GRACES INFINITE UNCLOUDED WISDOM

GRACES INFINITE UNCLOUDED WISDOM

In that Cross, moreover, there is revealed THE UNCLOUDED WISDOM OF GOD. Seeing all that man in his blindness failed to see, and knowing perfectly the whole fact of the depravity wrought by man, He yet originated and carried out a plan of redemption so wonderful that the very unfallen intelligences of the upper world have ever desired to look into this great mystery of wisdom, and no man has been able perfectly to fathom its depths. (1 Cor. 2:5-9) To the Jews a stumbling-block, something in the way over which they fall; to the Greeks utter foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23); and yet blessed be God, both to Jew and Greek, not only power, but wisdom. What wondrous words were those that passed the lips of Jesus. "It is finished." (John 19:30) What is finished? Sin was finished as to its power to work the final ruin of any man.

In the mystery of the passion of Jesus, sin which had mastered men, and held them in slavery, was in turn mas­tered and robbed of its force. Whatever bruised, broken, beaten slave of sin will but hide in the cleft of that rock, and trust in the Crucified, for such an one sin is no more master. To the truth of this statement, testimony can be borne by the great multitudes of men and women who, standing at the Cross, have said, and still can say, The im­possible has become possible, for all the forces of sin have been broken by the way of this victory of grace. Sin as a force that ruins is ended in the Cross. It is not ended any­where else. If men will not come into relation with that Cross, then sin is still an element—a force, so great that no man is equal to its overcoming. In the cleft rock there is perfect security and perfect victory. "It is finished," said the Master, and because He meant that sin was finished, He meant that the work was finished through which grace might flow out like a river.

Let us pause for a moment. Is some soul conscious of sin that masters, of pollution that blights? The river is flowing even here and now, and you may be cleansed, puri­fied, saved. Oh, the matchless splendors of this outshin­ing grace! In that Cross in very deed we see the deepest meaning of sin, and the fullest force of grace. There sin refuses God's King. There grace announces‑

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Doth his successive journeys run."

There sin manifested its PROSTITUTION OF EMOTION in the brutality of an awful tragedy. There grace through the untold abyss of suffering smiled back with love ineffable, until the very murderers of Christ found the highway open to the heart of God. There sin in its ignorant gladness put out the light of life. There GRACE IN INFINITE WISDOM shone through the gloom and there fell upon the pathway of the race the light that leads to God.

Oh, wondrous Cross! Therein sin rejected the King, and grace crowned Him. Therein sin destroyed the Priest, and grace through the Priest made atonement. Therein sin silenced the voice of the Prophet, and grace caught up the message and repeated it to the entire race, for a new law of life and love. In the Cross I see my sin. In the Cross I see God's grace. And, hear me, His grace is mightier than my sin, for "where sin abounded grace did abound more exceedingly." (Rom. 5:20) Yet let me try to show that I cannot put all into it that is suggested by it. Did you ever watch the children playing on the seashore? How have I watched them, the golden-haired, laughing-eyed, dimple-fisted darlings! I ask this little group what they are doing, and they tell me that they are digging a big hole. What for, I say to them, and they reply, we want to see if the sea can fill it. The hole is dug, and the children stand on the mounds of sand, and I wait with them. We wait and watch and wonder as the waves come nearer in, those white horses of the mighty deep, and at last one, the seventh, perhaps, stronger and bigger than his brothers, breaks up, and over the hole with the sweet swish of summer music, and I look and they look. What has happened? Is the hole filled? More exceedingly, more exceedingly! And the sea is yet behind! “Where sin abounded grace did abound more exceedingly." (Rom. 5:20).