Suffering Savior
Isaiah 53:5–6 (ESV): 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
We must understand our position in man’s relationship with God. Sin is what separates us from the Father. God can have absolutely nothing to do with sin. The sin that the people of the world continue to perpetuate has caused them to be under the wrath of God. God is perfect love but God is also perfect justice. The mercy of God is His long suffering with us as every day, is a new gift in which we can accept Jesus in our hearts and become children of God. When we look at the above verses it is a prophecy about Jesus. Jesus is our suffering savior because there must be justice for our iniquities. Jesus takes the punishment for all our sins because we cannot pay the price. It was on that Good Friday that Jesus went to the cross and the wrath of God was poured out onto Him. Our redemption is attained because Jesus is the perfect lamb sacrificed to God.
Therefore the wrath of God was quenched on that day. Our relationship with God was secured for us. God gave us a way to find our way back to Him. We must understand that the wrathof God will be unleashed again. This has been told to us in the book of Revelation. You can speak to a lot of different people and most will agree that at some point this world has to come to an end. They may not believe in God but it is not hard to see this world passing away. The truth of the Gospel is that God has given us a way to eternal life or a way to the lake of fire.
This is what makes the Gospel so amazing. The suffering that Jesus went through on our behalf is the greatest act of love that this world has ever seen. Jesus came down from the throne in heaven and walked this earth as a man. He taught us how to be a man of God. He taught us what really matters in this world. When His time had come He went to the cross for us so that we may be adopted as children of God.
Romans 8:15–17 (ESV): 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
There are many after effects of Jesus’s death on the cross. One of those is our adoption into the family of God. We are no longer under condemnation but we are under grace. We can now cry Abba because we have had our place in the Kingdom family restored. We become fellow heirs with Christ. However,suffering will always be a part of this world until it is redeemed. The Gospel is offensive to many people and it always has been. Jesus was killed because of the Gospel. The list of Christian martyrs is long and growing every single day. It should never dampen our zeal for Jesus and our preaching of the Gospel. This should never stop the joy we have because of what Jesus did for us.