FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
November 2
THE SANCTUARY DOCTRINE EXPLAINS THE WAY OF SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL (Part 37)
The Untold, Unparalleled, All-encompassing Sufferings of the Antitypical Lamb of God at the Antitypical Altar of Sacrifice at Calvary.
We continue reviewing what took place at Calvary, in the treatment He received from His own people. Out of that dark moments before He finally expired at 3 PM (our time), came one and only one weak ray of light as it were, of human comfort that the humanity of Christ craved for, but not “from His own people,” not even from His own twelve disciples, not even from the Father, the Holy Spirit, or the holy angels!
From whom then? One of the two thieves condemned to die by crucifixion simultaneous with Christ! Strange as it seems, the Bible does not even identify him by name! Why? It was the deed, not the name (or title) that mattered.
There is a deep lesson here many have missed even to this late hour of probation! Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, at times! Now read on from the inspired pen:
“To Jesus in His agony at the cross there came ONE GLEAM of comfort. It was the PRAYER OF THE PENITENT THIEF. Both the men that were crucified had AT FIRST railed against Him; and one [of them] under his suffering only became MORE desperate and defiant. But not so with his companion. This man was NOT a hardened criminal; he had been led astray by evil companions, but he was LESS GUILTY than many of those who stood beside the cross reviling the Savior. He had seen and heard Jesus, and had been CONVICTED by His teaching, but He had been turned away from Him by the PRIESTS AND RULERS.
Seeking to stifle conviction, he had plunged deeper and deeper into sin, UNTIL he was arrested, tried as a criminal, and condemned to die on the cross.”- E. G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 749, April, 1950, Pacific Press Publishing Asso.
There are countless victims from that Calvary Moment to this very moment in time and up to the close of probation, of this devastating combination.
What is it? Sinners being convicted of their sins and sinful lives by the truth and righteousness only to turned away from it by the very men whose primary religious duty and responsibility is to encourage sinners to repent and turn away from their sins.
This very naturally leads him in his already weakened state to seek ways and means to stifle a bothered conscience, the only ways available being to go deeper into sin and wickedness, until aborted by death or in this case, by his arrest by the civil authorities.
Furthermore, because of the principle of command responsibility “unto whom much is given much is required,” those religious leaders were not merely “partners in crime” with the condemned thief, they were promoters and purveyors of human depravity and sin. Hence it was the thief, not the “thief-makers” who found salvation in that Calvary Moment! Please remember that!
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF.