"If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then
live" (Ezek. 33:10)? If they are upon us, how can we live? "For mine iniquities are … as a heavy
burden; they are too heavy for me." "The burden of them is intolerable." It is the burden itself
which cannot be borne; no one could bear his own iniquity without being sunk lower and lower,
and at last to hell, by it. It is only not felt WHEN the very elasticity of sin within us keeps us from
feeling the weight of the sin upon us, or when
the whole burden, our absolutely intolerable burden, is known to be laid upon another.

If this burden be upon us, we cannot walk in newness of life, we cannot run in the way of His
commandments, we cannot arise and shine for His glory.

"If"! But is it?

It is written:"The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." On Jesus it has been laid; on Him
who alone could bear the intolerable burden. Therefore it is not upon His justified ones who
accept Him as their Sin-bearer.

This burden is never divided. He took it all; every item, every detail of it. The scape-goat bore
"upon him" all their iniquities.

Think of every separate sin_each that has weighed down our conscience_every separate
transgression of our most careless moments, added to the unknown weight of forgotten sins of our
whole life, and all this laid upon Jesus, instead of upon us. The sins of a day are often a burden
indeed, but we are told in another type, "I have laid upon thee the YEARS of their iniquity."
Think of the years of our iniquity being upon Jesus. Multiply this by the unknown but equally
intolerable sin-burdens of all His people, and remember that "the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all," and then think what the strength of His enduring love must be which thus bare
"the sins of many."

Think of His bearing them "in his own, body on the tree," in that flesh and blood of which He
took part, with all its sensitiveness, because He would be made like unto His brethren in all things;
realize that this "bearing" was entirely suffering (for He "suffered for sins"); and then praise the
love which has not left "our sins upon us."

We cannot lay them upon Him. Jehovah has done that already, and "his work is perfect."
"Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all." "He hath done this." We have only to look up and see Him bearing the iniquity for us.
To put it still more simply, we have only to believe that the Lord has really done what He says
He has done.

Can we doubt the Father’s love to us, when we think what it must have cost Him to lay that
crushing weight on His dear Son, sparing Him not, that He might spare US instead?

The Son accepted the awful burden, but it was the Father’s hand which laid it upon Him. It was
death to Him, that there might be life to us. How the thought of our sins being "laid on him,"
should draw out our love! "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

"On Thee the Lord
My mighty sins hath laid,
And against Thee Jehovah’s sword
Flashed forth its fiery blade.
The stroke of justice fell on Thee,
That it might never fall on me."

But in this new, forgiven life, there must be growth; the command is, "desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby." Real desire must prove itself by action. By the Word we
shall grow in the knowledge of Christ. How do we come to know more of anyone whom, having
not seen, we love? Is it not by reading and hearing what he has said and written and done? How
are we to know more of Jesus ‘Christ if we are not taking the trouble to know more of His Word?

It says, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in ALL the scriptures
the things concerning himself." Let us ask that the Holy Spirit may take of these things of Jesus
and show them unto us, that we may grow in "the knowledge of the Son of God."

"The words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life" _ quickening and life-giving
words. We want to be permeated with them; we want them to dwell in us richly. Jesus Himself
has given us this quick and powerful Word of God, and our responsibility is tremendous. He has
told us distinctly what to do with it; He has said, "Search the scriptures"! Now, are we substituting
a word of our own, and merely reading them? He did not say, "Read them," but "Search." The
devil is very fond of persuading us that we have "no leisure so much as to eat," when it is a
question of Bible study.

We are solemnly responsible for the mental influences under which we place ourselves. "Take
heed what ye hear" must include take heed what ye read. "Lead us not into temptation" is "vain
repetition" when we walk straight into it.

"Let me, then, be always growing,
Never, never standing still,
Listening, learning, better knowing
Thee, and Thy most blessed will;
That the Master’s eye may trace,
Day by day, my growth in grace."