‘Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?’ With their own eyes they had seen the five thousand and the four thousand fed. They had seen how few loaves and fishes there were and how from this small supply the whole multitude had been fed, twice.
‘And do ye not remember?’ This is a powerful remedy to counter unbelief. Remember his acts, what he did on earth – not just his miracles, but his atoning death for sinners, his substitutionary death in our place. Remember his perfections, his marvellous nature, his kindness. Remember all that we see. We love to read the Gospels, to read of Christ. Remember the power of Christ on Calvary. Even as he suffered and died with the whole eternity’s punishment due to us, the punishment of millions of people that should last for ever, concentrated into six hours and heaped upon him, channelled through him. Astonishing! The old preachers used to love to speak about the two mighty rivers from heaven: the great broad, fast-flowing river of God's judgment upon sin, and the even greater fast-flowing river of God's love. How can God be just and express his justice and punish sin, and at the same time show his love, and forgive millions of people all their sin? How can he do it? The problem of God! Of course, it's not a problem with God. If God has a problem, his mind is so infinite and so great, it is solved in the fraction of an instant, and even that is an insult. It's just solved. But it’s a problem to us. The problem of God – how can he be holy and just, and forgiving and kind? Two parts of his wonderful nature to be honoured and kept. Each one is a river: his justice and his love, and the rivers meet at Calvary's cross, and they merge. The power of Christ – that he could sustain that, that he could bear that, that he could bear away so much sin. Felt in his humanity, borne by his divinity.