The Man on the Cross — E.A. Johnston

Sin is a robber and a thief, for it robs God of his great glory, and it steals a person's time, and squanders it in light of eternity. If you could only see, friend, what sin is, what sin really is, it's the devil wearing a fun Halloween mask, with a dagger in his hand, with your blood on it.

Sin leaves a stain wherever it occurs. The blackness of sin is a homewrecker, a life-ruiner, and a stealer of one's integrity. Sin has a laugh in its aftermath, and it mocks and echoes all the way to the chambers of hell.

The Futility of Wasted Opportunities

Listen, friend. Listen to me, young person. You only have one life to live. How you live it will determine where you spend eternity. How I used to squander my time on golf courses all over this country, I weep now over the lost opportunities that will never make a mark on eternity, because of my willful wasting of the time God gave me chasing a little white ball in the game called golf.

Golf stands for golden opportunities lost forever. I could have spent that time in prayer or in gospel witness, but instead I selfishly spent it on me for my own amusement. A man goes through life blind to spiritual things, in a worldly pursuit of empty things that don't add up to a hill of beans in eternity.

Living for Worldly Goods and Passing Pleasure

A man drifts along in life with a mundane purpose and selfish ambition to accumulate as much of this world's goods as he can. Why? To leave it to another to squander aimlessly as well. A man lives unto himself and gives no service or sacrifice to the God who made him.

He lives for the moment, tasting the pleasures of life as he glides down the stream of time, enjoying the scenery of the frolicking waves, until he comes to the roaring cataract of death where he tumbles over that last waterfall in a cascade into eternity.

Eternity he is quite unprepared for. Over he goes, down he falls, to a silent coffin in the ground. The thud of the dirt clouds as they fall on that casket are reminders of what empty things he pursued in life.

Oh, why, friend, would you want to squander your life in sin and self-gratification? It's an empty hole with no lasting satisfaction. King Solomon lamented later in life. Then I looked on all the works that my hand had wrought and on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Choosing Eternal Worth Over Earthly Ambition

Why have you chosen the path you are on? What drives you to stay in the career you chose for yourself? What are the things that make you get up out of bed in the morning? Are they things that will perish with the earth and one day be burned up?

Or are you living for things of eternal worth? What is your life, friend? But a vapor that appears for a little while, and then it's gone, gone, gone. God in his mercy has kept his heavenly bloodhound on your trail to woo you, to win you, to turn you to the Christ of the gospel, the Christ who is the only remedy and refuge for sin.

The Man on the Cross as the Only Refuge

Apart from him, there is only a dank, cold grave and then a burning, hot hell of infinite torments that awaits you, beckons you, if you continue to stay the course you are on. Oh, oh, look at that scene on that hill up yonder.

Do you see him? Do you see that man on the cross? Look at that man on the cross as he hangs there. He says, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Look at that man on the cross as he hangs there, suspended in air with his outstretched arms.

He is ready to receive you, but are you ready to receive him? He says, And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Look, dear sinner, look, dear sinner, friend, look at the man on the cross.

The Blood of Christ and the Forgiveness of Sin

It is the Lord Jesus Christ. See his nail-pierced hands? Blood oozes from those hands. There is a hymn that captures this terrible scene in all its vivid colors. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

That is your story, friend. You stand guilty, stained with sin, separated from God himself. Your only hope is in that man, that man on the cross, the Savior from sin. Look at him there as he lifts his noble head with that thorny crown and cries, It is finished.

Receiving Christ, Mercy, and Pardon

Just receive him, and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you may be his, resting in those outstretched arms, ready to receive you. Are you ready to receive him? Cast your burdens down at his feet and receive mercy and pardon for sin.