THE SUFFERING SAVIOR

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’

—Mark 15:34

It wasn’t the nails driven through His hands and feet; it wasn’t the crown of thorns that pierced His brow; it wasn’t the stripes which mangled His back which caused the Lord to die. It was not the mere physical pain and agony of the cross that caused the chief part of the Redeemer’s suffering. It was the almost intolerable load of the imputed sins of millions upon millions, as the stars in Heaven and the sand on the seashore in number. It was the tremendous outpouring of the wrath of God into His holy soul; it was the hiding of His Father’s face, and the pangs of hell that pierced the Savior’s soul. Our suffering Savior drank the cup of the wrath of God to the very dregs, when our vile, dreadful, and horrible sins were laid upon Him! “Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him, and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His soul an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:4, 10). Let this truth be your humble meditation this day and always!

—Pastor S. Henry