There is probably no one who doesn't want the church to be truly awake, repentant, and alive with the joy of the Lord. We know that someday it will be (after there is a great shaking, after "Elijah" has come and done his work).
But is there anyone ready to take all the sins of the church, known and hidden, upon him/herself, realizing that apart from the grace of the Savior he would be guilty of them all? Or does each one of us feel that that would be impossible; we could never fall that low. "We've been brought up right!"
If such an insightful person could be found, someone who wouldn't be praying, "Lord, aren't they awful! Please save them!" that would be a practical, corporate repentance that would do a world of good.
Someone came to the true church one time who found it in a terrible spiritual condition; yes, He must have prayed for that church; but He did something much more--He repented in the behalf of that church. He took all their sins upon Himself as though He were guilty of them all. So intimate and real was this "taking" that He "was made to be sin for [them] that [they] might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). He put Himself in each person's place, knowing all the details from their conception on. He felt each person's weakness as though it were His own. He felt the shame of his defeats, and the tearful longings for peace with God.
It was on His cross that He was "made to be sin for us, who knew no sin." It was a horrible experience of "knowing"--hell itself. He felt in His soul that He was lost forever. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a victor. "He was numbered with the transgressors" (Isa. 53:12). "He made His grave with the wicked" (vs. 9), the kind of grave that has no end to it; and He did something that no other person in 6000 years has been able to do: He felt to the full the horror of it. (Anyone else would pass out long before.)
Thank God, He has disciples who are even now learning from Him.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 10, 2006.
Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
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