The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 26

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26

ror. All that by faith accept Christ as their Saviour
enjoy the redemption secured for all sinners by our
Substitute. They triumph over sin, death, devil,
and hell, and say with the apostle, ‘‘Thanks be to
God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.’ g

The Benefits of the Resurrection of Christ.

If we desire to comprehend the benefits of the
resurrection of Christ, we must keep in view two
distinct pictures. The one is somber, full of mis-
ery, distress, and woes; it is the scene of blood
presented to us on Good Friday—Christ crucified
between two murderers and dying with excruciat-
ing pain. This scene we must contemplate with
much earnestness, as already said, to realize that
it all happened on account of our sins, yea, that
Christ, as the true High Priest, sacrificed Himself
for-us and with His death paid our debts. We
ought all to know that our sins thus wounded and

tormented Christ, and that His sufferings were.

caused alone by our iniquities. Therefore, as often
as we remember or view this doleful, bloody scene,
we ought to bear in mind that we have before us
our sins and the terrible wrath of God against
them, a wrath so dire that no creature could en-
dure it, that all atonement became impossible ex-
cept the one made by the sacrifice and the death of
the Son of God. If this awful scene were the only
one presented to our sight, and if it remained un-
changed, it would be too terrible and painful.

But this picture of sorrow is changed, and in
our Creed we join closely together these two ar-
ticles: ‘‘Christ was crucified, died, was buried and
descended into hell, and on the third day He rose
again from thedead.’’ Yea, ere three days had gone
‘by, our Lord and Saviour presents to us another
picture, beautiful, full of life, lovely, and cheerful,
in order that we might have the sure consolation
that not only our sins were annihilated in the death
of Christ, but that by His resurrection a new eter-
nal righteousness and life was obtained, as St. Paul
says, Rom. 4, ‘Christ was delivered for our offenses,
and was raised again for our justification.”” And
1 Cor. 15, ‘‘If Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are
of all men most miserable.”’ As in the former

scene we saw the burden of our sin upon Him and
bringing Him to the cross, so in this scene of the
_ resurrection we witness no longer sin, pain, and
sorrow, but only righteousness, joy, and happiness.

The Lutheran Pioneer.

It is the victory of life over death—a life everlast-
ing, with which this temporal existence on earth
cannot be compared. Of this we have reason to
rejoice. Merely to view the former scene would be
terrible, but when we view it in connection with
the glad event of the resurrection, and when we
bear in mind why our Lord suffered thus, we shall
derive from such a contemplation much benefit and
consolation. It will become apparent to us how in-
expressibly great the love of God to us poor sinners
was, as He had compassion on our misery, even to
such an amazing extent that He did not spare His
beloved and only Child, but gave Him up for us, to
bear upon the cross and in death the burden of our
transgressions, which were too heavy for us, and
placed by God Himself upon His Son, who, as God
from eternity, could alone bear the heavy weight of
sin. Upon Him we now find our burden. Let us
leave it there, for there is no one else to be found
who would better relieve us of it.

The other scene presents to us Christ no longer
in woe and misery, weighed down with the ponder-
ous mass of our sins, which God has laid upon Him,
but beautiful, glorious, and rejoicing; for all the
sins have disappeared from Him. [From this we
have a right to conclude: If our sins, on account of
the sufferings of Christ, no longer lie upon us, but
are taken from our shoulders by God Himself and
placed upon His Son, and if on Easter, after the
resurrection, they are no more to be seen, where,
then, are they? Micah truly says: They are sunk
into the depth of the sea, and no devil, nor any-
body else, shall find them again.

If we desire to be true Christians, it is necessary
for us firmly. to establish in our hearts through faith
this article, that Christ, who bore our sins upon the
cross and died in payment for them, arose again from
the dead for our justification. The more firmly we
believe this, the more will our hearts rejoice and be-
comecomforted. For it is impossible not to be glad
when we see Christ alive, a pure and beautiful Be-
ing, who before, qn account of oursins, was wretched
and pitiable in death and in the grave. We are now
convinced that our transgressions are removed and
forever put away. — Luther.

The End and Aim of Christ’s Redemption.

We were all the children of wrath, lost and con-
demned creatures. No man and no angel could
rescue us out of our wretched condition. But Christ
has done so. He has redeemed us, purchased, and
won us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.