Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: April 1

"He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him" ~ Matthew 27:42

"Himself he cannot save ..." Himself he could not afford to save! If He had saved Himself, He could not have saved us. If His prayer that the cup might pass from Him had been answered in the affirmative, our prayers could never be answered at all!

All His earthly life, Jesus had walked long, weary miles, pouring His humanity out to those who needed a shepherd. Healing, teaching, admonishing, showing His love. Now, some of the same lost sheep to whom He had been giving of His strength and love were beneath the Cross jeering at Him! In His deep love and concern for their eternal lives, "Jesus (had) stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Now, those to whom He cried, jeered at Him, "... let him come down from the cross and (then) we will believe him."




Does this sound familiar to you? "If God will just do this thing which I want so much, then I'll believe Him." He did not die to give us what we want. He died to give us eternal life. An exchange of lives. His for ours. An exchange of cries ... His cry for ours! We cry for Him to do this and that and then we will begin to "believe." We will "condescend" to believe in the Son of God on our terms. This blessed Son of God, now alive forever, knew that sin prompts a cry like ours. And so when He died, He cried in response to our cry:

"It is finished!" It is finished. "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain ... and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened ... and they that were with him, watching Jesus, ... feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God."