Topic(s): Christian Life, Jesus, Salvation

While President Harry S. Truman was in office, there was an attempt made to assassinate him. Endeavoring to protect the President, one of the guards was slain. With deep solemnity and sadness, the President commented, “You can’t understand how a man feels when somebody else dies for him.”

I would think, after such an experience, that the remainder of life would come very special. After all, without the self-sacrifice of that guard, the President would not have had those remaining years. Each day would seem very precious, it having been purchased for him by the shedding of another man’s blood.

Thinking of the cross we may all too casually utter the words, “He died for me.” Do we see the suffering Savior dying for each sacrifice for “the world,” for the whole human race, much more than we see it as being for any one of us, in particular?

In the old spiritual, “Were You There?”, some meaningful questions are raised. This song is asking if we saw Him crucified, nailed to the cross. Did we see the earth plunged into darkness when the sun refused to shine? Did we see Him laid in the tomb? Such, contemplation of soul “causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble,” so the song goes.

Once we are gripped by this sight of Him who “there on the cross was wounded for me,” the remainder of life takes on a new and different meaning.

—Hershel L. Dyer

“He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who dies for them and rose again” – Corinthians 5:15

What Did They See?

Topic(s): Christian Life, Jesus, Salvation

“And when they came unto the place which is called The skull, there they crucified him…the people stood beholding” (Lk. 23:33-35).

Look at those last few words one more time: “the people stood beholding” [theoreo, “theorizing”]. They stood by the cross of Jesus, trying to “put things together.” And, what did they see?

They saw the “obvious.”

They saw how cruel man could be to others. Death by crucifixion was horrible. Victims frequently died stark raving mad from days of exposure and thirst—a thought that underscores the agony behind Jesus’ words: “I thirst” (Jn. 19:28).

They saw something “mysterious.”

They experienced an eerie darkness “over the whole land.” The sun refused to shine as if it were paying tribute to the death of our Savior (Luke 23:44-45).

They saw something “vicarious.”

They witnessed the death of God in the flesh, an agonizing death that made possible our “abundant life” (John 10:10; cf. 1 Cor. 15:3).

They saw something “marvelous.”

They saw the same things you and I are blessed to see when we partake of the Lord’s Supper….the love of God. (1 Cor. 11:23-26; cf. 1 Jn. 4:9-10).

—Dan Winkler