The Picture of .........

Oscar Wilde wrote a fascinating novel entitled "The Picture of Dorian Grey". It tells the story of a handsome young man by the name of Dorian Grey. Impressed by his physical beauty and the innocence of his looks, an artists becomes his greatest admirer and paints a magnificent portrait of Dorian, which becomes his greatest masterpiece. As the novel progresses, Dorian is mislead into all the pleasures and lusts of life by a friend of his, Lord Henry. When Dorian first sees his own portrait he makes a wish on it that turn out to be true: Every time Dorian sins, the portrait bears signs of it, while Dorian remains the same with his youthful, handsome and innocent looks. Every sin of his disfigures the portrait more and more. if he has been mean the portrait shows a cruel leer, when he kills a man, the portrait's hands turn red with blood. Every physical effect of his sins the portrait bears until Dorian begins to loath the very sight of his own portrait.
Reading the book reminded me of Jesus on the cross. Oscar Wilde was right in pointing out that sin has its consequences; very real and evident consequences. It bears it's mark on the physical, spiritual, intellectual and social; it disfigures, it destroys.
Now see the striking parallel. Imagine that for every time you sin, Jesus is the one who suffers, his portrait becomes disfigured, his body bears the pain. Except this is no fancy or a wish coming true. It really happened, right at the cross.
There, as he hung nailed onto a tree, Jesus bore every sin mankind ever committed and will commit. There he bore the greatest pain sins causes, it causes death and separation from God. And he did it all just for you, just for me.
Want to see the potrait of Jesus on the cross? Just read the first few verses of Isaiah 53 (from The Message) :

53:1 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?

53:2 The servant grew up before God - a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.

53:3 He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum

53:4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failure

53:5 But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.

When sins seems to overwhelm, when temptation seems to overpower us, I think it would do good to go take a good, hard look at the portrait of Jesus in Isaiah 53. Dorian looked at his portrait own portrait, could bear it any longer, tried to destroy the portrait and in turn killed himself. You and I have a similar choice. Remember, the wages of sin is death.