Good Friday

Hey all, being that it is Good Friday, I am going to post a few quotes that I have come across in my personal reading lately concerning the cross of the Lord Jesus. These quotes come from a book titled The Suffering Saviour written by F.W. Krummacher. At the beginning of the book he writes the following:
O what wonders are we about to approach in our meditations! From the most appalling scene the world ever witnessed, a paradise of peace springs forth. From the most ignominous sufferings, we see the most glorious triumph emerge; and from the most dreadful of deaths, a divine and never-fading life arise!
May devotion, humbleness of mind, and child-like faith accompany us in our meditations, and penitential tears become our eye-salve!

Later in the first chapter, Krummacher considers how the disciples thought Jesus was just going to set up a political kingdom soon, and that there would not be suffering, only conquering. Clearly Jesus conquered and will conquer, but in quite a different way than they expected:
...the Lord takes His twelve disciples aside. He has matters of importance to disclose to them. Destined, as they were, to lay the foundations of His Church, they soon perceive His intention, and hang upon His lips with increasing eagerness. They probably reckon on some cheering intelligence, and expect to hear that the triumphant development of His kingdom is at hand. But what short-sightedness and simplicity do they display! O the mighty chasm which intervenes between their thoughts and God's thoughts! As though the restoration of fallen man were a thing of such easy accomplishment! As if sin had caused only a transient disturbance in the relations between God and man...

...His heart, under the impulse of love, is firmly and immutably bent on taking the way to the cross...

...No affectionate entreaty restrains Him in His course; no menace dictated by hatred deters Him from it. The bloodthirsty council has already assembled in Jerusalem, and is concocting its plan of treachery and murder. But the watchword of Jesus continues to be-"Behold we go up!" And though another Red Sea were foaming at His feet, and though a hundred deaths awaited Him, yet the only sentiment of His heart is-"We go up." For it is His Father's will, and the path to the great and ardently longed-for aim of the world's redemption. O what resignation, what obedience, what love to sinners is here exemplified by our adorable Immanuel!

Okay, there is one more paragraph I really want to include...I know this has gone a bit long, but I can't resist. And all these quotes are only from the first chapter of this book!

It is confessedly true that the eternal Father, by an almighty decree, might have annihilated the fallen race, in which sin had taken root, and thus have put an end to evil. But we were to live and not die. And thus He has not only caused the sin of man to act as a foil for the display of the full radiance of His attributes, and especially of His love, but has also by the offering up of His Son, provided a means of salvation by which we might attain to a much higher glory and relationship to God than we once possessed in our progenitor, or than we should ever have attained if we had not fallen. Our fall afforded Him the opportunity of showing that in the destruction of sin He could not only manifest His justice, but also glorify His mercy in remitting and forgiving sin, without infringing upon His righteousness.

Those thoughts are deep and definitely worth meditating upon. May God open our hearts to the full glory of His gospel this year!