Handel’s Messiah was a work of musical art focusing on the death of Christ.

An intimate friend of Handel called on him just as he was composing the music for the words, “He was despised, and found him sobbing. So greatly had this passage of Isaiah 53 on the sorrow and suffering of Christ affected him because he saw how Christ died in his place to pardon his sin.

God gave Handel faith to believe on a crucified Saviour. Christ alone is the Saviour God has given us. To be saved we must trust in His death and saving work accomplished on the cross. As the brass serpent was held up before the people in the wilderness that they would be healed from the poison of the snake bites, so the crucified Lord Jesus is the One we must look unto to be saved from the guilt of sin. We are to believe the gospel of a crucified Saviour.

This is the good news of the gospel. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).