“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened be their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should he preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” Luke 24:44-5144And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48And ye are witnesses of these things. 49And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. 50And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:44‑51).
“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel: which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10-1110And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:10‑11).
Most people, no doubt, are aware that the Acts of the Apostles comes from the same pen as the Gospel of Luke. Acts is an appendix to the narrative of the Lord’s history on earth. In Luke you get Him going up to heaven; in Acts you get the further truth, that He who has gone up will so come in like manner as He went up. He went up in the clouds; He will return again in the clouds. From earth He was seen to go up; to earth will He be seen to come again. I am not speaking now of the intermediate blessed fact that He is coming into the air for His people, before He is seen from the earth at all, because now I am addressing those who are not His people―those who have not received into their hearts this Savior, the blessed Jesus. On such I want to press this passage in Luke 21. “Thus it behooved Christ to suffer.” Here is the Lord just before He goes off the earth leaving this company, who had known and loved Him, to be His witnesses and to tell this tale, that thus it behooved Him to suffer. And oh, if it behooved Him thus to suffer, is there not something that behooves you, my reader?
Does it not behoove you to repent and believe, in order to the remission of your sins? If there is an absolute necessity that He should suffer and die, is there no necessity laid on you? What was Christ’s necessity? Why did it behoove Him to suffer? On the one hand, because of the glory of God; on the other hand, because of His deep love to you and me. Was He under sentence of death? Did He need to suffer because of that? Far be the thought. There was no necessity beyond the necessity that love knows, and the necessity of love is, that it can give itself no rest till it has its object in the place love would have it in.
It was love brought Christ down, love made Him suffer, love made Him die: it was love, and love alone, infinite love to you and to me. He loves, too, to put on your heart and on mine the weight of His love; and knowing that nothing but suffering could meet our case, He comes down willing to suffer, prepared to suffer. Why? Because you could not be saved if He did not; because I could not he saved if He did not; because if you suffer for your own sins, you must suffer for all eternity: for what mere mortal could exhaust the judgment of God in respect of sin? None! None but an Infinite Being could do so, and Jesus was that.
None but God could know what sin really is, and what the judgment due to it is; and Jesus is God, and He, as God, knowing what God’s thought was―what the judgment was, came down and bore the judgment Himself. There was the necessity of love, He says, that I should suffer, for they never could be saved if I did not. And when He has borne sins, drained the cup of wrath to the very dregs, and risen up out of all the suffering, He says, Go and tell everyone that it behooved Me to suffer that forgiveness right be preached to the whole world. And where does this forgiveness commence? At the guiltiest spot in the whole world― i.e., pardon begins at the very spot where they killed Him. Now let me ask you, Are you forgiven yet? Forgiveness and life eternal are the fruits of the Savior’s blood, and who may have them? All, all who believe.
Oh, careless man, careless, worldly woman, you who have only lived for pleasure, you who have thought of nothing but pleasure here, have you ever thought of the sufferings of the Savior? Have you ever thought that He took that fearful woe that you and I might have weal for eternity, that He took sorrow that you and I might have joy for eternity? Have you ever thought of Him, of Jesus? Has it ever bowed your heart to think of what it cost Him to rescue such as you and me?
Pause and think one moment now. Cast a backward look at His wondrous history, with its close of agony and of shame. Oh, is it nothing to you that for such as you and me, He, the Lord of glory, gives Himself up to be sold for the price of the meanest slave ― that He is willing to pass through anything if only He may carry out the deep purpose of His heart, meet the claims of God, burst the bonds of the grave, annul death, break the devil’s power, and save you? Yes, save you; that was the deep purpose of His heart. Have you ever thought of it?
Behold Him in the garden! With torches and weapons his enemies draw near to take Him. How easily might He have escaped; for when He asked the question, “Whom seek ye?” and followed it with “I am He,” they go backward, and fall to the ground. He might have escaped, but what of His people? Listen again. “If ye seek me, let these go their way” ― that is, He says, “You may have Me, but you must not have Mine, you shall never have Mine.” Ah, Jesus will give up anything and everything, give up Himself if He may only save you. And this is my Jesus, mine own Savior, my Lord, my blessed Jesus―mine. Oh, would you not like to be able to say of Him too, “Mine, my Jesus”?
What won my heart was this, “He gave His back to the miters.” He suffered everything; and was left alone in His grief, for He looked for comforters and found none. And at that moment ―when everyone had forsaken Him. and He turned to God―at that moment, when comfort from God would have been the more grateful to His heart, broken by reproaches, that is the very moment that God takes to show His hatred of sin, to turn away even from Him when it was laid upon Him, so that He cried in His depth of unfathomable agony, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
There the magnificent depths of His affection came out, for He was willing, I may say, willing even for God to forsake Him, that He might vindicate God’s honor, and save you and me. Heaven, and earth, and hell witnessed a stupendous struggle that day―a struggle between life and death, between love and hatred; but love is more than conqueror, and Jesus, dying, leaves this precious legacy to every poor sinner, “It is finished!” The want is finished that sets the poor sinner free. Heaven rejoiced with loud hosannas, and hell, I believe, trembled and was dismayed. And what shall earth do? What shall you and I do? Take those words and believe them, and rejoice in them, too, shall we not? Have sympathy with heaven’s joy, shall we not? I will, at any rate, and I counsel you to do the same.
