At the place which is called Calvary

Contents

PAGE

I. At the Place which is Called Calvary, 7 II. Jesus our Friend, ----- 37

III. "IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER?" - - 57

I. At The Place Which Is Called Calvary

A COMMUNION SERMON.

"And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary." — Luke xxiii. 33.

Nearly 1,900 years ago a certain baby boywas born. Four thousand years before that His birth had been foretold. When Adam fell, the Lord said to the Tempter : " I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel ";* and He referred to this child. Jacob speaks of Him when he says: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto

* Gen. iii. 15.

Him shall the obedience of the people be."* The brazen serpent, the sacrifices, the priests, the cities of refuge, were but types of Him. Moses speaks of Him as a Prophet, David as a Priest, Isaiah as " Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." f He is the golden thread that runs from Genesis to Malachi. All eyes were looking for Him, for bright things were promised for His advent. Oh, surely when He does come, He will be welcomed with loud acclaim ! Surely earth will catch up the angelic strain, " Glory to God in the highest " !

Well, He comes. Angels hail Him with anthem. A star appears in His honor, and leads the way to His cradle. Let us arise and follow that star, that we may join in His welcome and do Him homage. We stop at the Temple, saying, " Surely He is here "; but the priests have heard nothing of His advent. We hasten to Herod's palace, thinking He may be there; but He is not. We enter Simeon's house, for we remember that "it had been revealed unto * Gen. xlix. 10. t Isaiah ix. 6.

him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." * But no ; the old saint has not seen Him. Still the star moves on, and on we follow. But see ! It stops ! The Promised of the Lord must be there ! And where do we find Him ? In a crowded cave which served the purpose of a barn, " because there was no room for them in the inn."f " Born in a stable and laid in a manger."

But hark ! What means this uneasiness in the royal palace? Herod is seeking His young life to destroy it. " Arise," Joseph, " and take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt-" X An infant exile ! " Despised and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief ; and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him ; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." §

Twelve years pass, and we find Him in the Temple astonishing the Rabbis with His questions and answers, and then for eighteen years

* Luke ii. 26. t Luke ii. 7.

X Matt. ii. 13. § Isaiah liii. 3.

io At the Place which is called Calvary.

He drops almost entirely from our view. But at the age of thirty — a comparatively young man — He comes forth as the Sun of Righteousness to lighten this dark world. Though poor and homeless, with only twelve humble attendants, He treads the earth in the majesty of Divinity. Devils fear and obey Him ; wind and wave do His bidding; disease and death acknowledge Him as their Lord. Though " in all points, tempted like as we are," He is " without sin." * His great purpose is to lift up mankind to perfect holiness. But with His majesty and purity is blended infinite tenderness. Very God and very man, His heart is filled with love to God and humanity. If God's nature had not been fully revealed to man before, He, the Christ, now manifests it. We follow Him through His sojourn amongst us, and we are charmed by His hatred of everything that is mean and sinful, by His friendship, His tender sympathy, His self-denial for the sake of others, His love for all. Not alone in His power over devils and the forces of nature * Heb. iv. 1 5.

At the Place which is called Calvary.

ii do we see the God, but also in the perfection of His character. Fain would we pause at Bethany. Oh, what a heaven His company must have been to Martha and Mary and Lazarus ! Fain would we linger at Gethsemane and weep over His agony on account of sin. But we cannot do so now. We must follow on. But when we arrive at the climax of His work, when we " come to the place which is called Calvary," we kneel at the foot of the Cross, rinding there a theme well worthy of engaging our thoughts through time and eternity. As we consider a few of the lessons it would teach us, may the Holy Spirit apply the shed blood to the saving of souls.

