Two Solemn Questions
Two portraits by the German artist Sternberg - his "Dancing Gypsy Girl" and the "Crucifixion" - are linked to one another by an unusual set of circumstances.
The pretty maiden who served as the model for the first portrait took an unusual interest in the unfinished painting of the Lord Jesus Christ final suffering. One day she commented, "He must have been a very bad man to have been nailed to a cross like that." Sternberg replied, "No, He was a good man, the best that ever lived! Indeed, He died for all men."
"Did He die for you?" asked the puzzled girl. This question made a profound impression upon the artist. He did not know the Lord Jesus as his personal Savior, and didn't understand that salvation is received by faith in Christ and His atoning death on the cross. Some time later, however, he attended a meeting of humble Christians who led him to Christ. Sternberg, his technical skill now coupled with a heart full of love and gratitude, completed his painting of the crucifixion and under it wrote the words:
This I did for Thee; what hast thou done for Me?"
It was placed in a famous gallery where a young aristocratic count named Zinzendorf saw it and was touched by the words written under it. He was a Christian but was convicted of his failure to serve the Lord. He later became the organizer of a missionary brotherhood.
I urge you to answer the gypsy girl's question,
"Did He die for you?" If He did,
"What are you doing for Him?"
"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be SAVED" (Romans. 10:9)
