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The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

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commandments." Going to the cross was (we speak<br />

reverently) "not as I will, but as You will" (cf. John<br />

15:10; Matthew 26:39). If "love is the fulfillment<br />

of the law" (Romans 13:10), a cross-less Christ<br />

would have transgressed the law, for refusing the<br />

cross would not have been love. "Had He failed in<br />

His test and trial, He would have been disobedient<br />

to the voice of God, and the world would have<br />

been lost" (5BC 1082, 1083).<br />

(c) <strong>The</strong> "inclination" Christ resisted was<br />

terribly strong, for it required "the strength of all<br />

His faculties to resist" it. Here was an inward<br />

"inclination" to resist. His human soul was aghast<br />

at the contemplation of the horror of the cross: "O<br />

My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from<br />

Me." So overwhelmingly strong was the<br />

"inclination" that He was "in agony ... and His<br />

sweat became like great drops of blood falling<br />

down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). As we know the<br />

inward hunger for sinful indulgence, the terrible<br />

compulsion of illicit desire, so Christ knew the<br />

inward hunger of soul for release from that cross.<br />

In reality, all our inward "inclinations" to sin are a<br />

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