I. Calvary tells of God's love to us. I say * God's love," for Christ, in His divine nature, was the Second Person of the most glorious Trinity ; and through Him was expressed the love of the Three — One God. Oh, I wish we only had a greater realization of the wondrous love of God ! I do not mean that we should be able to measure it. That would be idle; for God's love will ever remain to us a vast, fathomless ocean. I do not mean that we should be able to express it. Do you not know that the hardest subject on which one can speak is the love of God — the hardest text in the whole Bible, John iii. 16? Why so? Because God's love is so great that we cannot comprehend it, much less express it. Just as one who is greatly impressed with something grand may only be able to give expression to his feelings in exclamations of rapture or awe : so, as we look into the Divine love, we exclaim " Hallelujah ! " " The love of Christ which passeth knowledge." * Now I do not wish that we could express the greatness of that love. I am glad that it is so great that it is inexpressible. But I do wish we had a keener appreciation of the fact that He does thus love us. I wish we only drew near more often u to the place which is called Calvary."

" Calvary " ! Oh, how that word thrills us ! And no wonder, for it has thrilled the world. With what pathos, with what power, it tells the " old, old story of Jesus and His love." * Eph. iii. 19.

And such a story ! A holy God loving sinful man, and because He thus loved him, suffering and dying for him. You all know the circumstances. Man had broken God's law. Justice cried out that that law should not be trampled under foot — that its honor should be maintained. But who is going to honor it on man's behalf? Myriads of worlds cannot. An* * gels or archangels cannot ; for, being created beings themselves, perfect obedience is required of them as a matter of duty, so that nothing they can do can honor the law on behalf of another. Then, shall man himself have to suffer the penalty ?

Upon the throne of Heaven, see Him who is co-equal with the Father, — the Omnipresent, the Omniscient, the Omnipotent, the embodiment of majesty. " All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." * He is looking down upon man, and His heart is filled with love for him, — love tender, strong, unspeakable. But see ! He rises from His throne ; He lays aside His * John i. 3.

royal robes; He assumes our nature; He suffers ; He bleeds ; He dies. But ere He yields up the ghost, He cries triumphantly, " It is finished."* The divine law which man had broken is now satisfied. Earth and Heaven catch up the sacred shout, while Justice sheathes the sword ; for God can now " be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." f

Oh, then, if we are ever tempted to doubt the love of Christ, let us look away to the Cross. See the lacerated back and bleeding brow which tell of cruelty and ignominy. Hear the taunts and trie jeers from rulers and rabble. Hear, too, the awful cry as His Father hides His face from Him, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? " % Oh, what love He must have had to leave Heaven and to endure all that He did endure, for His enemies. Oh, what love that He did not descend from the Cross when they challenged Him to do so, and let vile, ungrateful man die. Oh, what love is expressed in that triumphant shout,

* John xix. 30, t Rom. iii. 26. \ Mark xv. 34.

" It is finished." It is past our comprehension. We are awed by its greatness.

To-day we are met to celebrate the Lord's Supper. What should be our feelings on such an occasion ? There are very many who seem to think that before they can worthily partake of it they must conjure up a spirit of sadness. They feel as if they were called upon to sympathize with Christ in His sufferings. And so they go to the Lord's table as they would to a friend's funeral — the whole soul is draped in mourning. For this reason many do not enjoy the communion season. It is a burden to them.

Now, while there should be great solemnity, there should be no depressing sadness. For we do not celebrate the death of a dead Saviour, but of a risen and exalted one. The Bible indeed says, " For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till He come." * But what are we to understand by this? That through the Lord's Supper we proclaim, — 1st. That Christ has died * 1 Cor. xi. 26.

to satisfy the demands of the law on our behalf ; and therefore there is salvation through Him for all who wish to be saved from the defilement of sin. 2d. God's love as manifested in that death — that He " commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." * To proclaim alone by the observance of this sacrament, the simple fact that Christ died, is to us relatively unimportant. But to proclaim that He died in order that we might be saved, that He died because of His love to us, gives it a new meaning. It makes the Supper an epitome of the Gospeh By this sacrament we proclaim to saint and sinner alike, the Lord's death on our behalf. Oh, then, on such an occasion as this, instead of being depressed with sadness, our hearts should rejoice in the renewed assurance of God's love. And so as we partake of the bread and wine, emblems of the body and blood of our Lord, let this thought come to our minds: these things point me back "to the place which is called Calvary," and tell me that God loves me * Rom. v. 8.

and wishes to save me, notwithstanding I am so unworthy, so sinful.

