THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED.

 

APRIL 5.

They shall look on him whom they pierced.
John 19:37
 

BLESSED object !
 
Transforming sight !
 
Jesus was pierced by his foes.
 
He was pierced for us.
He was pierced by us.
 
His persecutors were our representatives.
 
We pierced him by them.
 
Our sins were the procuring cause of all his suffering.
 
As he died to atone for our sins,
  so it is only by faith's view of him,
   as the “pierced one,”
   that we can be delivered from guilt,
   freed from condemnation,
    enjoy peace, or
     walk comfortably with God.
 
Reader, did you ever look on Jesus
  as pierced by your sins?
 
Did you ever mourn for him, and
   grieve that you had caused him such pain?
 
If so, you felt a hatred to sin,
  a desire to be entirely freed from it, and
  to be entirely devoted to him,
     who died for you, and rose again.
 
O to look to Jesus today!
O to see him by faith hanging on the accursed tree!
O to be meted down in love and grief before him,
  and to be filled with self loathing,
   self abhorrence, and deeply humility.
 
Fellowship with Christ in his sufferings will embitter sin,
  and wean from the world.
 

My sins have done the deed,

Have torn his sacred flesh,

And made him often bleed,

And crucified afresh;

The man I pierced, ‘tis he, ‘tis he

I look, I feel him die - for me.

 
James Smith 1849