8
Steps to Christ
all that were oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages where
there was not a moan of sickness in any house, for He had passed
through them and healed all their sick. His work gave evidence of His
divine anointing. Love, mercy, and compassion were revealed in every
act of His life; His heart went out in tender sympathy to the children
[12]
of men. He took man’s nature, that He might reach man’s wants. The
poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach Him. Even little
children were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His knees
and gaze into the pensive face, benignant with love.
Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always
in love. He exercised the greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention in
His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly
spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He
did not censure human weakness. He spoke the truth, but always in
love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but tears were in
His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem,
the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the way, the truth,
and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them
with pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful
care for others. Every soul was precious in His eyes. While He ever
bore Himself with divine dignity, He bowed with the tenderest regard
to every member of the family of God. In all men He saw fallen souls
whom it was His mission to save.
Such is the character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the
character of God. It is from the Father’s heart that the streams of divine
compassion, manifest in Christ, flow out to the children of men. Jesus,
the tender, pitying Saviour, was God “manifest in the flesh.”
1 Timothy
3:16
.
[13]
It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He
became “a Man of Sorrows,” that we might be made partakers of
everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved Son, full of grace and truth,
to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a world marred and
blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the curse.
He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the
angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death. “The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are
healed.”
Isaiah 53:5
. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane,
upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the