Jesus
did not wrestle his angry Father to the floor of heaven and take the whip out
of his hand. He did not force him to be
merciful to humanity. His death was not
the begrudging consent of God to be lenient to sinners. No, what Jesus did when he suffered and died
was the Father’s idea. It was a
breathtaking strategy, conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned
the history of the world. That is why
the Bible speaks of God’s “purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus
before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9).
Already
in the Jewish Scriptures the plan was unfolding. The prophet Isaiah foretold the sufferings of
the Messiah, who was to take the place of sinners. He said that the Christ would be “smitten by
God” in our place.
Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…All we
like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the
Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(Isaiah 53:4-6)
But
what is most astonishing about this substitution of Christ for sinners is that
it was God’s idea. Christ did not
intrude on God’s plan to punish sinners. God planned
for him to be there. One Old Testament
prophet says, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to
grief” (Isaiah 53:10).
This
explains the paradox of the New Testament.
On the one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God’s wrath
because of sin. But on the other hand,
Christ’s suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will
of the Father. So Christ cried from the
cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). And yet the Bible says that the suffering of
Christ was a fragrance to God. “Christ
loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”
(Ephesians 5:2).
Piper,
John. The Passion of Jesus Christ. Wheaton:
Crossway Books. 2004. 22-23.