But if Calvary, if these emblems of the body and blood of our Lord, tell of God's love to us, do they not also appeal to our love ? We are filled with admiration as we think of that Holy One suffering for man — vile, ungrateful man. But a still, small voice whispers, " This I did for thee." For thee ! For me ! That brings the matter home. Now what should be our feelings? If a man rushes into a burning building, and rescues another, do we not admire him ? But if we are in that building, and he rescues us, how strongly it appeals to our gratitude and love. We would feel that we could never repay him. Then shall we have less gratitude, less love, to the God-man, who with a love beyond our loftiest conceptions, voluntarily leaves a glorious Heaven, and gives Himself up to suffering, privation, and insult, and finally to an ignominious and awful death, that we might be saved from sin ? Can we witness that betrayal and denial without wishing to be true to Him? Shall we see Him buffeted and spit upon for our sakes, without espousing His cause ? Shall we see Him in the garden mourning over our sins, and not mourn over them ourselves? He was crowned with thorns for us. Shall we not crown Him king of our hearts? He died to obtain our freedom. Shall we not be His willing followers forever ? Oh, that the love of Christ might constrain us — that we might love Him, because He first loved us.

" This it is, O God, that moveth me, And draweth out my soul to sigh for Thee : Upon the Cross I look, ....

I see Thee bear it all, and meekly die ; And then my heart leaps up in one great cry, My soul is moved within me at such love. O God, my Lord, were there no heaven above, Or hell below, yet still my love and fear Would centre in this thought : Thou, Lord, art near. Nor hope, nor heaven have I but thus to be A ransomed sinner, ever, Lord, with Thee."

II. But while Calvary proclaims God's love, it also proclaims His justice — that while He loved man and wished to save him, He would not do so at the expense of His own law. The demands of Divine justice must first be met before He can be merciful. And so it was in sat-

At the Place which is called Calvary.

isfying these demands that the wondrous love of God was revealed. Standing between the outraged law and the sinner, Christ, by satisfying the demands of that law, manifested the love of God. If He had not been so just we would never have known that He was so loving.

There is a great deal of comfort for the Christian in the thought that God is absolutely just. If in order to save us, He had violated justice and truth, what guarantee would we now have that He might not again violate His word, and cast us aside? But when, rather than these should be trampled under foot, the Second Person of the Godhead humbled Himself, and suffered all the shame and ignominy that was heaped upon Him, we are now assured that having told us that if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, He will keep His word ; for justice and truth, as well as mercy, are pledged to its fulfilment. Let us think of this when we approach the Lords table.

But what consolation can the unrepentant have from the fact that God is so unswerving in His justice? None whatever. Those who hold that because Christ has died for mankind everybody will be saved whether they serve God or not, have a wrong idea of the Atonement. They speak as if Christ had bribed Justice to be lenient. Whereas He died in order that God might be able, in consistence with the honor and satisfaction due to His own law, to save all who wish to be reconciled to Him, and to be freed from sin. Christ Himself tells us that the design of God in giving up the Son was " that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." * Thus far Divine Justice can go without violating its principles, but no further. It does not, nor cannot, pardon those who instead of submitting themselves to God hold out in rebellion against Him. For let it be remembered that it never has, and cannot, relax its demands. It is just as uncompromising now as when man first sinned or when Christ died on Calvary. Justice knows no such thing as mercy. Those who believe in Christ are saved, not because *John iii. 16,

* Justice is merciful, but because Christ has met its demands for them. Therefore those who will not accept Him as their Saviour, who will not submit to God, and strive after holiness, must bear the shaft in their own bosom.

