the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
IS CHRIST’S DEATH A REAL BENEFIT TO ME?
Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. - John 6:68
Now, I want to ask a question very earnestly: In what conceivable way can Christ’s death be a real benefit to me? How can it do me any good? A sweet, a tender, an unexampled, beautiful story of innocence and meekness and martyrdom which will shine in the memory of the world, and on the pages of history, as long as the world shall last! It is all that; but what good does it do me? Where does the benefit to me individually come in? There is only one answer, and I urge you to ask yourselves if, in plain, sober, common sense, the death of Jesus Christ means anything at all to anybody, more than other martyrdoms and beautiful deaths, except upon one supposition, that He died for us, because He died instead of us. The two things are not identical; but, as I believe, and venture to press upon you, in this case they are identical. I do not know where you will find any justification for the rapturous language of the whole New Testament about the death of Christ and its benefits flowing to the whole world, unless you take the Master’s own words, " The Son of Man came to minister, and to give His life a ransom instead of many."
Ah! dear friend, there we touch the bed-rock. That is the truth that flashes up the Cross into lustre, before which the sun’s light is but darkness. He who bore it died for the whole world, and was the eternal Son of the Father. If we believe that, then we can understand how Paul here blends together the heart of God and the heart of Christ, and sets high above Nature and her ambiguous oracles, high above Providence and its many perplexities, and in front of all the shrinkings and the fears of a reasonably alarmed conscience, the one truth, "God hath proved His love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Is that your faith, your notion of Christ’s death, and of its relation to the love of God?
There are two passages of Scripture which contain the whole secret of God, and the whole secret of a noble, blessed, human life. And here they are: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." If that is your thought about God, you know enough about Him for time and eternity. " We love Him because He first loved us." If you can say that about yourself, all is well.
Dear friend, do you believe the one? Do your affirm the other?
'Music For The Soul' daily readings for a year from the writings of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D., selected and arranged by the Rev. Geo. Coates, published by A.C. Armstrong and Son, 51 East Tenth Street, (1897). The original text is in the Public Domain and this electronic version is free for anyone without cost or obligation. This a year long daily devotional was written by the Rev. Alexander Maclaren over 100 years ago. This Scottish pastor had a heart to follow Jesus and a love for souls.