But there is more. He who died has risen again. Angels came down, and rolled away the stone from that tomb where they had laid Jesus. Why did they roll it away, think you? Was it for Him to rise? Far be the thought! No, no! They rolled away the stone that you and I might look in and see that He has risen, see that He is free. Who is free? The sinner’s substitute; your Substitute, if you will take Him as such―the One who, I can say, bore my sins. Can you say that too? He bore my sins, but now He is free, and so am I.
My sin brought in death, but Christ’s death put away my sin; and now the resurrection of Christ is the evidence from God of the value of the work which Christ has accomplished, and which God has accepted, and by virtue of which the sinner is accepted too.
No arch can rest save on two pillars; and what stupendous pillars we have for the arch of faith to rest upon―Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection! And what about your feelings, do you ask me? I will tell you. My feeling is one of absolute security, resting on such mighty pillars.
But “Repentance” as well as “remission of sins” was to be preached.
What is repentance?
It is a man judging himself before God. It is not like so many steps you have to climb up in order to be saved; but if you have given heed to God’s testimony, listened to His word, and you have been living in pleasure and sin all your days, you will find you cannot but repent. The Prodigal Son when he turned round and thought of his father, found that he had misspent his life; and, whoever you are, I challenge you, Have you not misspent your life? Oh, answer this question now between your heart and God; or at the great white throne you will have to answer it, yea, have there to own-I misspent my life, my life was one great mistake. My heart was not God’s, my life was spent in distance from God. I knew not God’s Son; He had no place in my affections or my thoughts.
Is this true of you, dear friend? Oh, how you need forgiveness! for you have lived in a so-called Christian land, possibly have professed to be a Christian too, and have been a hypocrite as well as a sinner, for you have been professing to have what you have not got. To find out “I am not worthy,” that is repentance. The moment I wake up to find what my life has been, I cannot help judging it; that is repentance.
Look at the thief on the cross. Too bad for earth, on the road to hell, he spends his last hours in abusing Christ! Look at it! Hear him abusing Christ. But listen! Jesus is heard to speak. Hearken to what He says: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” And the man says to himself, “Why I have been taunting Him, and He is praying for me; what a wretch I am!” And then his neighbor, the other thief, speaks again, and says, “If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.” And this one says, “Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly?” He learns his own case in the presence of Christ, and judges himself, and then he turns to Jesus, with, “Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” And Jesus says, “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”
A few more hours roll away, and this same man, who had taunted and reviled Christ, enters heaven―enters that scene of glory in company with Christ! Too bad for earth, he is just the one for a Savior to pick up and save. You will find when a man really sees his sin and guilt, that you have no need to preach repentance to him, for he judges, he condemns himself.
And what is the effect of repentance? It is this: If in repentance I condemn myself, I take that work out of God’s hands. Why will a man be condemned by-and-by? Because of his sin. Why will a believer never be condemned? Because he has condemned himself already, taken, as it were, the work out of God’s hands. You must repent, or be judged by God; and if judged by God, be damned. He who says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” says also, “He that believeth not shall be damned.”
“Oh,” you say, “but I do not believe in being damned.” But Jesus did, and suffered to save us from it.
“But I do not believe in everlasting punishment.” But Jesus did, and underwent the wrath of God that we might never undergo it.
There is repentance on the one hand, and remission of sins on the other. And oh, my friend, will not you take the pardon, the forgiveness, He proclaims, take the life eternal He will give? Decide for God and His Christ; repent, turn round to Jesus! You may not have another day in which to decide this eternally-important matter. Yet another hour, another moment, and He may have come back in the cloud for His people. Jesus had taken His own out as far as to Bethany, and lifting up His hands, He blessed them; and while He blessed them He was parted from them, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. He was taken up; and they, with their eyes still fixed, are told, “This same Jesus shall so come in like manner.”
And what is the next thing in the world’s history? The Jesus they have despised and slain, the Jesus they have cast out of this world, shall come back to it, and every eye shall see Him. Would you like Him to come now? “No,” says the unconverted man. Why not? Because you are unprepared, unready, unwashed, unforgiven. My friend, you had better make haste. God says, “Now is the accepted time;” and you had better not put off any longer the grave matter, the eternally-important matter, of your soul’s salvation. Oh, trust Jesus with it now, and know the sweetness of His pardoning grace! Oh, gaze on Him, and know that sweet, sweet sense of the remission of sins! For, if you trust Jesus, I can tell you this, God delights to honor those who trust Jesus. How sweet to stand between His first coming and His second! His first coming has made us meet to be where He is; His second coming will place us where He is. His first coming took my sins away; His second coming will take me away. The Christian stands between His first coming and His second. What a thing it is to be a Christian! Who would not belong to Christ? Oh, my friend, will you not decide for Him just now, and take the eternal life He offers?
W. T. P. Wolston