"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree!" 1 Peter 2:24
The most significant and appalling demonstration of God's holiness that the universe ever beheld, infinitely distancing and transcending every other--is the sufferings and death of His only and beloved Son! The cross of Calvary exhibits God's hatred and punishment of sin in a way and to an extent which the annihilation of millions of worlds, swept from the face of the universe by the broom of His wrath, could never have done!
Behold the most solemn display of God's hatred of sin! Finding the sins of the Church upon Christ as its Surety, Substitute, and Savior--the wrath of God was poured out upon Him without measure! Finding the sins of His people laid upon His Son--God emptied all the vials of His wrath due to their transgressions, upon His holy soul! Go, my soul, to Calvary, and learn how holy God is, and what a monstrous thing sin is, and how imperiously, solemnly, and holily bound, Jehovah is to punish it, either in the person of the sinner, or in the person of a Surety. Never was the Son of God dearer to the Father--than at the very moment that the sword of divine justice, flaming and flashing, pierced His holy heart to its hilt!
But it was the wrath of God, not against His beloved Son--but against the sins which met on Him when presenting Himself on the cross as the substitutionary sacrifice and offering for His Church. He gave Himself for us!
What a new conception must angels have formed of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, when they beheld the flaming sword of justice quenched in the holy, loving bosom of Jesus! And in what a dazzling light does this fact place the marvelous love of God to sinners! Man's sin--and God's love; the indescribable enormity of the one--and the immeasurable greatness of the other; are exhibited in the cross of Christ as nowhere else.
Oh, to learn experimentally these two great facts: sin's infinite hatefulness--and a loving God's infinite holiness! The love of God in giving His Son to die; the love of Christ in dying--and the essential turpitude and unmitigated enormity of sin, which demanded a Sacrifice so Divine, so holy, and so precious!
I remember back in 2009 (moments like these stick with you) prepping a lesson and it being on what happened in the Garden of Eden, and how the angel that kept Adam and Eve from entering again wielded a sword, and I read how the sword represented the justice of God. And then the thought occurred to me that that very sword was picked up once again at Calvary, and as Winslow says, quenched in the holy, loving bosom of Jesus!
ReplyDeleteI fell to the floor and just wept for a while, my heart trembling at the thought, and also that it was the Father's hand on the sword. I wrote a poem soon after about it
It's meant to be read aloud, which I did to my church, which is why there isn't necessarily a specific time or structure. I've been wanting to go back and add to it and change it, but I don't think much about it, and just now remembered it after reading this.
Here is the part where the sword is mentioned:
"Darkness had covered the land and all of heaven was silent,
for the flaming sword of Eden had been placed in the Father’s hands.
The sword of God’s justice pierced the chest of the Son,
He hung in shame, His flesh torn through and burnt.
But the Father had thrust deeper still, and buried the hilt between His breast.
His nerves and muscles writhed in agony,
His stripes and beatings,
all physical pain,
Were long overshadowed by this wrath.
For hours He hung, the sword always burning,
the flames fueled by the Father's wrath,
wrath meant for wicked men.
Then the sword’s flames died out, for the wrath had been satisfied.
The Son barely drew breath; He knew it was finished."