ALL DIE!

ALL DIE!

As we continue to reflect on the Cross and what Jesus did for us when He
died for us, I share with you a story from C. J. Mahaney's new book,
LIVING THE CROSS CENTERED LIFE -- KEEPING THE GOSPEL THE MAIN THING
(published by Multnomah).

Mahaney writes: "In World War II, Ernest Gordon was a British captive in
a Japanese prison camp by the River Kwai in Burma, where the POWs were
forced to build a 'railroad of death' for transporting Japanese troops
to the battlefront. They were tortured, starved, and worked to the point
of exhaustion. Nearly 16,000 died.

Gordon survived the horrors of that experience and wrote about it in a
monumental work, THROUGH THE VALLEY OF THE KWAI, published in 1962 (and
later made into the movie TO END ALL WARS). He described one occasion
when, at the end of a work day, the tools were being counted before the
prisoners returned to their quarters. A guard declared that a shovel was
missing. He began to rant and rave, demanding to know which prisoner had
stolen it.

Working himself into a paranoid fury, he ordered whoever was guilty to
step forward and take his punishment. No one did.

'All died!' the guard shrieked. 'All die!' He cocked his rifle and aimed
at the prisoners. At that moment, one man stepped forward. Standing at
attention he calmly declared, 'I did it!"

The Japanese guard at once clubbed the prisoner to death. As his friends
carried away his lifeless body, the shovels in the tool shed were
recounted -- only to reveal that there was no missing shovel."

Mahaney goes on to say: "Imagine, if you can, the effect upon his fellow
prisoners this man's substitutionary sacrifice for them . . . Unlike
the situation of those prisoners staring into the cocked and loaded gun
of a deranged guard, you and I do not face death from a fellow sinner.
What we face is the righteous threat of furious wrath from a holy God.
THAT is the threat faced by all who have gone astray, by each one who
has turned to his own way. In our case, the shovel is missing; there is
in fact a great deal more that's missing. We are indeed guilty of sin
and deserving punishment.

BUT . . . the innocent ONE, the holy One -- God the Son -- stepped
forward to die for the rest of us. On that Cross the Servant suffered
FOR sinners like you and me, BECAUSE of sinners like you and me -- and
as the SUBSTITUTE for sinners like you and me. He takes the punishment
that you and I richly deserve."

And my friend, HE DID IT ALL FOR YOU and ME! Hallelujah! What a Savior.

"Man of Sorrows!" what name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
IN MY PLACE condemned He stood --
Sealed MY pardon with His blood;
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Guilty, vile and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
FULL ATONEMENT! can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die,
"It is finished!" was His cry;
Now in heav'n exalted high:
Hallelujah! what a Savior.

When HE comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! what a Savior.

Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)

Good words to consider today and throughout these days of preparation
for Easter.

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