salvation

Christ’s Unknown Sufferings

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin… – 2 Corinthians 5:21

God cannot look where there is sin with any pleasure, and though as far as Jesus is personally concerned, He is the Father’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased; yet when He saw sin laid upon His Son, He made that Son cry, “My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?” It was not possible that Jesus should enjoy the light of His Father’s presence while He was made sin for us; consequently, He went through a horror of great darkness, the root and source of which was the withdrawing of the conscious enjoyment of His Father’s presence. More than that, not only was light withdrawn, but positive sorrow was inflicted…What were the pangs, which Christ endured? I cannot tell you. You have read the story of His crucifixion. Dear friends, that is only the shell, but the inward kernel who shall describe? I doubt not that the Godhead within gave a peculiar sensitiveness to the holiness of Christ’s nature, so that sin must have become even more abhorrent to Him than it would have been to a merely perfect man. His griefs are worthy to be described according to the Greek Liturgy as “unknown sufferings.” The height and depth, the length and breadth of what Jesus Christ endured no heart can guess, nor tongue can tell, nor can imagination frame; God only knows the griefs to which the Son of God was put when the Lord made to meet upon Him the iniquity of us all. To crown all there came death itself. Death is the punishment for sin…whatever over and beyond natural death was intended in the sentence, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” Christ felt. Death went through and through Him… “He became obedient to death, even to the death of the cross.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0694.cfm

Christ Volunteered to Bear Our Sins

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Father Leave a comment

…the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:6

It has been asked, Was it just that sin should thus be laid upon Christ? We believe it was rightly so, first because it was the act of Him who must do right, for “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Jehovah, He against whom the offense was committed, and who has ordained that the sin of the people spoken of should be laid upon Christ. To impugn this, then, would be to impugn the justice of Jehovah, and I pray that none of us may have the hardihood to do that. Shall the potsherd venture to strive with the potter? shall the thing formed contend with the Creator of all things? Jehovah did it; and we accept it as being right, caring not what men may think of Jehovah’s own deed. Remember, moreover, that Jesus Christ voluntarily took this sin upon Himself. It was not forced upon Him; He was not punished for the sins of others with whom He had no connection and against His will; but He His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, and while bearing it said, “No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.” It was according to His own eternal agreement made with the Father on our behalf; it was according to His own expressed desire, for He had a baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened until it was accomplished; and therefore whatever of injustice might be supposed, it is removed by the fact that He who was mainly concerned in it was Himself voluntarily placed in such a position. But I would have you remember, beloved, that there was a relationship between our Lord and His people, which is too often forgotten, but which rendered it natural that He should bear the sin of His people. Why does the text speak of our sinning like sheep? I think it is because it would call to our recollection that Christ is our Shepherd. It is not, my brethren, that Christ took upon Himself the sins of strangers. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0694.cfm

The Suffering Person

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

But 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…the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:5,6

Sin was made to meet upon the suffering person of the innocent substitute. I have said “the suffering person” because the connection of the text requires it. “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.” It is in connection with this, and as an explanation of all His grief, that it is added, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The Lord Jesus Christ would have been incapable of receiving the sin of all His people as their substitute had He been Himself a sinner; but He was, as to His divine nature, worthy to be hymned as “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;” and, as to His human nature, He was, by miraculous conception, free from all original sin, and in the holiness of His life He was such that He was the Lamb of God, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, and therefore He was on all accounts capable of standing in the room, place, and stead of sinful men. The doctrine of the text is, that Jesus Christ, who was man of the substance of his mother, and who was, nevertheless, very God of very God, most true and glorious Creator, Preserver, did stand in such a position as to take upon Himself the iniquity of all His people, remaining still Himself innocent; having no personal sin, being incapable of any, but yet taking the sin of others upon Himself…”For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0694.cfm

All Sins Put Upon Our Redeemer

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, confession of sin, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God Leave a comment

…and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:6

Sin I may compare to the rays of some evil sun. Sin was scattered throughout this world as abundantly as light, and Christ is made to suffer the full effect of the baleful rays, which stream from the sun of sin. God as it were holds up a burning glass and concentrates all the scattered rays in a focus upon Christ. That which was scattered abroad everywhere is here brought into terrible concentration; upon the devoted head of our blessed Lord all the sin of His people was made to meet. Before a great storm when the sky is growing black and the wind is beginning to howl, you have seen the clouds hurrying from almost every point of the compass as though the great day of battle were come, and all the dread artillery of God were hurrying to the field. In the center of the whirlwind and the storm, when the lightnings threaten to set all heaven on a blaze, and the black clouds labor to conceal the light of day, you have a very graphic metaphor of the meeting of all sin upon the person of Christ; the sin of the ages past and the sin of the ages to come, the sins of those of the elect who were in heathendom, and of those who were in Jewry; the sin of the young and of the old, sin original and sin actual, all made to meet; all the black clouds concentrated and brought together into one great tempest that it might rush in one tremendous tornado upon the person of the great Redeemer and substitute. As when a thousand streamlets dash down the mountain side in the day of rain, and all meet in one deep swollen lake, that lake the Savior’s heart, those gushing torrents the sins of us all who are here described as making a full confession of our sins… the Lord made to meet on Him the debts of all His people so that He became responsible for all the obligations of every one of those whom His Father had given Him whatsoever their debts might be. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0694.cfm

