“The ladder of paradise” by Herman Witsius

“Christ allowed Himself to be STRIPPED of His garments, and suspended naked on the cross, that He might cover the shame of thy disgraceful nakedness contracted by sin; (Rev. 3:18)

—that He might adorn thee with the fine linen of His own righteousness, clean and white; (Rev. 19:8)

—that He might beautify thee with garments of wrought gold, (Ps. 45:13-14) and deck thee with an ornament of grace composed of the Christian virtues as of so many pearls; (Prov. 1:9. Song 4:9)

—and that He might present thee thus arrayed to His God and Father.

Further, the ignominious tree of the CROSS is the height of thy glory, the support of thy weakness, the ladder of paradise, and “the tree of life, which bears twelve manner of fruits, and yields her fruit every month, and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.” (Rev. 22:2)

Here, the iniquity of the whole earth was removed in one day. (Zech. 3:9)

Here, liberty worthy of the sons of God was procured.

Here, the hand-writing of ordinances which was against us, was torn in pieces, and taken out of the way, and then nailed to the cross.

Here, “having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Col. 2:14-15)

Here, here, the afflicted soul finds that which sweetens the waters of her tribulation, although they seem to flow from the well of Marah itself. (Exod. 15:23, 25)

In one word, He delivered us from every curse, He loaded us with every kind of blessings, when He was suspended on the tree, and made the curse of God for us. (Gal. 3:13)”

–Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1681/2012), 2: 109-110.

“Our Friend, Kinsman, Brother, and Husband, our Lord and God” by Herman Witsius

“Christ bore the curse of God. Hanging on a tree was a symbol of the curse, and no vain symbol truly to Christ.

The necessity of His submitting to death, arose from the curse of God due to the sin of the first Adam, for which it was requisite that satisfaction should be made by the second Adam.

Christ too, when He died, “made His soul an offering for sin;” (Isa. 53:10) nay, was “made sin;” (2 Cor. 5:21) and “bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” (1 Peter 2:24) till He suffered “death for the redemption of transgression,” (Heb. 9:15) and “reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death.” (Col. 1:22)

Now, it is inconceivable how Christ can be said to bear our sins, or to bear the guilt of them even unto death, or to take them away by nothing less than death, reconciliation having been then only completely effected,—unless he sustained the curse of God both unto death, and in death.

Nor is it unworthy of notice, that St Peter speaks of “the pains of Christ’s death;” (Acts 2:24) and that Isaiah foretells that he should be “cut off out of the land of the living,” and, through means of death, at last “taken from prison and from judgment.” (Isa. 53:8)

In fine, how can we at all rest assured that we ourselves shall be delivered from a cursed death, unless Christ has undergone such a death in our room?

Thus far we have seen the HISTORY of our Lord’s crucifixion. But it indicates an earthly and grovelling mind, to remain satisfied with the mere outward letter.

Tremendous mysteries lie hid within, which ought to be studied with a kind of sacred amazement and astonishment of mind, contemplated with every pious affection, and deeply impressed upon the heart.

It becomes us to ascend in our meditations to the incredible wisdom of the secret counsels of God, who wonderfully overruled for accomplishing the salvation of mankind, the extreme depravity and impious cruelty of the infatuated Jews, and the mad rage of the Devil who accelerated his own ruin by his opposition to Christ.

It was on our account that all these things befell the Anointed of the Lord.

We ought, therefore, to consider them in a far different manner than if they had happened to a stranger, or to one with whom we have no connection.

Christ is at once our Friend, Kinsman, Brother, and Husband, our Lord and God; who, having become our Surety, underwent the curse of God, not only for our benefit, but in our stead.

He erected on the cross a ladder to paradise. And He became by His own death, the Author of life and immortality to us.

Let us, then, review in our meditations all that has been said, for the following purposes.

First, To show that all things relating to the crucifixion of Christ were FORETOLD AND PREFIGURED of old.

Secondly, To show how GRIEVOUS they were to Christ, and hard to endure.

Lastly, To illustrate their powerful influence to STRENGTHEN OUR MINDS with the vigour of the spiritual life, and confirm them in the hope of a blessed immortality.”

–Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1681/2012), 2: 88-90.

“Mary’s Song” by Luci Shaw

Mary’s Song
By Luci Shaw

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest…
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

–Luci Shaw, “Mary’s Song,” in Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 29.

“The blessed doctrine of substitution” by Charles Spurgeon

“It has been my joy to preach to you for many years the blessed doctrine of substitution.

Now, if Jesus became our Surety and our Substitute, and suffered in our stead, it is an inevitable consequence that we cannot suffer punishment, and that the sin laid upon our Surety cannot now be laid upon us.

If our debt was paid, it was paid, and there is an end of it; a second payment cannot be demanded.

No criminal can be hanged a second time; one death is all the law requires: believers died in Christ unto sin once, and now they penally die no more. Our condemnation has spent itself upon our gracious representative.

The full vials of divine wrath against sin have been poured upon the head of the great Shepherd, that His sheep might go free; and therein is our joy, our comfort, our security.

‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ (Romans 8:1)

Bow your heads in worship, ye that are in Him.

Render an ascription of blessing and praise and glory unto Him who took you unto Himself, and then bore your sins in His own body on the tree, so that you might be delivered from condemnation through His sufferings and death.

