Crucified Hearts

“Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!”
— John 19:5

I’ll offer a selected passage below, from a church paper of 1899, as a devotional reading on the benefits of Christ’s humiliation and suffering for our redemption.

I have found in my own life that if the cross of Christ will not move me toward Him in full surrender of my will to His, nothing else can. It is by holding Him that I am changed. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

And so, I agree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said:

“The earthly form of Christ is the form that died on the cross. The image of God is the image of Christ crucified. It is to this image that the life of the disciples must be conformed; in other words, they must be conformed to his death (Phil 3.10, Rom 6.4) The Christian life is a life of crucifixion (Gal 2.19) In baptism the form of Christ’s death is impressed upon his own. They are dead to the flesh and to sin, they are dead to the world, and the world is dead to them (Gal 6.14). Anybody living in the strength of Christ’s baptism lives in the strength of Christ’s death.” (Emphasis mine) – The Cost of Discipleship

As Scripture attests:

“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
— Romans 6:4-7

With that preamble I’ll offer this passage by Ellen White on the humiliation and suffering of Christ (1899)

“This is the mystery of godliness,—that he who was equal with the Father should clothe his divinity with humanity, and laying aside all the glory of his office, descend step after step in the path of humiliation, enduring severe and still more severe abasement. Sinless and undefiled, he stood in the judgment-hall to be tried, to have his case investigated and pronounced upon, by the very nation he had delivered from slavery. The Lord of glory was rejected and condemned, yea, spit upon. With contempt for what they regarded as his pretentious claims, men smote him in the face. These men will one day call upon the rocks and mountains to fall upon them, and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.

Pilate pronounced Christ innocent, declaring that he found no fault in him. Yet to please the Jews, he commanded him to be beaten, and then delivered him up to suffer the cruel death of crucifixion. The Majesty of heaven was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and amid scoffs and jeers, ridicule and false accusation, he was nailed to the cross. The crowd, in whose hearts humanity seemed to be dead, sought to aggravate his sufferings by their revilings. But as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, he opened not his mouth. He was giving his life for the life of the world, that all who believed in him might gain immortality.

Sweat-drops of agony stand upon the Saviour’s brow, while from his murderers are heard the words, “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” He is about to speak. What will he say?—From his pale, quivering lips come the words, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

What an exhibition of divine love! Thus Christ proclaimed the good news of pardon, even to his murderers. On the cross he revealed the love of the unknown God. There is mercy for all. The most hardened sinner, if he repents, will be forgiven.

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Why, then, do those professing to believe in him show a hardness of heart, a lack of pity and love, which crucifies him afresh, and puts him to open shame?

Had the people known God, they would not have thought they were doing him service by persecuting and putting to death the prophets. But they forgot their Creator; and waxing bold in their supposed superiority, they put to death him who alone was able to give them life.

Christ’s heart was pierced by a far sharper pain than that caused by the nails driven into his hands and feet. He was bearing the sins of the whole world, enduring our punishment,—the wrath of God against transgression. His trial involved the fierce temptation of thinking that he was forsaken by God. His soul was tortured by the pressure of great darkness, lest he should swerve from his uprightness during the terrible ordeal. Unless there is a possibility of yielding, temptation is no temptation. Temptation is resisted when man is powerfully influenced to do a wrong action; and, knowing that he can do it, resists, by faith, with a firm hold upon divine power. This was the ordeal through which Christ passed. He could not have been tempted in all points as man is tempted, had there been no possibility of his failing. He was a free agent, placed on probation, as was Adam, and as is every man. In his closing hours, while hanging on the cross, he experienced to the fullest extent what man must experience when striving against sin. He realized how bad a man may become by yielding to sin. He realized the terrible consequence of the transgression of God’s law; for the iniquity of the whole world was upon him.

Reason, lost in an unfathomable depth of wonder and amazement, would question the truthfulness of such a history; but faith accepts the inspired record. It is true, and it would be blasphemy to attempt a denial. By giving his only begotten Son to die on the cross, God has shown us the estimate he places on the human soul. All that the world admires, all that it calls precious, sinks into insignificance when placed in the balance with one soul; for a priceless ransom has been paid for that soul. All heaven was given in one gift.

Christ is the representative of God to man, and the representative of man to God. He came to this world as man’s substitute and surety, and he is fully able to save all who repent and return to their allegiance. Because of his righteousness, he is able to place man on vantage-ground. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. He gave his precious, sinless life to save guilty human beings from eternal ruin, that through faith in him they might stand guiltless before the throne of God. What return have we made for his great sacrifice?”

Ellen White — From a church paper, “The Youth’s Instructor”, July 20, 1899, par. 4 – par. 12