On Tuesday, December 21, 2010, people around the globe were able to watch the rounded shadow of the earth fall on the moon and then eventually black it out in a total eclipse. The combination of winter solstice and full lunar eclipse made the day the darkest in recent history.
This twenty-four-hour period stands out as the darkest, but do you know the day that is morally the darkest in history? It occurred almost two thousand years ago when the Lord Jesus died on a cross of wood outside Jerusalem. Other innocent people have been unjustly put to death for crimes they didn’t commit, but the Lord Jesus is far different than any others because of who He is. He was not a mere man. He was the Son of God come to earth. The glory and greatness of His person eclipse every other and make the day He was nailed to the cross the darkest day in the history of mankind.
The love of having our own way at all costs, the pride of heart whereby we think we know best, the strong tendency to choose evil over good, the readiness to reject God’s truth and hold fast to falsehoods — all these things were in the hearts of those who rejected the Lord Jesus, and sadly these tendencies reside in our hearts also. The rejection of the Lord Jesus shows, like nothing else ever could, the waywardness of the human heart.
Rather than see men live out their lives in sin’s shame and darkness, God came to this earth in the person of the Lord Jesus and died in the sinner’s place. He did so out of love and pity for His fallen creatures. His becoming a man made it possible for Him to suffer death. Because He is God, His death has an infinite value to cancel out sin. A sacrifice of infinite value to put away sin is exactly what we need.
There is so much value in the blood of Christ that the sins of the world would be washed away in an instant if everyone would only believe on Him. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). What a priceless gift the Lord Jesus obtained for us when He died on the cross!
Forgiveness! ’twas a joyful sound
To guilty sinners doomed to die;
We’d publish it the world around,
And gladly shout it through the sky.
Oh be wise, and turn from the darkness of sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive all that He has to offer. You will never be sorry you did!