Daniel 9:26

Shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself.

“Cut off, but not for Himself”

The Messiah here mentioned is the great and only God, who, in reference to His office as the anointed Saviour, was called Messiah, and also Christ. He is said to be “cut off, but not for Himself.” His being “cut off” denotes His being made a sacrifice. His being “cut off,” but “not for Himself,” implies His being made a sacrifice for us--that is, as our substitute. In no other way can justice be appeased; in noother way can sins be forgiven. The expression implies that He died as a sacrifice for the general good, and as a vicarious sacrifice. Christ died to make an atonement for our sins; and without that atonement we could never have been saved. (W. Durham.)

For the Sake of Others

On the side of some mighty tower you may see often a fragile rod. The rod saves the tower. It directs the vague, all-destroying electric flame of which the stormy air is full harmlessly into the earth. Such a lightning-rod is every righteous man to the city or class in which he lives. His one desire is to win some wondrous good for his fellow-men. That is what Christ did for all the world, and we are true Christians in as far as we are consciously trying to do for others the work of Christ. We cannot at the best do much we have only one life, one second that is in God’s eternity to do it in, but that becomes majestic when it is regarded as part of one mighty whole. (Dean Farrar.)

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