it up to us even in this present world. What believers need is more daily practical faith in Christ's words. The weU of living water is always near us, as we travel through tibe wilderness of this world. Yet for want of faith we often fail to see it, and faint by the way. (Gen. xxi. 19.) Let us observe, secondly, in these verses, the clear and plain prediction which our Lord makes about His oum death. We see Him telling the disciples that He would be " de- tivered to the Gentiles, mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, scourged, and put to death."
The importance of our Lord's death appears in the frequency with which He foretold it, and referred to it during His life. He knew well that it was the principal end for which He came into the world. He was to give His life a ransom for many. He was to make His soul an offering for sin, and to bear our transgressions in His own body on the tree. He was to give His body and blood for the life of the world. Let us seek to be of the same mind with Christ in our estimate of His death. Let our principal thoughts about Jesus be inseparably bound up with His crucifixion. The comer-stone of all trnth concerning Christ is this, — that " While we were yet sinners He died for us." (Rom. v. 8.)
The love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards sinners is strikingly shown in His steady purpose of heart to die for them. All through His life He knew that He was ftbout to be crucified. There was nothing in His cross ftnd passion which He did not foresee distinctly, even to i&e minutest particular, long before it came upon Him. ECe tasted all the well-known bitterness of anticipated suffering. Yet He never swerved firom His path for a
280 EXPOSITORY THOUaHTS.
moment. He was straitened in spirit till He had finished the work He came to do. (Luke xii. 50.) Such loye passeth knowledge. It is unspeakable, unsearchable. We may rest on that love without fear. If Christ so loved us before we thought of Him, He will surely not oease to love us after we have believed.
The calmness of our Lord Jesus Christ in the prospect of certain death ought to be a pattern to all His people. Like Him, let us drink the bitter cup which our Father gives us, without a murmur, and say " not my will but thine be done.'' The man that has faith in the Lord Jesus has no reason to be afraid of the grave. " The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'* (1 Cor. xv. 56, 57.) The grave is no longer what it once was. It is the place where the Lord lay. If the great Head of the body looked forward to the grave with calmness, much more may aU His be- lieving members. For them He has overcome death. The king of terrors at the worst is a conquered foe.
Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, the sloumesa of the disciples to understand Christ's death. We find that when our Lord described His coming sufferings, the dis- ciples " understood none of these things : and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.''
We read such passages as these, perhaps, with a mix- ture of pity and surprise. We wonder at the darkness and blindness of these Jews. We marvel that in the face of plain teaching, and in the light of plain types of the Mosaic law, the sufferings of Messiah should have
LUKE, CHAP. XVin. VER. 28 — 34. 281
been lost sight of in His glory, and His cross hidden be- hind His crown.
But are we not forgetting that the vicarious death of Christ has always been a stumbling-block and an offence to proud human nature P — ^Do we not know that even now, after Christ has risen from the dead and ascended into glory, the doctrine of the cross is still foolishness to many, and that Christ's substitution for us on the cross is a truth which is often denied, rejected and refused ? — Before we wonder at these first weak disciples, for not understanding our Lord's words about His death, we should do well to look around us. It may humble us to remember that thousands of so-called Christians neither understand nor value Christ's death at the present day.
Let us look well to our own hearts. We Hve in a day when false doctrines about Christ's death abound on every side. Let us see that Christ crucified is really the foundation of our own hopes, and that Christ's atoning death for sin is indeed the whole life of our souls. Let us beware of adding to Christ's sacrifice on the cross, as the Boman Catholic does. Its value was infinite. It admits of no addition. — ^Let us beware of taking away from Christ's ^sacrifice, as the Socinian does. To suppose that the Son of God only died to leave us an example of s^-denial, is to contradict a hundred plain texts of Scripture. — ^Let us walk in the old paths. Let us say ^ih St. Paul, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Gal. vi. 14.)
Notes. Luke XVm. 28—34.
28. — [IVe have leftaUi] The remark has often been made, that Peter and his fdlow ^aciples had left titUe or nodiing fbr Christ's