43. "Today you will be with me in paradise." This sentence deserves (continued)
manifestation of the truth we commend ourselves to every man's conscience." (2 Cor. 4:2.)
He that desires inward peace must beware of quarreling with his conscience. Let him rather use it well, guard it jealously, hear what it has to say, and reckon it his friend. Above all, let him pray daily that his conscience may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and cleansed by the blood of Christ. The words of John are very significant— "If our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God." (1
John 3:21.) That man is doing well who can say, "I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man."
Notes on 23:44-49
44. It was now about the sixth hour. Our Lord was crucified at 9 A.
M. (the Jewish third hour). The darkness started at 12 noon (the sixth hour). So this supernatural darkness existed during the brightest part of the day, from 12 noon to 3 p.m. Jesus hung on the cross for six hours before he gave up his spirit.
Darkness came over the whole land. This was a miraculous darkness.
It could not have been an eclipse of the sun because our Lord's crucifixion took place at the Passover, and the Passover was always kept at the full moon, when an eclipse of the sun is impossible.
45 The curtain of the temple was torn in two. This miracle must have been as striking and terrible to the priests who ministered in the temple as the darkness was to the inhabitants of Palestine. It signified the opening of the way into the holiest by Christ's death— the passing away of the Jewish dispensation and the revelation of the gospel way of salvation to all mankind.
47. "Surely this was a righteous man." It is doubtful if this translation conveys the exact meaning of the Greek. Alford translates it, "Truly this man was innocent, or just."
LUKE 23:50-56
JESUS' BURIAL
We see from these verses that Christ has some disciples of whom little is known. We are told of one Joseph, "a good man and a just"—a man who "had not consented to the counsel" of those who condemned our Lord—a man who "himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went boldly to Pilate after the crucifixion, begged the body of Jesus, "took it down" from the cross, and "laid it in a tomb."
We know nothing of Joseph excepting what is here told us. In no part of the Acts or Epistles do we find any mention of his name. At no former period of our Lord's ministry does he ever come forward.
His reason for not openly joining the disciples before, we cannot explain. But here, at the eleventh hour, this man is not afraid to show himself one of our Lord's friends. At the very time when the apostles had forsaken Jesus, Joseph is not ashamed to show his love and respect. Others had confessed Him while He was living and doing miracles. It was reserved for Joseph to confess Him when He was dead.
The history of Joseph is full of instruction and encouragement. It shows us that Christ has friends of whom the Church knows little or nothing, friends who profess less than some do, but friends who in real love and affection are second to none. It shows us, above all, that events may bring out grace in quarters where at present we do not expect it; and that the cause of Christ may prove one day to have many supporters, of whose existence we are at present not aware.
These are they whom David calls "hidden ones," and Solomon compares to a "lily among thorns." (Psalm 83:3; Cant. 2:2.)
Let us learn from the case of Joseph of Arimathaea, to be charitable and hopeful in our judgments. All is not barren in this world, when our eyes perhaps see nothing. There may be some latent sparks of light when all appears dark. Little plants of spiritual life may be existing in some remote Romish, or Greek, or Armenian congregations, which the Father Himself has planted. Grains of true faith may be lying hid in some neglected English parish, which have been placed there by God. There were seven thousand true worshipers in Israel of whom Elijah knew nothing. The day of judgment will bring forward men who seemed last, and place them among the first. (1 Kings 19:18.)
We see secondly, from these verses, the reality of Christ's death. This is a fact which is placed beyond dispute, by the circumstances related about His burial. Those who took His body from the cross and wrapped it in linen, could not have been deceived.
Their own senses must have been witnesses to the fact, that He whom they handled was a corpse. Their own hands and eyes must have told them, that He whom they laid in Joseph's sepulcher was not alive but dead.
The importance of the fact before us is far greater than a careless reader supposes. If Christ did not really die, there would be an end of all the comfort of the Gospel. Nothing short of His death could have paid man's debt to God. His incarnation, and sermons, and parables, and miracles, and sinless obedience to the law, would have availed nothing, if He had not died. The penalty threatened to the first Adam was death eternal in hell. If the second Adam had not really and actually died in our stead, as well as taught us truth, the original penalty would have continued in full force against Adam and all his children. It was the life-blood of Christ which was to save our souls.
Forever let us bless God that our great Redeemer's death is a fact beyond all dispute. The centurion who stood by the cross, the friends who took out the nails, and laid the body in the grave, the women who stood by and beheld, the priests who sealed up the grave, the soldiers who guarded the sepulcher, all, all are witnesses that Jesus actually was dead. The great sacrifice was really offered. The life of the Lamb was actually taken away. The penalty due to sin has actually been discharged by our Divine Substitute. Sinners believing in Jesus may hope and not be afraid. In themselves they are guilty.
But Christ has died for the ungodly; and their debt is now completely paid.
We see, lastly, in these verses, the respect paid by Christ's disciples to the fourth commandment. We are told that the women who had prepared spices and ointment to anoint our Lord's body, "rested the Sabbath Day, according to the commandment."
This little fact is a strong indirect argument in reply to those who tell us that Christ abolished the fourth commandment. Neither here nor elsewhere do we find anything to warrant any such conclusion.
We see our Lord frequently denouncing the man-made traditions of the Jews about Sabbath observance. We see Him purifying the blessed day from superstitious and unscriptural opinions. We see
Him maintaining firmly that works of necessity and works of mercy were not breaches of the fourth commandment. But nowhere do we find Him teaching that the Sabbath was not to be kept at all. And here, in the verse before us, we find His disciples as scrupulous as any about the duty of keeping holy a Sabbath Day. Surely they could never have been taught by their Master that the fourth commandment was not intended to be binding on Christians.
Let us cling firmly to the old doctrine that the Sabbath is not a mere Jewish institution, but a day which was meant for man from the beginning, and which was intended to be honored by Christians quite as much as by Jews. Let us not doubt that the Apostles were taught by our Lord to change the day from the last day of the week to the first, although mercifully checked from publicly proclaiming the change, in order to avoid giving offence to Israel. Above all, let us regard the Sabbath as an institution of primary importance to man's