The Sufferings of Christ
First in a four-part series of devotionalsby Northcote Deck
"Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."
1 Peter 1:10 and 11
A dozen times we find the death of Christ mentioned doctrinally. Twice as often we find the cross on which He died. Three times as often the blood of Christ is mentioned, the great cleansing agent. I wonder whether we speak enough of the sufferings that accompanied that death. Peter brought them to our notice. Seven times in his short epistle he speaks either of the sufferings of Christ or that Christ suffered. We have the same strange note in Isaiah 53, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed."
We think much and rightly so of the death of Christ, but I do not think we remember enough the suffering that accompanied that death. In our thinking we must not limit those sufferings to the six hours upon the cross on the great hill, or even to what we call Passion Week. Those sufferings long anticipated His death upon the cross. I read in Hebrews 12:3 a command that I want to obey this morning: "For consider (or reckon up carefully) Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself." That is a command we want to obey; and the reason is given, "lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds," (as so many Christians become). That gainsaying, of course, was more in His public ministry, for constantly men sought to catch the Saviour in His talk.
Long before the public ministry, however, that contradiction of sinners began, for every sinner was a contradiction of all that Jesus Christ stood for in His purity and holiness. We read in Hebrews 1 that "thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity," and that must have been from a child. Strange to say, when he was growing up, having been born in Bethlehem by prophecy, God's ordination was he should live and grow and work in wicked Nazareth -- a place so evil that Nathaniel says in surprise to Philip, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"
But that Holy One emerged after thirty years in Nazareth still holy, harmless, undefiled. Think how he must have suffered surrounded by evil men, evil deeds and evil talk, and at that time apparently not able in the will of God to rebuke it. When finally our Lord does rebuke evil in Nazareth after the ministry begins, they're so incensed that they lead Him out to the brow of the hill to cast Him down. Think then how the Saviour suffered those years of toil in Nazareth from the wickedness of men around Him - everyone of them an affront to His holiness.
Think also how He suffered in sympathy. Six times we read: "He had compassion on the multitude." He groans over the grave of Nazareth. He weeps
with Mary over the death of a brother. He weeps over Jerusalem. He was always touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And yet think how he must have suffered in sympathy those years in Nazareth surrounded by the sick and the lame, the halt and the blind. Imagine this mighty Person with all the power of God residing in Him, able to work miracles in a moment, yet watching a poor blind man grope his way up that winding street of Nazareth, not yet free to say a word about it, to do a thing to help the man. Picture Him on the hills around Nazareth as some poor leper goes by crying out dolefully, "Unclean, unclean." With a word this blessed Son of God could have cleansed him and healed him as He later did, but He wasn't free yet or able to do so in the will of God, for the first beginning of miracles came at Cana of Galilee. So please don't limit the sufferings of Christ to His public life later on.
I read also in Peter how He suffered, being tempted. Because He suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted. That doesn't mean that He just submitted to being tempted; He suffered in the process. There was in Him nothing to respond to temptation, of course, but the first temptation cost Him forty days and forty nights fasting in the wilderness. He had a human body like ours that needed strength and food. There He rebuked and defeated the Devil as we must always do by quoting the mighty Word of God. We read significantly: "he departed from Him for a season." You can be sure it wasn't for a very long season. I feel sure that in all His public ministry Jesus was being assaulted by that great Prince of Darkness, moment by moment seeking to lead Him out of the will of God.
Then, of course, there are the physical sufferings which pale before other moral sufferings to my mind. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, our stripes are upon Him. John tells of what He suffered during His trial. I read how they came to arrest Him. He says: "Whom seek ye?" And they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus saith unto them, "I am, I am." And as soon as He had said, "I am." they went backward and fell to the ground. There was such an emanation of might and majesty from the Saviour that they fell backwards. Then I read how they bound Him, and smote Him., and struck Him., and tried to scourge Him. And the soldiers mocked Him and crowned Him with thorns. But I still feel those physical sufferings were little compared with the awful moral sufferings when God made His soul an offering for sin, when He had to be numbered with the transgressors, when He had to take His place as if He were a sinner on our behalf.
