4/19/19 

Mark 15:24

²⁴ And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.

“And they crucified him”.

In these stark words Mark describes the greatest crime ever in the universe.  And yet Isaiah could say “The Lord has placed upon him the sin of us all.”

So the greatest crime and the greatest act of charity is completed at the same time.  George Smeaton could say when writing on the atonement, “whenever the Scriptures say as in John 3:16, “He gave”, the intention is always that he gave unto death on the cross.”

Anyone who considers Jesus separate from the cross commits a travesty.  It is the basis of our present being, (Galatians 2:20), and our hope in heaven, (Revelation 5:8-10).

How do we know that He was perfectly holy, spoke nothing but the truth, accomplished perfectly the will of God, and accomplished a complete deliverance for us?  God raised Him from the dead.  By this the Father put His stamp of approval.

The grave is empty and heaven is filled with His presence and praise, “and they crucified him”.  Lamentations 1:12 seems to me one of the clearest statements of Christ’s sufferings.  The writer says, “which the Lord inflicted on me in the day of his fierce anger,” In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes, “nevertheless I live.”