March 12

PART III.

CHRIST'S AGONY.

And being in an agony.—Luke 22:44.

LET us now consider the source from whence Christ's agony arose. We have already observed that he was not enduring the infliction of bodily pain, we remark then, that Christ's agony arose from the pressure of a world's guilt, which was now laid upon him. He became the surety for the sinner, engaged to bear all the smart, and to endure the curse which we had justly incurred. That curse now, like a black cloud, settled over his sacred head. The vials of vengeance were now poured out upon him—the flaming sword which had slumbered for four thousand years, now awoke to smite the shepherd that the sheep might be redeemed. Yes, this is the hour when Messiah's soul was made an offering for sin—when it pleased the father to bruise him, and when the chastisement of our peace was upon him. If one sin expelled angels from heaven, and men from paradise—if the guilt of one heart will ever fill it with fear and distressing torture—what must Christ have now felt, when the iniquity of all our race was laid upon him, when he had to account and satisfy for it all. Under such circumstances, we do not wonder that he should be in "an agony!" Christ's agony arose also from the combined and fearful attacks of the powers of darkness. When Christ overcame the devil, it is said that he departed for a season. This therefore was emphatically his hour. Now he directed all his fiery darts at the Son of God, and endeavoured, by taking advantage of Christ's unutterable distress, to overwhelm him with horror and despair. Jesus, who was now atoning for sin, had all its hideousness before him, and was feeling all its deadly poison drinking up his spirits, must have felt most keenly the suggestions and daring attacks of that master-spirit of wickedness. The agony of Jesus arose also from the hidings of the divine countenance. Sin excluded men from the light of God's face, and the enjoyment of his favour. The Substitute must therefore endure the same. He beheld in the countenance of his Father the features of stern and inflexible justice, and from his hand he received the bitter, unmingled cup of expiation. He was now treated as the sinner's days-man and substitute, and it behoved him to endure for a season all his demerit and woe. This is the Mirror in which we may behold the true character of sin — its dreadful and evil nature — its awful effects. Here, too, we learn the greatness of Christ's love, which caused him in the hour of our peril and in the day of just retribution, to give himself for us, and to die even for the ungodly.