autheran Sa] loner. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. - PuBLisHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHERAN SynopicAL CoNFERENCE OF Nortn AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Ofiice at St. Louis, Mo., 23 second-class matter. Vol. IL. St. Louis, Mo., April, 1881. No. 4. The Crucifixion. Bound upon the accursed tree, Faint and bleeding, who is He?— By the eyes so pale and dim, Streaming blood and writhing limb, By the flesh with scourges torn, By the crown of twisted thorn, By the side so deeply pierced, By the bafiled burning thirst, By the drooping death-dewed brow: Son of Man! ’tis Thou! ’t is Thou! Bound upon the accursed tree, Dread and awful, who is Ze?— By the sun at noon-day pale, Shivering rocks, and rending veil, By earth’s trembling at His doom, By the saints who burst their tomb, By the promise, ere He diced, To the felon at His side: Lord! our suppliant knees we bow; Son of God! ’t is Thou! ’t is Thou! Bound upon the accursed tree, Sad and dying, who is He?— By the last and bitter cry, The ghost given up in agony, By the lifeless body laid In the chambers of the dead, By the mourners come to weep Where the bones of Jesus sleep, Crucified! we know Thee now; Son of Man! ’tis Thou! ’t is Thou! Bound upon the accursed tree, Dread and awful, who is He?— By the prayer for them that slew, “Lord! they know not what they do!”’ By the spoiled and empty grave, By the souls He died to save, By the conquest He hath won, By the saints before His throne, By the rainbow round His brow: Son of God! 'tis Thou! ’t is Thou! (Milman.) ————s+ +oaror eo It is Finished! The work of otr redemption is finished! This is the glad Gospel news which comes to us from Calvary, and from the empty grave in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea. Glad news for miserable, lust, helpless sinners! We are all such sinners by nature, no matter what our standing in this world may be. ‘‘For there is no difference; for all haye sinned and come short of the glory of God,” says the Bible (Rom. 3, 22. 23.). So we all need redemption from sii, and death, and hell, and the curse of @ just and holy God. No mere human being, and no angel in heaven could do this great work of redemption. But God in His great wisdom and love found One who could under- take and finish this work. God ‘spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for all’ (Rom. 8, 32.). The Son of God became man, and this God-man is our Redeemer. He took the place of all sinners under the law, and at every step of His sorrowful path from Beth- lehem to the cross of Calvary He, in our stead, perfectly fulfilled all the demands of the law which we could not keep. He also took upon Himself the punishment of our transgression. All our sins were laid on Him, and in the darkness of Gethsemane, in the darkness that gathered around the cross, the sin-hating God met His sin-bearing Son and poured upon Him as upon our representative all the wrath which we deserved. Our sins caused that deep agony in the garden, our sins dragged the Son of God from one tribunal to another, our sins scourged His holy body, our sins crowned His holy brow with a crown of thorns, our sins nailed Him to the cross, our sins drove Him into that awful abyss of wrath and gloom, out of which arose such a cry of distress as never shook the earth before, ‘“My God, my God, why hast thou for- saken me?’? (Matthew 27, 46.) ‘‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities’”’ (Isainh 53, 5.). And when He had borne all the punishment, when He had taken the last drop out of the cup of God’s wrath, He cried out, ‘It is finished,’ and commending His spirit into His Father's hands, He gave up the ghost. And then the work of our redemption was finished. Our enemies indeed thought they had won the victory. Christ’s body was laid into the grave, a large stone was placed over the mouth of the tomb, the Roman seal was put upon the stone, and Roman soldiers watched the sepulchre, but— behold!—in the early dawn of Sunday morning our substitute rose triumphantly from the grave. He won the victory over all our enemies, and He being our representative, His victory is our victory. He was “raised again for our justification,” says the apostle (Rom. 4, 25.). By raising Christ from the dead God proved to angels, men, and devils that He is perfectly satisfied with the work of His Son, that our redemption is finished. Nothing can be added to make that finished work more complete. No! Any attempt to add some- thing of our own is an insult to God, a dishonor to our Saviour. “Tr 1s Finisnep! yes, indeed— Finish’d every jot, Sinner, this is all you need; Tell me, is it not?” Then take that redemption which was finished long, long ago, and which Go.l offers to you in the Gospel. The very moment you take it with the simple faith of your heart, you have it, it is yours. You are then complete in Christ, ‘‘who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification’ (Rom. 4, 25.). >< Trust in Christ’s Work. We must rest entirely in the finished work of Christ. Not in Christ’s work and in some work of our own. No! Not in Christ’s work and in our feelings or in anything that we find in our own self. No! But in Christ’s finished work alone as it is offered to us in the Gospel. Jesus is the only Saviour. Not Jesus and some- body else. He alone has redeemed us with His own precious blood, and no man can add the least to the value of that blood by which heaven has been opened to us. Surely those that are in heaven know how they got there, and through the opened door which the apostle John saw there floats down to us the song of the redeemed: ‘Thou wast slain, and hast re- deemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’’ (Rev. 5,9.) That is the song of the redeemed in heaven, and every voice in the glory joins in that song. You cannot expect to sit in some corner of heaven with a little harp of your own, singing, “I saved myself, I saved myself.’” No! There is no such song in heaven. Then do not try toadd anything to the finished work of Christ, but simply trust in it for salvation. By raising Christ from the dead God declared himself perfectly satisfied with the work of His Son. Why cannot you be satisfied with it? ‘Can you tell me,” said an unhappy skeptic to a happy old saint, ‘‘just what is the gospel you believe, and how you believe it?’”” She quietly said, “‘God is satisfied with the work of His Son—this is the gospel I believe; and I am satisfied with it—this is how I believe it.”