Christ is a protecting shadow

Christ is a protecting shadow. He stands between the believing soul and divine justice, between the saint of God and the fiery darts of Satan, between the tempter and the tempted, between the tried saint and the fiery trial. Thus in Christ is fulfilled, as in Him alone it could be, the precious promise, “There shall be a Tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.” In this point of light how suitable and precious does Christ appear. We needed a shadow that could effectually interpose itself between us and the law’s loud thunder and the flaming sword of justice- that shadow is Christ. “He was made a curse for us.” He “who knew no sin was made sin (or a sin-offering) for us.” Christ threw Himself between His Church and the righteous administration of God’s moral government. Upon Him, as their Surety, fell the crushing vengeance, the consuming fire, the bitterness of death. All this He bore for us!

Come and sit down beneath His shadow, and you are safe. Not a flash can scathe you, not a spark can kindle upon you, not a dart can wound you. Christ is your “shadow from the heat,” and in simple faith and assured peace you may repose with great delight and perfect security beneath this divine-human canopy, and gaze without fear upon the lurid lightning, and listen without dread to the peeling thunder. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” ~Octavius Winslow, The Tree of Life