God has a controversy with this world. He has a solemn matter to settle with it, an awful execution of divine justice. The mere thought of this holy judgment should make men's hearts quake. God in righteousness must avenge the death of His Son.
When Jesus was crucified, the world not only accepted a vile robber in His stead, but it murdered an innocent Man. This, in itself, was a heinous act. Worse yet, that innocent Man was none other than the Son of God, the beloved of the Father's heart.
The world must answer to God for the death of His Son, for its shameful act in having nailed Him to a cross between two thieves. What a reckoning that will be! How dark will be the day of vengeance! How awfully crushing the moment in the which God will draw the sword of judgment to avenge the death of His Son!
How utterly vain the notion that the world is improving! Improving? Under the judgment of God for that act. Improving? Due to account to a righteous God for its treatment of the Beloved of His soul, sent in love to bless and save. What blind fatuity! What reckless folly? Ah, no, reader! There can be no improvement in this scene till the besom of destruction and the sword of judgment have done their terrible work. That murder must be avenged. The murder, the deliberately planned and determinedly executed murder of the blessed Son of God must receive the just dues of an outraged Father and holy God.
Is there no escape? Yes! God Himself has provided the way through the very death of His Son, His sacrificial Lamb, He offers pardon, peace and eternal salvation to all who will receive Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, has made the all-sufficient payment, through His death, for the debt we owe. Accept it, believe it, and receive the knowledge of sins forgiven. Only thus can escape be found from that divine appointment now facing the world.