A Sermon Preached by the Rev. A. N. Rowland in Union Church, Shanghai, on Sunday, March 29, 1925
He was bruised for our iniquition and by His stripes we are healed.
Ieaiah 53. 5.
Here is the Gospel in an epigram. It speaks of health without which no gospel is complete. During part of the War I was billeted with folk Whig had made the pilgrimage to Lourdes 18 times, and although this is not a way that commends itself to Tan bear witness to their spi tual health from the evidence of character and service, But the true mystery of spiritual' healing is to] bbe found in our text. It compels us to ask two questions, What is the! connexion (1) between the world's wrong and Christ's wounds and (2) between His wounds and our healing? I think we can find something of an answer along two channels—His Kingship and His Kinship.
Tt was because Jesus was! champion of the truth that—the Blows fell on Him so fast. In a world that prefers convenience to feonscience truth is in for w bad time, It is so easy to settle down with accepted ways, to~drift with] the crowd on the path that is paved with prophet's tombs. We have to} be disturbed, to have a standard raised that shows how much has to de put right and made good. It is the policy of the world und the temptation of the church to block the way of the pioneers and if possible to break their hearts. This fact made one of the beams of the Saviour's cross. His teaching was too uncompromising,—penetrating, disconcerting, revolutionary to win any immediate response but opposition, Dominion or Death And he was more proud of this capacity for vicarious suffer (Phil. 3.10). "This is one of the great laws of human life under which Christ came, and He lifted it means of linking humanity to) himself, and took the title "Son of Man" in the name of Kinship. As Paul took on him the care of the churches Christ shouldered the sin world. Henceforth all the of mankind pass through So far for the wounds that fell on Christ, but what of the healing that comes to us? How is there medicinal value in his cross? How Jean it restore us to the "health of Jour countenance" and to the pence Jand fellowship of God? Consider! the bearing on our minds of the Kinship and the Kingship of Christ (1) We cannot get away from the fact that Jesus was hurt on our account, and when we think of it, makes us pause, it shames our conselenee and kill" our pride, Two Kinds of Pain Suppose God's laws were otherwise and evil stayed with the wrongdoer which seems*to ux more just. Ths would stultify love's redemption to begin with. Then pain would be Punishment (bena) as the comfort~ ers of Job declared it to be. But! punishment only hardens. pain that others suffer on our account that wakens shame and humility and works for purification, When it is focussed in the eraas of And the opposition went to the utmost limit in the case of Jesus, for in the kingdom of truth He] claimed to be King. His standard is the test of all righteousness and all religion. 'There was no alternative but to put. Him out of the way, unless men were willing to accept His way. The cross represents the stringency of Christ'
Tu the 17th century certain Jesuit] fathern, wore in high power in Peking, but when it came to an issue} between Imperial and Papal authority they were expelled, and the cause of the Pope became a call to martyr dom. Real Kings must reign or di Charles of England, Louis of Franco, Nicholas of Russia were executed because their very existence was a Christ it brings the consciousness! of sin.
Henry Drummond said that in. his Jown generation he thought the Holy Ghost was convincing men of right-focusness rather than of sin. Bu either of these convictions soon facts upon the other. The Methodis! Revival was primarily a conviction of sins but it led to philanthropic: and missionary activity. On the other hand there was a sense of righteousness the 19th century through fresh' contact with the human Christ, ud that in turn has led to. new:
Jeanscience of social sin, whether in industrial conditions or international relations. It is when we realize how. many suffer in a civilization that. Denefits the few that we basin to menace.
From this point of, view Jesus Christ was no mero vietion His! cross is the inverted symbol of throne, He pressed the issue to a crown of thorns because He must have @ crown of some sort, whether of dominion or death. Meek and) lowly though He was, yet He entered Jerusalem as a King.
Tt was Kingship that brought Him His since it has bees!
(2) That is the victorious side of the cross, but there ix also the! vicarious side. "He was wounded for our transgressions." He was struck at through His Kinship with us, His wounds came through elation to us, made conscious love. It was by the grace of His companionship that a tragedy ws} turned into a gospel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.