Driving in the Nails — Touching God’s Scepter
By JOHN N. QUINN
OFTEN have I escorted friends to the home of the monks, situated in Brookland, a suburb of the national capital, but each time it is with a feeling of reluctance. Its altars and images, its votive lights and paintings; its monks with their woolen stockings in the summer time, and stockingless feet in winter; its catacombs and grottoes,—these things fill me with sadness, for they obscure the Christ who is not to be worshiped with men’s hands, but with men’s hearts. There is but one object in the monastery that appeals to me, and each time I go there I look at it with great interest. It is a piece of statuary portraying Christ bearing the cross to Golgotha. Each carved face is a study in itself, but that of the Roman soldier with the hammer and the nails is the most noted of all the figures. What a satanic look is on his face, what hatred, what keen enjoyment, as he anticipates his part in the awful tragedy,—a face altogether void of pity or compassion,—a face which makes one shudder to look at it! The hands clutch tightly great spikes and a heavy hammer, and one can almost hear the weighty blows which will in a few moments nail the Sinless One to the accursed tree. What a contrast between that face, expressive of satanic hatred and cruelty, and the face of Christ, who is treading the wine press alone. Sorrow, compassion, a yearning look for recognition by those whom he came to save and whose sins he is bearing in his own body to the tree, are portrayed in the face of the Man of Sorrows. Who today would drive into the hands and feet of Jesus Christ the nails of crucifixion?—Surely no one. Yet it is possible to crucify Christ afresh and put him to an open shame. He who refuses to receive Christ as a personal Saviour, is crying out, ‘Away with him! crucify him!’ Such a one is a murderer of the Son of God. By living in sin, the nails are driven anew into the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. The rejection of Jesus means the retaining of enmity, the enmity of the wicked one which nailed Christ to the cross, and the trampling underfoot of God’s infinite love. Scourging the Lord of Glory
The story is told of a man who dreamed that he saw Jesus tied to a whipping post, and a soldier was scourging him. He saw the whip in the soldier’s hand, with its thick lashes studded here and there with bits of lead, which were intended to cut into the flesh. And as the soldier brought the whip down on the bare shoulders of Jesus, the dreamer shuddered when he saw the marks and bloodstains it left behind. And when the soldier raised his hand to strike again, the dreamer rushed forward intending to stop him. As he did so the soldier turned around, and the dreamer recognized—himself. Christ knocks at the heart’s door, seeking admittance into the life. When he is admitted, he bruises enmity under his heel; he casts out the strong man with his goods, his brood of sins, and establishes God’s reign of grace, of righteousness, and of love. He puts into the hands of the believer the scepter of peace, and the follower of Jesus knows that a king reigns in righteousness. Reader, what are you doing with Jesus of Nazareth? Are you clutching tightly the nails by which you are to crucify Christ afresh? If you are rejecting him, I beseech you, ‘Be ye reconciled to God.’ Drop the nails and the hammer; ‘kiss the Son’ before his grace departs and justice takes the throne. Recognize his scepter of peace, of righteousness, and you may step out of the ‘horrible pit’ of sin to the throne of delightful Christian experience. The extended scepter welcomed Esther to the presence of the Persian king. God’s extended scepter, touched by you, will permit you to come to the throne of God’s grace, and eventually to the throne of glory. ‘Look not to self, but to Christ. He who healed the sick and cast out demons when he walked among men, is still the same mighty Redeemer. Then grasp his promises as leaves from the tree of life: ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ As you come to him, believe that he accepts you, because he has promised. You can never perish while you do this—never.’—‘Ministry of Healing,’ page 66. ‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved,’ will be the despairing cry of many who have lived in a Christian land, who have heard Christ preached, who have been urged to surrender self and sin to God, but who have turned their backs on the service of truth. Opportunities rejected will bring anguish of soul to the lost, and the wealth of the world, were it possessed, would gladly be given for one drop of the water of life. ‘Turn ye, turn ye, . . . for why will ye die?’ ‘Return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words [not works], and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously [in grace]: so will we render the calves of our lips. . . . I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.’ Hosea 14:1-4. If we have received Christ, we are not ‘children of wrath, even as others’ who reject him. But God hath ‘delivered us from the wrath to come.’ We shall have ‘boldness in the day of judgment;’ and if boldness in the day of justice, how much the more may we have boldness in the day of grace! Then come with boldness to the throne of grace. God awaits you with extended scepter. He stands ready to forgive; he will receive you as his child; he will seal you with his Spirit; and because you are in Christ, he will take you to himself, in a little while, when the heavens shall be no more, when he shall come whom you no longer crucify, but whom in your life you have crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. ‘Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.’