“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53.10.)
Introduction. Myriads of eyes behold the starry orbs. But there is one great event that attracts more admiration: the death of Christ. Upon Christ, the myriad eyes of the redeemed are perpetually fixed.
(1) The Cause of Christ’s Death. He who reads the Bible, not as a mere history, but with the eye of faith, traces the death of Christ to something beyond Roman cruelty and Jewish malice. He sees the solemn decree of God fulfilled by men who were the ignorant but guilty instruments of its accomplishment. We dare not impute to God the sin, though ‘it pleased Jehovah to bruise him.’ Jesus Christ did not die to make God loving; he died because God was loving. (I) The death of Christ is traceable to God the Father in decree. This decree is the very core of predestination; this death is the foundation-stone of all sacred architecture. (II) Christ’s coming into the world to die was the effect of the Father’s will and pleasure. Herein was matchless love, that the offended Judge should permit his co-equal Son to suffer the pains of death for the redemption of a rebellious people. Faith and obedience made Abraham bind Isaac to the altar. Love constrained God to yield his only Son for our redemption. What great love was that which completed in act what Abraham did only in intention! See on the cross the bleeding victim of awakened justice! (III) There is a martyr who sings a Psalm while his limbs are burning. Picture another scene. The Saviour is weak with suffering. His soul is so sick and sad that he faints beneath a cross that many a criminal might have carried. They nail him to a tree. He utters no song of praise. Why? God cheered the martyr; he withdrew from Christ.
(2) The Reason of Christ’s Death. God is just. But he desires to pardon man. How can it be done? The Son of God shall stand in man’s place, and be offered instead of man. When you see Christ hurled upon the cross, you see the company of his elect there, in their substitute. Christ really died; but it was in the place of all believers. For sin man was condemned to live forever in hell. Christ’s grief was a valid payment for an eternity of fire. Though we owe God gratitude, we owe him no justice, for Christ took all our sins and was punished for them. Hell consists in the hiding of God’s face from sinners. God hid his face from Christ. There is no atonement except in this doctrine of substitution. Some believe that Christ satisfied for the sins of all. In that case, his dying was so ineffectual that multitudes are damned afterward. Such an atonement I despise and reject. I had rather believe in a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is efficacious for nobody, unless the will of man be joined with it. Are you afraid that you are not elect? and if not, that Christ did not die for you? This is the infallible proof of election—a sense of need and a thirst after Christ.
(3) The Effects of Christ’s Death. (I) ‘He shall see his seed.’ Men have offspring by life; Christ had an offspring by death. It is not that by his death many may be saved. “By his righteousness he shall justify many.” (II) ‘He shall prolong his days.’ He rose from the dead to die no more. (III) By his death the Father’s good pleasure was effected and prospered. This poor planet shall one day be redeemed; and all the gods shall lose their thrones and be cast out to the moles and bats.
Selection from Conclusion. “The hour approacheth when…one King shall reign.”
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