Man was tried without law, and the flood had to come in; he was tried under the law and broke it; he was tried by the patient goodness that sent the prophets till there was no remedy. At length God said, I have yet My Son, My well beloved: it may be they will reverence My Son. But when they saw Him, they said, This is the heir: come, let us kill him; and the inheritance shall be ours Man has both seen and hated both Him and His Father. Then the Lord pronounced the sentence, “Now is the judgment of this world.” Except death were gone through, the “corn of wheat” remained alone. God's wrath was revealed from heaven; but that work was wrought which cleanses the believer for God according to His own perfectness in light, and man in Christ took his place in heaven according to God's righteousness. If flesh's mind was enmity against God, the veil was rent and heaven opened. The answer to the spear (which made sure that the Son of God come in love was got rid of from the earth) was the water and the blood, which cleanses and expiates every believer coming to God by Him. Love was revealed; but so was wrath from heaven. And if God so loved the world that He gave His Son, so was it equally true that the Son of man must be lifted up; or we should have perished under just wrath. Christ was God's representative to take away our sins, as He was man's when made sin for us and bearing our sins on the tree. J. N. D.