The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1881, Page 13

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Che Autheran

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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.).

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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.”