Those who hold this theory have also a wrong idea of what salvation in its fulness means. They think of it as simply a getting to Heaven. But as it also and chiefly means restoration to the image of God, to be made holy as God is holy, and as holiness on the part of those who are capable of choosing involves choice, an act of the will, it must be evident that before we can be saved we ourselves must choose it, and aspire after it. Therefore it is further evident that any theory of the Atonement which holds that because Christ has died every one will be saved, irrespective of the way they live here, is a contradiction in terms ; for from the very nature of this salvation those who are in full possession of their faculties must choose it before they can become partakers of it.

Let not, therefore, those who are out of

Christ when they see the emblems of the body and blood of our Lord, think that these have no message for them. As plainly as these point back " to the place which is called Calvary," and declare Divine justice, so plainly do they proclaim to the rebellious that unless they take advantage of the provisions of grace which Christ has wrought out, they must themselves bear the full penalty of the law on account of their misdeeds.

One word more before passing from this part of the subject.

If Calvary proclaims Divine justice, does it not therefore show us the heinousness of sin ? We compute the heinousness of a violation of our earthly laws by the penalty enforced. For some offences it may be a fine, for others imprisonment, for others death. Because society is not perfect the punishment may not be in proportion to the crime ; yet that punishment is meted out to lawlessness according to the views of its enormity entertained at the time by society at large. In the same way we can tell the heinousness of sin in God's sight.

Moreover, as He is absolutely perfect His estimation of sin and its penalty must also necessarily be perfect. Now when He wished to save us, how much did it cost Him to satisfy the demands of His own law which we had broken, so that salvation might be offered freely to all ? Nothing short of the humiliation and death of the Second Person of the Godhead. Enormous, then, must sin be when Divine justice, that never errs, demanded such a price.

There is an unhealthy sentiment abroad concerning sin. Persons style it as simply a " misfortune," an " idiosyncrasy," a "weakness," a " foible." In many quarters, society winks at it, unless the offender loses his reputation ; and then if he is cast aside it is not because of his vileness, but because that vileness has become generally known. With them character is nothing: reputation is everything. A recent writer* in the Chicago Herald says : " A lady said to me once, 1 1 demand good manners before good morals from my acquaintances. Bad morals * Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

can be hidden ; bad manners cannot.' " I suppose this statement expresses the feelings of many. With them it is more heinous to violate the rules of etiquette than to sin against God. Polish is more sought after than principle. And so there are courted in society those who, while they are so polite as almost to bow to their own shadow, are so vile that it would be becoming in them to cry, " Unclean I unclean 1 We are thus reminded of the state of society in France just previous to the great Revolution, when it was taken as a maxim that "manners are morals" God have mercy on society when sin is lightly thought of, when in its estimation " vice itself loses half its evils by losing all its grossness."f

Come with me, my brethren, " to the place which is called Calvary," if you wish to estimate the heinousness of sin. There the Son of God is hanging upon the Cross. Earth spurns Him ; Heaven hides its face from Him. Why is He there? Because of our sins, He washed to save us; but Justice said, Before you can do * Lev. xiiL 45. t Edmund Burke.

so, yourself must suffer. Here, then, we get a true estimate of sin's enormity. Nothing short of the sacrifice of God Incarnate can atone for it. Do we think of that when we engage in overt acts of transgression, or cherish wrong feelings, or live in utter forgetfulness of Gods claims upon us ? Nothing short of the sacrifice of God Incarnate ! Oh, that I could send these words ringing from pole to pole until earth realized what a heinous thing sin is. How forcibly this truth should be impressed upon us when we see the emblems of the body and blood of our Lord.

III. But we must not leave this subject without noting that Calvary proclaims the offer of salvation to all. Some of our good church fathers held a different view. They taught that Christ only died for a part of the race. Which of these views is correct ? This is a vital question. Can we stand up and say indiscriminately to sinners, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,"* " and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely " ? f Or shall * Isaiah lv. 1. t Rev. xxii. t.

At the Place which is called Calvary.

we say, Ho, every one that is elect, come ye to the waters? When a sinner comes to us burdened with a sense of his guilt, shall we quote from our Confession* — " By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto eternal life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished," — and then say to him : My dear brother, if you are one of the elect God will save you ; and if you are not, you need not bother your head about it, for it will not make the slightest difference? Or shall we say to him in the words of Paul to the Philippian jailor, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved " ? f When we appear at the judgment-seat is Christ the Judge going to say : I died for you ; therefore you may go to

* I borrow this thought from the New York Evangelist.

t Acts xvi. 31.

the right. I did not die for you ; therefore you must go to the left?

