(Octavius Winslow, “Evening Thoughts”) LISTEN to Audio! Download Audio
The life of our adorable Lord was a life of continuous trial. Because From the moment He entered our world, He became leagued with suffering. He identified Himself with it in its almost endless forms. And seemed to have been born with a tear in His eye, with a shadow of sadness on His brow. He was prophesied as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Because He came to suffer! From the moment He touched the horizon of our earth, from that moment His sufferings commenced.
He did not come to indulge in a life of tranquility and repose.
And did not come to quaff the cup of earthly sweets.
He came to suffer!
Because He came to bear the curse!
He came to drain the deep cup of wrath!
Because He came to weep!
He came to bleed!
Because He came to die!
Our Savior was a cross-bearing Savior!
Therefore Our Lord was a suffering Lord!
He turned His back upon . . .
the pleasures,
riches,
luxuries,
and even the common comforts of this world;
preferring a life of . . .
obscurity,
penury,
and suffering.
Because Jesus . . .
hungered,
thirsted,
labored,
sorrowed,
wept,
suffered,
bled,
died!
Therefore He . . .
was scourged,
bruised,
mocked,
smitten,
was spit upon,
nailed to the tree,
pierced,
was slain!
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds we are healed!” Isaiah 53:5Therefore “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!”
2 Corinthians 5:21