SUNDAY 29TH MARCH, 2020

MEMORY VERSE: - “And the people stood beholding. And rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others, let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the chosen of God (Luke 23:35).

INTRODUCTION: - One of the surest proofs of the presence of darkness and corruption in the human heart is the fact that people take pleasure in violence, blood letting and death. We see it in the Roman and Greek arenas, where spectators cleared as people fought and killed each other. We sense it in the onlookers who watched Jesus die a horrible death. We see the evidence of it in the history of the persecution of Christians and others.

The Lord Jesus died to change this attitude of the heart and to show true love for life and humanity. He wants us to see the impact of sin on human life through the eyes of compassion and to hear the groaning of suffering people with a willingness to respond to their hurts and needs.

1) I see here God’s amazing grace (Rom.5:8). Had He so pleased, god could have consigned the whole of Adam’s race to everlasting woe. That is what each of us richly deserve. And why should He not do so? By nature we are depraved and corrupt; by practice incorrigible rebels with no love for Him and no concern for His glory. But out of His own goodness and graciousness, He determined to save a people from their sin, to redeem them by Christ (Eph.1:6). He determined to pluck them by Christ (Eph.1:6). He determined to pluck them as brands from the burning that they might be the eternal monuments of His mercy. And because it was wholly outside of their power to make atonement for their fearful crimes, He Himself provided an all-sufficient sacrifice for them. He is “the God of all grace” )1Pet.5:10) and innumerable tokens and proofs has He given of this. But nowhere were the “riches of His grace” (Eph.2:7) so lavishly and so wondrously displayed as at Calvary.

2) I see here God’s manifold wisdom: - The Word of Truth declared “There shall in no wise enter into it …..” (Rev.21:27). Then how is it possible that I can ever gain admittance into the heavenly Jerusalem? How can it be that one so completely devoid of righteousness, could ever receive the divine approbation? The law says “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” and I have sinned and broken the law, How then can I escape its penalty? Since I am a spiritual pauper, how can the necessary ransom be procured?

Those are problems that no human intelligence can solve Nor is the knot to be cut by an appeal to the bare mercy of God, for His mercy is not an attribute which over-rides His justice and integrity. But at the cross, the divine perfections shone out in glorious unity like the blending of colours in the rainbow. There “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other (Ps.85:10). God’s justice was satisfied by Christ and therefore His mercy flows freely to all who repent and believe.

God’s grace reigns “through righteousness (Rom.5:21), and Christ’s blood can cleanse the foulest. The wisdom of God appears in Creation and Providence, but nowhere so grandly as at the cross.

It is only in the person of Christ I stand approved before God, for I am clothed with His meritorious perfections (Isa.61:10). The whole ransomed Church of God can say of Christ (Isa.53:5, 1Pet.2:24). And faith individualized it and declares “I am crucified with Christ ….. who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20-21). Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

1) How does grace flow from Calvary?

2) Illustrate the wisdom of God from Calvary point of view.