WE do not find, except during the three hours of darkness on the cross, that by any sorrow, weariness, or trial, the Lord Jesus was as ever hindered from entering into the sorrow of others. None could put Him in a place, except when working out atonement, where He did not enter into human suffering: such unwariness of love do we see in Christ.
Still He was light; and the more we look into His history, the more comes out the terribleness of the heart of man. It was never manifested till then. There are amiable natures and un-amiable natures; but we never learn what the heart of man is till then.
The thing that tries the human heart is, What is its object? not, What are its mere natural qualities? "There is none that seeketh after God." Man saw no beauty in God. There is nothing in the heart that looks at the Lord so as to find in Him an object and a delight. There is no root till the conscience is reached; there may be attraction, but until the conscience is in the presence and sight of God, nothing is done. It is like the morning dew which passes away. "The same is he which heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself.”
Wherever the conscience is reached by God, there is some sense of goodness. Fear and terror may predominate, but there is attraction, and the heart cannot let it go. Faith always gets both. God is love, and yet He reaches the conscience. There is that which reaches the conscience, and that which inspires confidence, when the eye is on Christ.
On the authority of Christ Himself we have the certainty of salvation, that is, the Christian state; and no other suits the Christian. It is the only real Christian state which the word of God owns. The condition of the Christian is the effect 'of the work of Christ. It is not that there is no conflict, but that Another has taken the responsibility. My place before God is not the effect of what I have done, but of what Christ has done. Christ is the ground on which I stand before God. If it be so, what has He done for us? He died for our sins; that they must be put away. He is the Judge, but He cannot judge what He has put away. That we might walk with God in peace, He has sent the One Who is to be the Judge to be first the Savior. Confidence is connected with righteousness now.
In the history of the robbers we have both sides. In the other malefactor taunting Christ, we see how the heart of man is enmity to God. It was the triumph for the moment of the first man and of Satan too. It is sad to think what our hearts are if left to themselves. When the heart is let out, where will it stop? Satan is over us.
Here then we have the triumph of the wickedness of man over the goodness of God. We cannot get rid of Satan's power yet; we may bind it in a sense. The heart of man cannot bear the presence of God. There is not a vanity, not a bit of dress or money, that has not more power over the heart of man than all that He has done or is. You never yet found a man enjoying himself who would hear of Christ. The world would not have Him, when He came in grace, nor would it now; but it must have Him when He comes in judgment. Take the majority of the people in this city and suppose them let into heaven! They would get out as fast as they could.
In the repentant robber, on the other hand, we see grace. He was crucified on a gibbet; but no matter, gibbet or no gibbet, when God and the soul meet, we have the simple and immense fact that the soul is brought at once into His presence. When God has dealt with the conscience, we make no more promises for the future. Unlike the naughty child that says, "I'll be better tomorrow," the soul confesses sin to-day. "Dost thou not fear God?" is the word, not "Are you not ashamed of being a thief?”
Have you ever been brought into God's presence? "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom." If you have not been consciously in God's presence, wisdom has not begun for you. Before Christ you must be, and you must be there in truth: the difference is whether you are before Christ in the fullness of His grace, or before Him in judgment, "We indeed justly." He did not say that the world was guilty, but that he was the guilty one; it is not simply that sin is sin, but that I am a sinner. His thought is that he himself is justly there. It is a personal thing, not merely that God is holy, nor merely that the world is guilty, but that you are guilty.