We Put Him There
We Put Him There
We may as well admit it. Every one of us in Adam’s race had a share in putting Him on the cross!
I have often wondered how any professing Christian man or woman could approach the Communion table and participate in the memorial of our Lord’s death without feeling and sensing the pain and the shame of the inward confession: “I, too, am among those who helped put Him on the cross!”
I remind you that it is characteristic of the natural man to keep himself so busy with unimportant trifles that he is able to avoid the settling of the most important matters relating to life and existence.
Men and women will gather anywhere and everywhere to talk about and discuss every subject from the latest fashions on up to Plato and philosophy—up and down the scale. They talk about the necessity for peace. They may talk about the Church and how it can be a bulwark against communism. None of these things are embarrassing subjects.
But the conversation all stops and the taboo of silence becomes effective when anyone dares to suggest that there are spiritual subjects of vital importance to our souls that ought to be discussed and considered. There seems to be an unwritten rule in polite society that if any religious subjects are to be discussed, it must be within the framework of theory—“Never let it get personal!”
All the while, there is really only one thing that is of vital and lasting importance—the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ “was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
There are two very strong and terrible words here—transgressions and iniquities.
A transgression is a breaking away, a revolt from just authority. In all of the moral universe, only man and the fallen angels have rebelled and violated the authority of God, and men are still in flagrant rebellion against that authority.
There is no expression in the English language which can convey the full weight and force of terror inherent in the words transgression and iniquity. But in man’s fall and transgression against the created order and authority of God we recognize perversion and twistedness and deformity and crookedness and rebellion. These are all there, and, undeniably, they reflect the reason and the necessity for the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The word iniquity is not a good word—and God knows how we hate it! But the consequences of iniquity cannot be escaped.
The prophet reminds us clearly that the Savior was crushed for “our iniquities.”
We deny it and say, “No!” But the fingerprints of all mankind are plain evidence against us. The authorities have no trouble finding and apprehending the awkward burglar who leaves his fingerprints on tables and doorknobs, for they have his record. So, the fingerprints of man are found in every dark cellar and in every alley and in every dimly lighted evil place throughout the world—every man’s fingerprints are recorded and God knows man from man. It is impossible to escape our guilt and place our moral responsibilities upon someone else. It is a highly personal matter—“our iniquities.”