The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 28

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

28 The Lutheran Pioneer.

EASTER.

“‘Come, see the place where Jesus lay,
And hear angelic watchers say,

‘He lives who once was slain;
Why seek the living ’midst the dead?
Remember how the Saviour said,

That He would rise again.’

The First-begotten from the dead
For us He rose, our glorious Head,

Immortal life to bring;

What though the saints like Him shall die?
They share their Leader’s victory,
And triumph with their King.”’

—_—_—_ e+ _______

Whom Did Christ Redeem?

Christ humbled Himself and became obedient
unto death upon the cross. And the purpose of
this humiliation was our redemption. By His hu-
miliation Christ has redeemed me, a lost and con-
demned creature, purchased and won me from all

sins, from death, and from the power of the
devil. Christ’s humiliation was for our benefit,
its purpose was the redemption of us lost and
condemned creatures.

_ Inthe Bible we are compared to a lost sheep.
Of all creatures a lost sheep is the most defense-
less and helpless. Having left its defender, it
would be torn to pieces in an instant, if a prowl-
ing wolf should spy it out, or a lion or a bear
should come across its track. And so also a
sheep is of all creatures the most senseless.
A stray horse may find his way back home and
a lost dog may return, but a lost sheep will
neyer find its way back. A sheep is too foolish
ever to think of returning to the place of safety.
Of all wretched creatures a lost sheep is surely
the most wretched. When a sheep has gone
astray, it is vain to hope for its return; if it is
again to enjoy the safety of the fold and the
plenty of the pasture, the shepherd must seek it
and bring it back.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we are
like lost sheep— defenseless, helpless, sense-
less, wretched. Our lost condition is as hope-
less as that of a lost sheep. We have strayed
away from God, we have become hopelessly en-
tangled in the mazes of sin. There is no possi-
bility of our ever finding back home. We are
lost—lost to hope; we have strayed away from
God into the wilderness and have become the
easy prey of the hellish wolf.

And we are condemned creatures. By Adam’s
sin judgment to condemnation has come upon all
men, Rom. 5, 18. God had said to our first parent,
“‘The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die,’’ and no sooner did Adam and Eve sin than
this judgment was executed; the condemnation of
death was pronounced upon.all men. All men by
nature are accursed. Their life here upon earth is
a life of separation from God, the Source-of Life.
They are spiritually dead, and their days are passed
away in God’s wrath. Their whole life is but an
awful awaiting of the hour of temporal death and
the day of final judgment to eternal death and dam-
nation. By sin man has become a prey to the im-
placable and unmitigated severity and justice of an
angry God. :

Such lost and condemned creatures are we by
nature; such creatures Christ has humbled Him-
self to redeem.- When about to enter upon His pub-
lic ministry John the Baptist, pointing Him out to
the people, declared, ‘‘Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.” He is
the Paschal Lamb, appointed by God, and all our