HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US!

"The cross is not primarily a burden (although it is that indeed); it is first of all an instrument of death. Jesus demands of those who follow Him that they must lay their lives on the line; they must be ready to suffer as Jesus suffered. They must be willing to literally lose their lives."

from Spurgeon's sermon, "Christ's Marvelous Giving"

Do you see that dreadful procession going through the streets
of Jerusalem, along the rough pavement of the Via Dolorosa?

Do you see the weeping women as they mourn because of him?
How is it that Jesus is willing to be led a captive up to
the hill of Calvary? Alas! they throw him on the ground!
They drive accursed iron through his hands and feet.
They hoist him into the air! They dash the cross into its
appointed place, and there he hangs, a naked spectacle of
scorn and shame, derided of men, and mourned by angels.

How is it that the Lord of glory, who made all worlds,
and hung out the stars like lamps, should now be
bleeding and dying there?
HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US!

Can you see the streaming fountains of the four wounds in his
hands and feet? Can you trace his agony as it carves lines upon
his brow and all down his emaciated frame? No you cannot see
the griefs of his soul. No spirit can behold them. They were too
terrible for you to know them. It seemed as though all hell were
emptied into the bosom of the Son of God, and as though all the
miseries of all the ages were made to meet upon him.

Now why is all this but that he gave himself for us till his head
hung down in death, and his arms, in chill, cold death, hung
down by his side, and they buried the lifeless Victor in the tomb.
HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR US!