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August 17                  Today’s Reading: Lamentations 1-2

“Is it nothing to you?”

Lamentations 1:12

 

The death of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most wonderful, astounding, magnificent event in the history of the universe. Nothing that is, has been, or shall hereafter be, can be compared to it. Yet, as he was suffering the wrath of God, bearing the sins of his people, dying as the voluntary Substitute for guilty, hell-deserving, hell-bent sinners, such as we are, we hear the Son of God expressing the most woeful, unexplainable lamentation imaginable. He cried, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

 

Astonishing

When I hear those words falling from the lips of the Son of God, as he hangs upon the cursed tree, I simply cannot avoid asking a question. Of whom does the bleeding Lamb of God speak these words? To whom is the death of Christ meaningless and insignificant? Nothing in all the universe is more wonderful and magnificent in the eyes of God the Father than the death of his dear Son. The Savior himself declares, — “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life! The angels of heaven ever look into the mystery and wonder of redemption by the blood of Christ with astonishment. God’s servants, faithful Gospel preachers, are so overwhelmed with the wonders of redemption and the glory of the Redeemer that they never cease to study, glory in, and preach the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Isaiah 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 6:14). Redeemed sinners on the earth cherish nothing, delight in nothing, marvel at nothing like we do the death of our Lord Jesus Christ for us (Galatians 2:20; 1 John 3:16; 4:10). The ransomed in glory appear to think of nothing and speak of nothing except the dying love of the Lamb in the midst of the throne (Revelation 5:9-12). Hell itself looks upon the death of Christ as a wonderful, unexplainable, mysterious thing. I am certain that this is one thing that Satan himself did not understand: — That Christ would triumph over him and crush his head by his death upon the cross! Else he would never have put it into the heart of Judas to betray the Master.

 

Nothing

Yet, there are some to whom our darling Savior speaks, as it were with astonishment, to whom his death is meaningless, insignificant, nothing! Who are these people to whom the death of Christ is nothing? Who is it that thinks little of the sin-atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ?

            Our Lord is here addressing himself to everyone who passes by him, passes by his sacrifice, passes by his death as the sinners’ Substitute in unbelief, to everyone who hears and refuses to believe the Gospel. O unbelieving, Christless soul, it is you to whom the Son of God speaks! O cold, calculating, heartless preacher, you who pass by the crucified Christ and take to your lips the meaningless, insignificant trifles of politics, social corruptions, moralisms, denominationalism, historical religion, creeds, and debates about nothing, it is you to whom the Master speaks! Christ crucified is mundane, meaningless, and insignificant only to unregenerate, unbelieving souls.

 

Prayer

It is my heart’s prayer that you and I will hear these words echoing in our soul (“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”) until the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is made to be the most important thing in all the world to us. I pray that you and I may become totally consumed with the crucified Christ, that our hearts, our lives, every fiber of our souls may be constantly dominated by the death of God’s darling Son as our sin-atoning Savior. Let us meditate upon and study the great, sin-atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ until it consumes our every thought!

 


 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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