Those awful sufferings are voiced by the cry from the cross. Notice the first cry was to His Father: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Avert the judgment that should fall upon these men as they nailed Him to the cross. And I think God heard that prayer, and that centurion cries at the end: "Surely this man was the Son of God." But the Saviour suffered there, and when dying He committed Himself to His Father. At the time of the evening sacrifice, when the official act is taking place and He is being made sin for us He cries: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" In our royal family in England, in family life the King is "father" to his children; but in public it's "Your Majesty." And when He was partaking of this great official act, being made sin, dying, He cries officially, to God, no longer Father, "My God., why hast thou forsaken me?" The only word not of desolation was the word "my" - still His God. And so He died.
I wonder if you have ever wondered why He died by crucifixion - the most painful, agonizing, lingering, dreadful death men had ever invented. Why was that chosen by a loving Father - His Father in heaven - that He should die "even the death of the cross?" It had probably been invented when the 22nd Psalm was written by David. The Jewish way of death was certainly a far more merciful way of death. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was only able to utter two or three sublime sentences before he fell in sleep. Why, if He had to die, didn't a loving Father let His Son die quickly as by stoning? I think the basic reason was that if He had died by stoning the Jews would have killed Him, but they were not able to. They were not allowed to. It seems in the justice of God that this had to be a voluntary sacrifice. I know potentially they slew the Lord of glory. He would have died in their hands if something else hadn't happened. But as He said so clearly again and again "No one taketh my life from me; I lay it down of myself." And so at the time of the evening sacrifice He does dismiss His spirit.
He died a voluntary death; He did not die of a broken heart. That must be merely sentiment for had He died of a broken heart our sins would have killed Him. Matthew, Mark and Luke all carefully record how at the very end Jesus cried with a loud voice. Crucifixion leads to death by exhaustion, but He wasn't exhausted. And so He dismissed His spirit and died in our stead. Crucifixion is the only death I know of where both would be possible: potentially killed by men, He still died of His own free will.
What is the application for you and me? Paul's greatest aim is not to found churches or evangelize provinces, or write immortal epistles. Paul's supreme ambition was, "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." The fellowship of His sufferings will go along with that deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul again says, "you will remember, "I fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ, for His body's sake, the church." That had nothing to do with the atonement. That came in service for the Saviour. There is a long catalogue of those sufferings given in II Corinthians 5. Three times, a night and a day upon the deep; three times he was shipwrecked; he was scourged, and left for dead. Strange, Luke tells so little in the Acts. Paul gives a larger revelation. And, my friends, as we seek to know Jesus Christ - that is still our supreme ambition - and as we know more and more of the power of His resurrection, it's incumbent upon us that we shall have something more to do for the fellowship of His sufferings.
And we can be like Peter, who says, "But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy." God make us ready and willing for the will of God, whatever it costs. God's will - nothing less and nothing more, nothing else. And we shall only know Him. I believe that will be the biggest reward in heaven when we get up there: the deepening knowledge of Jesus Christ. I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. And that will only come a good deal by the way of His sufferings, being partakers, and bearing a little hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
We're getting too soft these days. We want too many luxuries. These things are not essential, but what is essential is that we should go through with God. Let us be a little more grateful as we realize the lifelong suffering that beset our Saviour from boyhood to manhood and to the cross: suffering from the contradiction of sinners; suffering from the lack of being able to meet the need of the sick; suffering when tempted by the devil; suffering at the hands of men; but more than all these, suffering at the hands of a holy God, when He was made sin for us.
God grant we may be willing to have a larger share of the sufferings of Christ in our ministry. Everyone of us has some ministry, every one; whether you go abroad or not that's not the point. The point is, you're enlisted. There's no release from this war. And you and I must know more and more, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, of hardness for His sake.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register