Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

April 8– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“If you cry out when the wood is green, what will you do when it’s dry?” 

—Luke 23:31

 

One interpretation of this saying is, “If the innocent Substitute for sinners suffers like this, what will be done when the sinner himself falls into the hands of an angry God?” When God saw Jesus in the sinner’s place, he did not spare him; and when he finds the sinner without Christ, he will not spare him either. O sinner, Jesus was led away by his enemies to the cross, so why do you think you will escape being dragged away by fiends to the place appointed for you. Jesus was deserted by God, and if he was only a substitute for sinners, how much more will God desert you, since you are an actual sinner?”

“My God, my God, why have you turned away from me,” Jesus shrieked. But, dear sinner, won’t you cry out in the same way? And when you do, he will answer back, “Because you have disregarded my counsel and would not listen to my warnings and reproofs.” O sinner, if God did not spare his own Son from his justice, then how much less will he spare you!

Jesus was also spit upon, so what kind of shame will be yours! It is impossible to summarize all the sorrows he endured; therefore, it is impossible for me to tell you what oceans of grief will roll over your spirit if you die as you are now— in your sins without Christ.

By the agonies of Christ, by his wounds and by his blood, don’t bring upon yourself the wrath to come! Trust in the Son of God, and you will never die. [M&E]