This Blessed Unmannerliness

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, salvation Leave a comment

Love…endures all things. – 1 Corinthians 13:7

What did our Lord say, “I will make you fishers of men.” If you go out fishing for souls you will have to endure all things, for it will come to pass that some whom you have been seeking for a long time will grow worse instead of better. Endure this among the “all things.” Those whom you seek to bless may seem to be altogether unteachable, they may shut their ears and refuse to hear you; never mind, endure all things. They may grow sour and sullen, and revile you in their anger, but be not put about by them; let them struggle till they are wearied, and meanwhile do you quietly wait, saying to yourself, “I must save them.” A warder who has to take care of insane persons will frequently be attacked by them, and have to suffer hard blows; but what does he do? Strike the patient and make a fight of it? No, he holds him down and pins him fast; but not in anger, for he pities him too much to be angry with him. Does a nurse with a delirious patient take any notice of his cross words, and grumbling, and outcries? Not she. She says, “I must try to save this man’s life,” and so with great kindness she “endureth all things.” If you were a fireman, and found a person in an upper room, and the house was on fire, would you not struggle with him rather than let him remain in the room and burn. You would say, “I will save you in spite of yourself.” Perhaps the foolish body would call you names, and say, “Let me alone, why should you intrude into my chamber?” But you would say, “Never mind my intrusion; I will apologize afterwards for my rudeness, but you must be out of the fire first.” I pray God give you this blessed unmannerliness, this sweet casting of all things to the wind, if by any means you may save some. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Love Believes in the Salvation of Men

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, The Holy Spirit Leave a comment

Love…believes all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

Love believes that the precious blood of Christ can redeem the bondslaves of sin and Satan and break their iron chains; she believes that the power of the Holy Spirit can change a heart of granite into a heart of flesh. Love, therefore, believing this, believes also that God can save this sinner by herself, and she therefore begins to speak to him, expecting that the word she speaks will be God’s instrument of salvation…She does not refrain from preaching Christ through fear of failure, but she believes in the great possibilities which lie in the gospel and in the Spirit of God, and so she deals earnestly with the man next her. She believes in her own principles, she believes in the grace of God, she believes in the power of the Spirit of God, she believes in the force of truth, she believes in the existence of conscience, and so she is moved to set about her saving work. She believeth all things.

Brethren, do you want a model of this? Then I beseech you look to your divine Master. See Him in the morning when the sheep are counted, missing one of them, and so full of faith is He that He can find the lost one, that He leaves the ninety and nine, and cheerfully enters the pathless wilderness. See how He bounds over the mountains! How He descends the ravines! He is seeking His sheep until He finds it, for He is fully assured that He shall find it. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, for His faith is great in the salvation of men, and He goes forth to it believing that sinners shall be saved. I delight in the deep, calm faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had no faith in man’s goodness, for “He knew what was in man”; but He had great faith in what could be done in men and what could be wrought for them, and for the joy that was set before Him in this He endured the cross, despising the shame. He had faith that grand things would come of His salvation-men would be purified, error would be driven out, false-hood would be slain, and love would reign supreme. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm

Bear All Things for Christ’s Sake

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, salvation 2 Comments

Charity beareth all things… – 1 Corinthians 13:7

If you should meet with some extraordinary sinner who opens his mouth with cruel speeches such as you have never heard before, and if by attempting to do him good you only excite him to ribaldry and blasphemy, do not be astonished; have at him again, for charity “beareth all things,” whatever they may be. Push on and say, “Yes, all this proves to me how much you want saving. You are my man; if I get you to Christ there will be all the greater glory to God.” O blessed charity, which can thus cover all things and bear all things for Christ’s sake.

Do you want an example of it? Would you see the very mirror and perfection of the charity that beareth all things? Behold your divine Lord. Oh, what He has covered! It is a tempting topic, but I will not dwell on it. How His glorious righteousness, His wondrous splendour of love has covered all our faults and all their consequences, treating us as if He saw no sin in Jacob, neither perversity in Israel. Think what He bore when He came unto His own and His own received Him not! What a covering was that when He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” What a pitying sight of the fearful misery of man our Lord Jesus had when holy tears bedewed those sacred eyes! What a generous blindness to their infamous cruelty He manifested when He prayed for His bloodthirsty enemies. O beloved, you will never be tempted, and taunted, and tried as He was; yet in your own shorter measure may you possess that love which can silently bear all things for the elect’s sake and for Christ’s sake, that the multitude of the redeemed may be accomplished, and that Christ, through you, may see of the travail of His soul. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1617.cfm