MAN had two sons, and his well-behaved, thrifty neighbor, whom he loved, had none. It happened one day that the neighbor came to the one having two sons, and pleaded, "I have no son; you have two. Give me one of your sons and I will adopt him, be a kind foster-father to him, and bequeath him my estate.”
“No! no!" replied the father. "While I do not doubt the honest sincerity of your gracious offer, yet I could not consider for a moment giving up either of my sons.”
Again there fell a day when the friend dashed into the home, and excitedly entreated the father: "I am being hotly pursued, and my life is in danger. I beg of you to allow me to exchange clothes with one of your sons. They will take him for me, and fall upon him, and so I shall go free.”
The pursued one pleaded that he and the father had been playmates in boyhood, and he urged that all their relations had been without a jar. But all the persuasion that he could bring from the dominion of reason could not persuade the father to give one of his sons in his stead. Can we wonder? Human love has its measures.
But let us—believers on the Lord Jesus Christ—dwell a moment on the unbounded love shown towards us by the God of heaven. He had but one Son, "tender and only beloved." He, the Son of God, came and gave Himself in death for us, His enemies, that the righteous vengeance of dread justice surely coming on us might be averted by falling on Himself. In this mighty transaction He was the willing Sin-bearer.
Sin had made us subject to divine judgment, with all its terrors, but He in love went into this judgment with its attending anguish and death. At cost beyond all capacity of man to measure, He bought our pardon; He stayed the judgment due to us; He utterly destroyed it for all who believe. The hand of Omnipotence forever ended their sins there on Him, the only obedient Son of man, the only begotten Son of God.
And now the deep darkness that weighed upon our souls is banished through His love. Herein is love infinite. No human plumb-line can sound it. No measurements can encompass it. Language cannot possibly convey it all.
Reader, God grant that you may realize in your heart that wondrous redeeming love.
S. J. P.