Atonement
In Ireland, a busload of miners was on their way home from the mines. It was a particularly cold day, windy, with just enough icy rain to make the road down the mountain especially dangerous. The miners were all ready for warm soup and a good mug of beer. The bus driver, however, was understandably nervous about the weather and the conditions under which he had to navigate the unwieldy bus on the ice in the wind. They were driving down a narrow road that wound around the hill, so that on one side was the sheer mountain face, on the other a drop into the valley.
As the driver came around a curve, some distance ahead of him, sitting in the middle of the road was a young boy, playing in the snow, his back to the bus. The bus driver had only a few seconds in which to make a decision what he must do. If he hit the breaks hard enough to avoid the child, he would send the bus into a skid in the ice, which would either land it over the cliff edge or into the rock wall, surely killing some if not all of the miners in his care. If he used the breaks only enough to slow and not skid, he would not be able to break in time to avoid hitting, and surely killing, the little boy. The bus driver had to decide.
As the bus came to a slow grinding halt, the bus driver leapt from the seat and went barreling out the doors. Some of the miners followed after him. Several yards behind, in the snow, lay the body of the child. Dead. The bus driver had bent over the little limp form and turned it up, cradling it in his arms. The miners gathered round and removed their hats, all speechless.
The little boy was the bus driver's son.
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H. A. Ironside once told the following:
"One of the first gospel illustration that ever made a real impression upon my young heart was simple story that I heard a preacher tell when I was less than nine years old. It was of pioneers who were making their way across one of the central states to a distant place that had been opened up for homesteading. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was necessarily slow. One day they were horrified to note a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely, and was coming toward them rapidly. They had crossed a river the day before but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames would be upon them. One man only seemed to have an understanding as to what should be done. He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a space was burned over, the whole company moved back upon it. As the flames roared on toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror. "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames can reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"
On Him Almighty vengeance fell,
Which would have sunk a world to hell.
He bore it for a chosen race,
And thus becomes our Hiding Place.
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The fires of God's judgment burned themselves out on Him, and all who are in Christ are safe forever, for they are now standing where the fire has been.
- Robert G. Lee, SERMONIC LIBRARY, pp. 105-06.
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A father and his young son were viewing a parade in London, England. Because of the chilling wind, they stepped inside a small store and watched through the window. In the course of time a regiment of British troops marched by, and the man exclaimed, "My, aren't those Redcoats pretty!" But the little boy replied, "They aren't red, they are white. If you don't believe me, just squat down here and look." Just to prove the little fellow was wrong, his Daddy got down on his knees and looked out the window. To his amazement the coats were not red; they looked white.
What had happened was this. There was a red band of glass around the storefront window, and at the height of that the boy was looking out he was viewing the parade through a red band of glass. When you look at a red object through a red piece of glass, the red object loses it red color to your eyes. It appears white.
The same thing is true in salvation. When God looks at you through the red blood of Jesus your scarlet sins appear white. This is blood atonement.
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Many years ago I read an interesting story about the late D. L. Moody witnessing to a well-known judge. At first Moody was reluctant to witness to the man, because the judge was highly educated while Moody was an uneducated shoe clerk. But at the Judge's wife's insistence he finally relented and agrees to visit the judge in his private chamber.
Now the judge was an Unitarian and did not believe in the deity or the atonement of Christ. Mr. Moody entered the judge's inner office and the conversation was brief. Before he left he asked the judge to promise that if he were ever converted to tell him about it.
In less than a years time the judge was saved. Moody found out about it and went back to see the man reminding him of his promise. The judge said, "One night, when my wife was at a prayer meeting, I began to grow uneasy and miserable. I did not know what was the matter with me, but finally I retired before my wife came home. I could not sleep all that night. I got up early, told my wife that I would eat no breakfast and went down to the office. I told the clerks they could take a holiday and shut myself up in the inner office. I kept growing more and more miserable, and finally I got down and asked God to forgive me of my sins. But I would not say "for Jesus' sake," for I was an Unitarian and did not believe in the atonement. I kept praying God forgive my sins, but no answer came. At last in desperation I cried, "O God, for Christ' sake forgive my sins, and I found peace at once. - Strauss
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A missionary was speaking to a group of fishermen in a little village on the coast of Labrador. He had told of Christ's death on the cross and was trying to get the message of salvation across. He wondered if he was getting anywhere, if the men understood him, so he asked a question:
"Will you tell me in your own words what Christ did when He died upon the cross?" he asked.
"Yes," said a weather-beaten fisherman, tears coursing down his face, "I just now saw what He did. He swapped places with me. He took my place on the cross and left me here in his place, a man without sin in God's sight. Oh praise His name!" (1 Peter
2:22-24). - Hazel D. Artis, Quoted by Robert G. Lee, SERMONIC LIBRARY, pp. 10-11.
"If men can get to heaven by being good then the death of Christ is the worst waste in human history." - Dr. Toussaint