Last night, during youth, we discussed the fact that “Nothing is free.” One should realize that when a gift is received, although it did not cost the recipient, it was given at a price. This is especially true of a Christian’s salvation. Although it can not be earned or bought, it was provided at a price. Jesus suffered both physically and spiritually to provide redemption for God’s estranged people. Notice three ways he suffered to purchase salvation.Christ suffered during his earthly life. Wayne Grudem affirms, “In a broad sense the penalty Christ bore in paying for our sins was suffering in both his body and soul throughout his life…His whole life in a fallen world involved suffering.” We certainly see this at the beginning of His earthly ministry when He is tempted by Satan for forty days in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Many believers have been also comforted by the writings of the author of Hebrews who assures believers that Jesus sympathizes with human weakness because of what he endured during his time on earth. He states, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
A second way salvation was purchased was through the physical pain of the cross. According to Grudem, “Death by crucifixion was one of the most horrible forms of execution ever devised by man.” A physician in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1986 explained,
“Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows…However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves…Muscle cramps and paresthesias of the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort. As a result, each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring and lead eventually to asphyxia.”
A third and lesser know way Christ suffered involved the pain of bearing sin. According to Grudem, “More awful than the pain of physical suffering that Jesus endured was the psychological pain of bearing the guilt for our sin.” Our sins were placed upon Christ. Isaiah 53:6 affirms, “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Grudem explains, “In the same way in which Adam’s sins were imputed to us, so God imputed our sins to Christ; that is, he thought of them as belonging to Christ, and since God is the ultimate judge and definer of what really is in the universe, when God thought of our sins as belonging to Christ then in fact they actually did belong to Christ.”
These biblical truths should cause us to be grateful not just because salvation is free, but because of what it cost our Lord. John 3:16 is one of the most well known verses in all of Scripture, but has a word within it that is often overlooked. The word “so” emphasizes that God’s love for the world is “so” great that he bankrupted heaven and sent His son to die so that we might have eternal life. May the cost of salvation move believers hearts toward worship.
Grudem, Wayne. The Atonement. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. 571-574.