Thus, by faith we are in Christ Jesus, and the assurance of our safety is enlarged by a consideration of His federal headship, our vital oneness with Him, our mystical marriage to Him, and His finished work on our behalf.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, “In Christ No Condemnation,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 32 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1886), 475.

“The priceless merit of His sufferings” by J.C. Ryle

“We must not be content with a vague general belief, that Christ’s sufferings on the cross were vicarious. We are intended to see this truth in every part of His passion.

We may follow Him all through, from the bar of Pilate, to the minute of His death, and see Him at every step as our mighty Substitute, our Representative, our Head, our Surety, our Proxy, the Divine Friend who undertook to stand in our stead, and by the priceless merit of His sufferings, to purchase our redemption.

Was He scourged? It was that ‘through His stripes we might be healed.’

Was He condemned, though innocent? It was that we might be acquitted though guilty.

Did He wear a crown of thorns? It was that we might wear the crown of glory.

Was He stripped of His raiment? It was that we might be clothed in everlasting righteousness.

Was He mocked and reviled? It was that we might be honored and blessed.

Was He reckoned a malefactor, and numbered among transgressors? It was that we might be reckoned innocent, and justified from all sin.

Was He declared unable to save Himself? It was that He might be able to save others to the uttermost.

Did He die at last, and that the most painful and disgraceful of deaths? It was that we might live forevermore, and be exalted to the highest glory.

Let us ponder these things well. They are worth remembering.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1856/2012), 314. Ryle is commenting on Matthew 27:45-56.

“He interposed Himself” by Jonathan Edwards

“Consider the example of your glorious Lord and Master. There was a number of the souls of men committed by the Father into His hands, that He might take care for their salvation.

And after what manner did He execute His office?

How did He lay out Himself for the salvation of those souls?

What great things did He do?

And what great things did He suffer?

How hard was the labor He went through?

And how greatly did He deny Himself?

How did this great Shepherd of the sheep behave Himself when He saw the wolf coming to destroy the sheep?

He did not flee to save His own life, and so leave the sheep to become a prey; but from pity and love to the sheep, interposed Himself between them and their enemy, stood between them and harm, and encountered the wolf, and in the conflict gave His own life to save theirs (John 10:11–15).

We read of Christ’s travailing for souls, ‘It pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed…. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied’ (Isaiah 53:10–11).

And how did He travail for this seed of His?

Look into the garden of Gethsemane, and there behold Him lying on the earth, with His body covered over with clotted blood, falling down in lumps to the ground, with His soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death, and offering up strong crying and tears together with His blood.

And look to the cross, where He endured yet far more extreme agonies, and drank up the bitter cup of God’s wrath, and shed the remainder of His blood, lingeringly drained out through His tortured hands and feet, and extravasated out of His broken heart into His bowels, and there turned into blood and water, through the vehement fermentation occasioned by the weight of grief and extremity of agony of soul, under which He cried out with that loud and lamentable and repeated cry.

Thus He travailed in birth with His seed; thus He labored and suffered for the salvation of those souls that the Father had committed to Him.

This is the example of the great Shepherd.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “The Great Concern Of A Watchman For Souls,” in Sermons and Discourses, 1743-1758, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 25. Ed. Wilson H. Kimnach (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 72. This sermon on Hebrews 13:17 (“They watch for your souls, as they that must give account.”) was preached on June 8, 1743, at the ordination of Jonathan Judd.

“Mary’s Song” by Luci Shaw

Mary’s Song
By Luci Shaw

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest…
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

–Luci Shaw, “Mary’s Song,” in Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 29.

“Mary’s Song” by Luci Shaw

Mary’s Song
By Luci Shaw

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest…
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

–Luci Shaw, “Mary’s Song,” in Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 29.

Lord’s Day Hymn – “Since Jesus died for thee”

“From Whence This Fear and Unbelief?”
By Augustus Toplady, 1740-1778

From whence this fear and unbelief?
Hath not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that load of sin
Which, Lord, was charged to Thee?

Complete atonement Thou hast made,
And to the utmost Thou hast paid
Whate’er Thy people owed;
Nor can God’s wrath on me take place
When sheltered by Thy righteousness,
And covered by Thy blood.

If Thou my pardon procured,
And freely in my room endured
The whole of wrath divine;
Payment God cannot twice demand,
First from my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again from mine.

Return, my soul, unto thy rest!
The sorrows of thy great High Priest
Have bought thy liberty;
Trust in His efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.

“The miracle of all miracles” by J. Gresham Machen

“The very point of the Christian view of the cross is that God does not wait for someone else to pay the price of sin, but in His infinite love has Himself paid the price for us– God Himself in the person of the Son, loved us and gave Himself for us; God Himself in the person of the Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.

It is a strange thing that when men talk about the love of God, they show by every word that they utter that they have no conception at all of the depths of God’s love.

If you want to find an instance of true gratitude for the infinite grace of God, do not go to those who think of God’s love as something that cost nothing, but go rather to those who in agony of soul have faced the awful fact of the guilt of sin, and then have come to know with a trembling wonder that the miracle of all miracles has been accomplished, and that the eternal Son has died in their stead.”

–J. Gresham Machen, “What the Bible Teaches About Jesus,” in Selected Shorter Writings, ed. D.G. Hart. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2004), 31-2.