Daily Devotionals

Devotional: December 27th

" He was numbered with the transgressors." - Isaiah 53:12.

That glorious being whom Isaiah saw upon a throne, high and lifted up, surrounded by the enraptured seraphim, left his throne at a time appointed and taking the form of man came into this every-day world of ours’ and dwelt among us. What was his reception? Did not every knee bow and every tongue confess that he was Lord? If he had come in power and in majesty, with undeniable and irresistible glory, such a reception perhaps would have awaited him. Men would have fallen before him and given him at least external homage. But this was not what he sought. His moral attributes are his true glory. It is in his truth, wisdom, goodness, purity, and condescension that he is distinguished from the gods of the heathen, rather than in omnipotence and omniscience. These are not so much attributes of his character as of his position. He would be served not because he is all-mighty, but because he is good, holy, and condescending. Therefore he came into the world in a manner that permitted the fullest manifestation of his character; and if his power and majesty were in some measure veiled, it was in order that there might be a more perfect revelation of his moral perfections. There was then seen in the family of man one being in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead.

Tell us now, what was his reception? He was numbered among the transgressors. Instead of saying, "Here is a being of wondrous excellence, angelic in purity, heavenly in nature;" instead of saying even, " Here is a good man;" men said unhesitatingly and unblushingly, " This is a bad man; one with whom we cannot associate; an impious being, violating the most sacred laws; blaspheming the most holy things; profaning the Sabbath; consorting with the vile; overthrowing the faith of many; a dangerous man, a transgressor of the deepest dye, one that must be hunted from the bosom of society, one that must be as soon as possible sent out of this world." Yes, they decided that any other man, though he were a Barabbas, might live; on any other man the sun might shine, the wind might blow, the ordinary bounties of heaven descend; but upon this one, never; the earth cannot bear the burden of him. However contemptible an opinion a man may have had of himself, yet could he loudly and passionately cry, " Away with this Jesus, crucify him, it is not fit that he should live where I live!"

Thus the world was tried; thus its bitter and inveterate hostility to God was detected, thus did it become manifest that Satan was the god of this world. And are things altered? No! Those who rejected Christ had no special venom in their hearts. They were average specimens of humanity. In what ever generation Christ’s lowly advent might have taken place, he would have been numbered among the transgressors. Those that make the nearest approach to him in character, those that live godly in Christ Jesus, they suffer persecution, they are reckoned as flagrant transgressors. In fact every generation has had the opportunity given, and has had it not in vain, to show what it thought of Christ. Oh, what a fearful exhibition of the corruption and blindness of man is given in the statement that God came into the world, and was numbered with the transgressors and put to a shameful death!

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