The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 17

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A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NorTH AMERICA. z

Kk. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Ofiice at St. Louls, Mo., as second-class matter.

The Lutheran Pioneer. —

Vol.

XXVIT.

‘No. 3.

St. Louis,

He Died for Me.

When time seems short and death is near,
And I am pressed by doubt and fear,
And sins, an overflowing tide,

Assail my peace on every side,

This thought my refuge still shall be:

I know my Saviour died for me.

His name is Jesus, and He died
For guilty sinners crucifled;
Content to die that He might win
Their ransom from the death of sin;
No sinner worse than I can be,
Therefore I know He died for me.

If grace were bought, I could not buy;
If grace were coined, no wealth have I;
By grace alone I draw my breath,
Held up from everlasting death;

Yet, since I know His grace is free,

I know the Saviour died for me.

I read God’s holy Word, and find

Great truths which far transcend my mind;
And little do I know beside

Of thoughts so high, so deep, and wide;
This is my best theology —

I know the Saviour died for me.

My faith is weak, but ’tis Thy gift;
Thou canst my helpless soul uplift,
And say: ‘‘Thy bonds of death are riven,
Thy sins by me are all forgiven,
And thou shalt live, from guilt set free,
For I, thy Saviour, died for thee.’’
G. W. Bethune, D. D.

oo >—___—_

For Us.

In the Lenten season we behold Christ in His
bitter sufferings and greatagony. We go with Him
on His way of sorrow and see Him bowed down
under the wrath of a just and holy God. And yet
He was nosinner. None of His enemies could con-

Yo) 3u

o., March, 1905.

vince Him of sin. The judge before whom He was
brought said again and again, “‘I find no fault in
Him.’’ He was ‘‘holy, harmless, undefiled, sep-
arate from sinners,’’? Hebr. 7,26. He ‘‘did no sin,
neither was guile found in His mouth,” 1 Pet. 2, 22.
There was not the least stain of sin in Him. His~
nature was perfectly holy. He was perfect in all
His thoughts, and words, and ways. God was fully
pleased in Him. Twice the Father’s voice was heard
from heaven saying: ‘‘This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.”

Yet that Son endured the most bitter sufferings
and died the most shameful death upon the cross.
How is this? Let the Bible tell you. The Bible
says, ‘‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the Law, being made a curse for us,’’ Gal. 3, 18.
‘‘His own self bare our sins in His body on the tree,’’
1 Pet. 2,24. God ‘‘hath made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the right-
eousness of God in Him,’?’ 2 Cor. 5, 21. ‘“The Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,”’ Is..53, 6.
He ‘‘gave Himself for our sins,’’ Gal. 1, 4.

Thus we see from God’s Word that Christ suf-
fered and died for us—in our place. By our sins
we deserved punishment; for God is just and holy.
He cannot overlook sin. His justice demands the
punishment of every sin. No creature in heaven or
on earth could free us from God’s wrath and from
damnation which sin brought upon us. So God’s
own Son in His unspeakable love came down from
heaven to be our Redeemer. He became man, and
took all our sins upon Himself, and bore all the
punishment of sin for us. ‘“Behold the Lamb of ~
God that taketh away the sin of the world!’’? He
was punished in our stead. He took our place and —
suffered and died for us—the Just for the unjust.
Our sins brought that great suffering of body and”