Suffering

Isaiah 53

What do you understand by the word Suffered?

That throughout His life on earth, but especially at the end of it, He bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race, so that by His suffering, as the only expiatory sacrifice, He might redeem our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and might obtain for us God=s grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

Why did He suffer under Pontius Pilate as His judge?

That He, being innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and thereby set us free from the judgment of God which, in all its severity, ought to fall upon us.

Is there something more in His having been crucified than if He had died some other death?

Yes, for by this I am assured that He took upon Himself the curse which lay upon me, because the death of the cross was cursed by God.

I. God Understands Human Suffering Personally

A. Christ entered the human situation with all its complications, challenges, and dangers. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)

B. The burdens of redemption fell on Him Actively and Passively. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:3-4)

C. The substitutionary atonement became possible through Christ=s suffering. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)

D. Peter summarized the atonement. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

E. Paul focused the Expiatory character of the atonement through the suffering Savior. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:24-25)

II. Christ Suffered in History for His People

A. The Bible records that on a particular time in history the innocent Jesus was convicted in an earthly court. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. (John 19:13-16)

B. Human courts condemned the innocent, demonstrating the poverty of their hearts and the corruption of their courts. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. (Acts 4:27-28)

C. The trial and conviction were essential parts of the substitutionary atonement accomplished on the cross. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

D. In the condemnation and suffering of Jesus, our accounts have been settled. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

A. Only the suffering and death of Jesus could satisfy the eternal righteousness and truth of God. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)

B. No alternative would satisfy the full measure of justice without compromising eternal principles of righteousness. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

C. That Christ endured our trials leads believers to hope. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)