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Emmanuel, God with us.
No.5.
"With us." "He was numbered with the transgressors."
pp. 15 - 17
The fact that the Saviour "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows" long before He
ultimately "bore our sins in His Own body on the tree"--in other words lived out the
implications of the blessed name Emmanuel, God with us, is warp and woof of the
four Gospels. He came to reveal the Father, He came to manifest His love, He came to
seek and to save that which was lost, but the first fact to note is that in all these things,
"He came". Had he sent a messenger to reveal the Father, doubtless that revelation
would have been glorious, but it could not have partaken of the essential character of that
revelation made by Him Who is Emmanuel. We leave this phase of our study to the
reader to follow out as time permits, and pass on to other and deeper aspects of this same
great theme. The believer's hope is summed up in the word "with Him", whether it be
expressed in John 14:, I Thess. 4: or Col. 3: The great doctrine of the believer's
identification with the Saviour irradiates the central portion of the epistle to the Romans
(chapters 5:-8:) with its wondrous grace, and these blessed fruits of Emmanuel's land
must yet be examined and enjoyed. Before all this, however, one solemn aspect of
Emmanuel's association with us as sinners needing salvation, demands consideration.
Before ever we could think of "reckoning" ourselves to have "died with Christ" another
reckoning had to be made, a reckoning foreshadowed in the types of the O.T. sacrifices,
foretold in the Prophecy of Isa. 53:, and fulfilled when Christ died the Just for the unjust
that He might bring us to God.
"And with Him they crucify two thieves; the one on His right hand, and the other on
His left: And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, And He was numbered with the
transgressors" (Mark 15: 27, 28).
"When I sent you without purse . . . . . lacked ye anything? . . . . . But now, he that
hath a purse, let him take it . . . . . For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be
accomplished in Me. And He was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things
concerning Me have an end" (Luke 22: 35-37).
The preposition meta "with" that is used in Matt. 1: 23, is employed here, translated
"with" in Mark 15: 28, and "among" in Luke 22: 37.
It will be seen that the accounts given in Mark and Luke are not identical. One refers
to the actual crucifixion; and one to the events leading up to it. One is the comment of
Mark, the other the words of the Saviour Himself. Let us consider these two passages in
their historical order, and commence with Luke.
The first thing that we observe is that the quotation of Isa. 53: made by Luke is
flanked on either side with the word "temptation".
"Ye are they which have continued with (meta) Me in My temptations . . . . . Satan
hath desired to have thee."
"Pray that ye enter not into temptation" (Luke 22: 28, 31, 40, 46).