Light Through Darkness
291
the Saviour, wearied with the stubbornness and ingratitude of men,
might have drawn back from the sacrifice of Calvary. In Gethsemane
the cup of woe trembled in His hand. He might even then have wiped
the blood-sweat from His brow and have left the guilty race to perish in
their iniquity. Had He done this, there could have been no redemption
for fallen men. But when the Saviour yielded up His life, and with His
expiring breath cried out, “It is finished,” then the fulfillment of the
plan of redemption was assured. The promise of salvation made to
the sinful pair in Eden was ratified. The kingdom of grace, which had
before existed by the promise of God, was then established.
Thus the death of Christ—the very event which the disciples had
looked upon as the final destruction of their hope—was that which
made it forever sure. While it had brought them a cruel disappointment,
it was the climax of proof that their belief had been correct. The event
that had filled them with mourning and despair was that which opened
the door of hope to every child of Adam, and in which centered the
future life and eternal happiness of all God’s faithful ones in all the
ages.
Purposes of infinite mercy were reaching their fulfillment, even
through the disappointment of the disciples. While their hearts had
been won by the divine grace and power of His teaching, who “spake
as never man spake,” yet intermingled with the pure gold of their love
for Jesus, was the base alloy of worldly pride and selfish ambitions.
Even in the Passover chamber, at that solemn hour when their Master
was already entering the shadow of Gethsemane, there was “a strife
among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.”
Luke
22:24
. Their vision was filled with the throne, the crown, and the glory,
while just before them lay the shame and agony of the garden, the
judgment hall, the cross of Calvary. It was their pride of heart, their
thirst for worldly glory, that had led them to cling so tenaciously to
[349]
the false teaching of their time, and to pass unheeded the Saviour’s
words showing the true nature of His kingdom, and pointing forward
to His agony and death. And these errors resulted in the trial—sharp
but needful—which was permitted for their correction. Though the
disciples had mistaken the meaning of their message, and had failed
to realize their expectations, yet they had preached the warning given
them of God, and the Lord would reward their faith and honor their
obedience. To them was to be entrusted the work of heralding to all