The Wednesday Word [30MAR22]

The Wounds of Jesus

by D.G. Miles McKee

 
Charles Spurgeon when preaching a sermon on the wounds of Jesus told the following story. He said,
 
‘There were two elderly monks in different cells in their monastery. They were studying the Bible together.  One of them came to faith in Jesus and he believed on Christ with a true evangelical faith. The other one was timid and could scarcely think it true; the scheme of salvation seemed so great to him he could scarcely lay hold upon it.
 
But, at last, he came to the point of death, and he sent for the other to come and sit by him, and to shut the door; because if the superior had heard of that of which they were about to speak, he might have condemned them both.
 
When the monk had sat down, the sick man began to tell how his sins lay heavy on him; the other reminded him of Jesus. “If you would be saved, brother, you must look to Jesus who hung upon the cross. His wounds must save.”
 
The dying man heard and believed.  He trusted in Christ alone.  Almost immediately afterward, the superior came in with the priests; and they began to grease him in extreme unction. This poor man tried to push them away; he wanted nothing to do with the ceremony, and as well as he could he expressed his dissent. At last, he called out in Latin, “Tu vulnera Jesu! Tu vulnera Jesu!” … ”Thy wounds, oh Jesus! thy wounds, oh Jesus!” ...  He then clasped his hands, then lifted them to heaven, fell back and died.
 
Oh, I would that many a Protestant would die with these words on their lips. There was the fullness of the gospel in them. Thy wounds, oh Jesus! Thy wounds; these are my refuge in my trouble. Oh may you be helped to believe in His wounds! They cannot fail; Christ's wounds must heal those that put their trust in Him. 
 
From the sermon, ‘The Wounds of Jesus.’ (adapted)
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, January 30, 1859, New Park Street Pulpit Volume 5.
 
This dear monk had come to know who Jesus was.  He had come to know that we are not saved by anything that we can do, but by that which the God/Man has already done for us.
 
“Tu vulnera Jesu!" We are not saved by what we have suffered, but by what Christ has endured.
“Tu vulnera, Jesu!”
 Our everlasting hope was hung upon the cross.  In His doing, dying and rising again is all our acceptance before God.
 
We are called to trust in Christ in life and in death.
Jesus, the Lamb went to Gethsemane and there sweat drops of blood.
He went on to Gabbatha to the judgment and there, from the wounds received from the crown of thorns and the beatings came streams of blood.
Then at Golgotha, on the cross, came rivers of blood.

He was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53 3).

The hymn writer wrote a beautiful verse that has refreshed the hearts of many for hundreds of years. It says;
 
‘Five bleeding wounds He bears,
Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers,
They strongly plead for me;
“Forgive him oh forgive,” they cry,
“That ransomed sinner must not die.”
 
And that’s the Gospel Truth!