The
Panoramic Scene Above the Holy City
We
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive
the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be
good or bad. 2 Cor. 5:10.
Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view appear the
scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and the successive steps in the great
plan of redemption. The Savior’s lowly birth; His early life of simplicity
and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation in the wilderness;
His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven's most precious blessings; the
days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the nights of prayer and watching
in the solitude of the mountains; the plottings of envy, hate, and malice
which repaid His benefits; the awful, mysterious agony in Gethsemane beneath
the crushing weight of the sins of the whole world; His betrayal into the
hands of the murderous mob; the fearful events of that night of horror--the
unresisting prisoner, forsaken by His best-loved disciples, rudely hurried
through the streets of Jerusalem; the Son of God exultingly displayed before
Annas, arraigned in the high priest's palace, in the judgment hall of Pilate,
before the cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned
to die--all are vividly portrayed.
And now
before the swaying multitude are revealed the final scenes--the patient Sufferer
treading the path to Calvary; the Prince of heaven hanging upon the cross;
the haughty priests and the jeering rabble deriding His expiring agony; the
supernatural darkness; the heaving earth, the rent rocks, the open graves,
marking the moment when the world's Redeemer yielded up His life.
The awful
spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his subjects have
no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each actor recalls the
part which he performed. . . . All behold the enormity of their guilt. They
vainly seek to hide from the divine majesty of His countenance, outshining
the glory of the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Savior’s
feet, exclaiming: "He died for me!"
From Maranatha - Page 344
