The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1897, Page 9

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusBLIsHED By THE EVANGELICAL LutaeraN SynopicaL ConFERENCE OF Norto AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. XIX.

St. Louis, Mo., March, 1897.

No. 3.

Behold the Man.

“Jesus, Saviour, Son of God,
Bearer of the sinner’s load;

Thou the sinner’s death hast died,
Thou for us wast crucified;

For our sins Thy flesh was torn,
Thou the penalty hast borne

Of our guilt upon the tree,

Which the Father laid on Thee!
Saviour, Surety, Lamb of God,
Thou hast bought us with Thy blood;
Thou hast wiped the debt away,
Nothing left for us to pay;
Nothing. left for us to bear,
Nothing left for us to share,

But the pardon and the bliss,

But the loye, the light, the peace.”

—— +> + oa oe + oe

For Us.

When we, in the season of Lent, go with
Christ on His way of sorrows from Gethse-
mane to Calvary and behold His bitter suffer-
ings, His great agony, His shameful death
upon the cross, we must remember that He
suffered and died, not for Himself, but for us.

There is no sin in Christ, and therefore the
punishment He endured could not be His due.
Pilate, the judge, said again and again, ‘‘I
find no fault in Him.’’ Christ was ‘‘holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,’’
Hebr. 7, 26. He ‘‘did no sin, neither was
guile found in His mouth,’’ 1 Pet. 2, 22. Of
Him the Father said, ‘‘This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

And yet the Son of God, the Holy One, was
punished and endured death, which is the
Wages of sin. He was nailed to the tree of
the cross, and it is written, ‘‘Cursed is every
One that hangeth on a tree.’’? How is this?
It Christ was without sin, why did He suffer
the punishment of sin? He bore the.punish-
Ment of our sins. He suffered and died for us.
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world.’?

There were no sins in Christ, but there were
sins on Christ. He took the sins of the world
Upon Himself; and the sin-hating God poured
Upon His sin-bearing Son the wrath which we
Sinners deserved. Thus Christ took our place

and suffered and died for us. This the Bible
plainly teaches. St. Paul says, ‘‘Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us, Gal. 3, 13. Again he
says, God ‘‘hath made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him,’’ 2 Cor. 5, 21.
Again he says, He “‘gave Himself for our sins,”
Gal. 1, 4. The apostle Peter says of Christ:
‘‘His own self bare our sins in His body on
the tree,”’ 1 Pet. 2,24. The prophet Isaiah,
speaking of the suffering Saviour, writes: ‘‘All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,”
Tsa. 53, 6. From these and other passages of
the Bible we learn that Christ suffered and
died as our substitute, that is, in our stead,
for us.

What a horrible thing sin is! Men often
make light of sin, but sin is a horrible thing.
It is a great offense against the just and holy
God. When God saw His Son laden with the
sins of the world, He did not spare His be-
loved Son, but punished Him for the sins He
bore. What a horrible thing sin is! Our sins
brought that great suffering of body and soul
on the Holy One of God. Our sins made Him
a man of sorrows, nailed Him to the cross,
and put Him to death. What a horrible thing
sin is! ;

Blessed are they who thus acknowledge and
feel their sins. In the suffering and dying
Saviour they can find salvation. By His
sufferings and death He redeemed us from
everlasting sufferings and death in hell. In
His death we find life, and ‘‘by His wounds
we are healed.’’ His blood “cleanseth us
from all sins,” and though our ‘sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool.’

The moment the sinner accepts by faith the
redemption procured by the sufferings and
death of Christ and offered to him in the Gos-
pel, he has forgiveness of sins and is free
from all punishment of sin. For since Christ
suffered and died for us, there is “‘now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus,” Rom. 8, 1.

_ The Service of the Redeemed.

By sin we have become the slaves of Satan,
by faith in Christ we have forgiveness of sin
and become the children of God. Being re-
deemed from the slavery of Satan, the Chris-
tian serves God, not asa slave, but as a child.
His service is the service of a thankful heart.
He serves God, not in order to be saved, but
because he is saved. He confesses: ‘‘I be-
lieve that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of
the Father from eternity, and also true man,
born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has
redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature,
purchased and won me from all sins, from
death and from the power of the devil, not with
gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood
and with His innocent sufferings and death,
that I may be His own, and live under Him in
His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.’’”

It is said that just before the civil war, a
wealthy gentleman, who was walking the
streets of a southern city, had his attention
called to a group of colored slayes about to be
sold. One of them was weeping bitterly, and
when he asked her why she was crying, she
replied that she did not know what kind of
master was going to buy her, nor where she
was going. He said nothing more, but when
she was placed upon the block for sale, he bid
a higher price for her than any other did, and

she was given him as his property. She was

still weeping, until he gently said: “I have
not bought you to make a slave of you, I
have bought you to set you free.’’ She in-
stantly turned to him with the glad cry: ‘‘Let
me go with you, I will serve you all my life.””
But she served him, not in order to be re-
deemed; she served him with a glad and
happy heart, because she was redeemed. Thus
the service of the redeemed of Christ is a
service of love. It is the blessed service of
a thankful heart.

«Lord, [am Thine, for Thou hast purchased me;
The price —Thy precious blood.
A sinner, lost and ruined, found and saved
Am I; and I am Thine, O God.

My all is Thine, be this my one desire,
‘To serve Thee here below;

And, by Thy Spirit daily taught, Thy will
To love, and Thee Thyself to know.”