If Christ only died for a certain number, and if from all eternity these persons are foreordained to everlasting life and the rest of mankind to everlasting death, regardless of their own choice, man is not a responsible creature. He is simply a machine in the hands of his Maker. And this the Confession teaches. For although in one place it denies that " violence " is " offered to the will of the creatures," yet in the very next sentence it as plainly asserts it. It says, " Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass, upon all supposed conditions, yet hath He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass, upon such conditions."

Does it follow, then, if God condemns the sinner who has thus been reprobated from all eternity, that that condemnation redounds to His glory, or as the Confession says, " To the praise of His glorious justice "? I fail to see it. For the Bible teaches us that sinners will be condemned on the charge of wilful disloyalty, not because they were reprobated. Now, if God condemns them on a false charge it is surely unjust as well as untruthful. This is a fact that certain gentlemen seem to forget. They argue that God can in justice foreordain sinners to everlasting death. Grant it. But would it be just to condemn them for refusing to accept salvation when He had foreordained that they should not accept it ? I would ask these gentlemen to ponder over the words, " God is not a man, that He should lie." Furthermore, if the condemned one before His bar should say, " I am not responsible for my condition ; I am but fulfilling my Creator's will concerning me ; as Christ did not die for me, and as it was never intended that I should be saved, I do not see how I can be held accountable," what would " the Judge of all the earth " reply?

And what is the logical sequence of the doctrine of the Atonement and Election as they are stated in the Confession? I heard it expressed a few years ago in the village of Newcastle, N. B. I was in the waiting-room of the

? railway station. From the trainmen's room I heard a theological discussion. And one man, not in the tone of bravado, but of conviction, said : " Well, my opinion is that it amounts to this — if we are to be saved, we will be saved ; if we are to be lost, we will be lost." Perhaps you say : He was uneducated, and could not draw fine distinctions. I reply: He went straight to the logical sequence without being hindered by fine distinctions. But education also gives the same verdict. Two Presbyterian ministers of unquestioned standing in the church, and of many years' experience, have admitted to me that they did not see much use in preaching the Gospel. " God has His elect," they said. " Those that are to be saved will be saved ; and those that are to be lost will he lost." And in making this declaration these gentlemen were true to their creed.

But what does the Word of God say ? " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." •* "And * John iii. 16.

He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world."* " And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come : he that will, let him take the water of life freely. "f What do these passages teach us? That Christ died for the whole world ; and now all who will, may be saved. They but express in other words the old message which God sent to the house of Israel by the Prophet Ezekiel, " Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die?"t

And do we not come to the same conclusion ourselves when we rightly consider the holiness of God ? But what do we mean by Divine holiness? Simply that God is unswerving in His justice, and in His hatred of sin ? Or does it necessarily include anything else? I do not

* i John ii. 2. t Rev. xxii. 17.

\ Ezekiel xxxiii. 11.

see how it is possible for any being to be absolutely holy without possessing all the finer feelings in their perfection. " Divine holiness," says Henry B. Smith, " excludes all moral imperfection and all moral impurity." Or, in other words, it means moral perfection. But how can there be moral perfection without love and mercy ? While these indeed in a perfect being must necessarily square with his justice, they must also of necessity be there in all their fulness. And so the Bible says, " God is love." Not merely that God loves, but " God is love."* Love is in His very nature ; it is wrapped up in, and necessary to, His moral perfection. Love and mercy are of necessity just as much the attributes of a holy God as justice. Suppose that Christ had only been just, would we have regarded Him as a perfect, a holy Being? We would not.

In short, holiness, instead of being a single attribute of God, is the sum of all His moral attributes. So that the answer in the Westminster Shorter Catechism to the question, * 1 Tohn iv. 8.