Sermon Notes

Please note that these are only notes, not transcripts, and as such are not identical to the recorded sermons. They also contain frequent abbreviations.

Introduction

1. After speaking of the miraculous virgin birth of Christ, the Apostles’ Creed sums up His entire life as “He suffered.”

   1. The purpose of Christ in coming into world was to suffer and die for our sins.

      1. This had been prophesied of Him throughout the OT and Christ repeatedly warned His disciples of it: “The Son of Man must suffer many things …” (Luke 9:22); with each warning the prophecies became more detailed, “[They] shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify …” (Matt. 20:19); “And they shall mock Him and spit upon Him and scourge Him and shall kill Him” (Mark 10:34)

      2. Later, after His death and resurrection He reminded them, “Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer …” (Luke 24:46)

   2. Christ suffered in submission to the Father’s will; He knew that joy would come later when He would see the fruit of His suffering, the gathering of His Church.

      1. X’s life was not a joyous, carefree life in pursuit of pleasure; His joy came from doing the Father’s will and promoting the Father’s glory. It was His meat & drink

      2. We are never told that Jesus laughed, but we read that He sighed and that He often wept; he was, as Isaiah put it, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

2. The sufferings of Christ are unique.

   1. They are unique in their intensity – no man suffered as this man suffered.

   2. They are unique in their value – as the holy Son of God these sufferings are infinite in their value before God.

   3. They are unique in their efficacy – His suffering accomplished the everlasting salvation and blessedness of the elect church.

“THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST” 

I. Dreadful Sufferings

II. Vicarious Sufferings

III. Efficacious Sufferings

1. DREADFUL SUFFERINGS

   1. To suffer is to undergo or experience pain or anguish.

      1. First, the sufferings of X were lifelong (Q&A 37).

         1. Sometimes, we lose sight of this, but Christ’s life is as important for our salvation as His death. Christ could not simply come into the world as an adult and then die without having lived a life.

            1. Christ was born into the world under the law, and therefore subject to that law and obligated to obey that law. He had to render personal obedience, and one sin would have rendered His whole work invalid.

            2. But not only that, throughout His life, Christ kept the law for all those whom He represented, for us, so that He could merit righteousness for us.

            3. That is because the Law makes two demands on us: not only does it demand punishment for every violation, but it demands perfect obedience to every precept. If Christ had not kept the law for us, the law’s demands would have been only partially met.

         2. His life of obedience we call His active obedience, while His death on the cross we call His passive obedience.

            1. The word passive comes from the word passion which means suffering; His passive obedience was His obedience in suffering even unto death.

            2. But we must not imagine that Jesus was passive during His passive obedience; we usually think of passive as not doing anything, as not participating, as being acted upon, but that is not the meaning.

            3. During His passion, Christ was actively enduring the wrath of God, actively making atonement for sin, and actively loving His Father.

            4. And during His active obedience Christ was suffering, while actively and energetically keeping the Law.

         3. But, was X really suffering the wrath of God His lifelong as the HC states?

            1. We are not to imagine that every moment of every day Christ experienced crippling pain, but His whole life was marked by physical, emotional and spiritual suffering.

            2. Look at a quick survey of His life: He was born into poverty, He had to sleep in a stinking stable in a smelly manger, and He was hunted by murderous King Herod at His birth. As He grew up, He was misunderstood. At one point, his friends said that He was beside Himself (Mark 3:21). His entire earthly ministry was one conflict after another until finally He was rejected by all.

            3. And at the end, one of His close disciples Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him and the rest fled. He had to face the end alone.

      2. Second, the sufferings of Christ intensified as He approached the end of His life.

         1. The Lord Jesus Christ experienced the cruelty of men as their (our!) total depravity came to full expression.

            1. Here was a man who had done only good: He had healed their sick, He had opened the eyes of the blind, He had cleansed lepers and He had preached good news to the poor, and how did they treat Him?

            2. They arrested Him in the middle of the night, they dragged Him through a kangaroo court, they beat Him, spat on Him, mocked Him and handed Him over to the Romans.

            3. And the Romans scourged Him until His back was red with His own blood and presented Him before the people. Was their bloodlust satisfied? Not at all, the screamed for His death and counted Barabbas more worthy than Him.

         2. And all this was before the horrors of the cross.

            1. They laid upon His bleeding back a huge piece of wood, made Him walk through Jerusalem while men jeered Him, until finally He could no longer stand up and He collapsed into the dust.

            2. When He arrived at the hill of Golgotha they stripped Him of His last remaining possessions, nailed Him to a cross, and there he hung in the hot sun in unspeakable agony while men walked past Him and mocked Him.

            3. And crucifixion was especially designed to be a slow, agonizingly painful death, the kind of death reserved for the scum of the earth. So much did they hate Him.

      3. Isaiah the prophet speaks so vividly of the sufferings of Christ that it reads as if he were standing at the foot of the cross watching Christ die.

         1. First, there is the imagery of severe injury.

            1. Just take a look at chapter 53, and read the list of words: stricken, smitten, oppressed, afflicted, cut off, chastisement and slaughter.

            2. The idea of these words is that the Servant of Jehovah will be dealt one blow after another, which will crush Him; He will be virtually smashed into pieces.

            3. The imagery is of one beaten so severely that He is barely recognizable; one whose sufferings are so severe that men will turn away their faces in horror at the sight (Isa. 52:14).

         2. Second, there is the language of carry a heavy crushing burden.

            1. The suffering is depicted as a heavy load which almost overwhelms the Servant of Jehovah; He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (v. 4); a load is laid upon Him (v. 6).

            2. The idea is of one barely able to stand up as load after load is placed upon Him, so that the weight of it causes Him to sink ever deeper into misery.

            3. Never in the history of the world did one carry as heavy a load as this man.

         3. Third, there is the description of the effect of this suffering on the Sufferer.

            1. The Sufferer feels acutely each blow; every wound, every laceration of the flesh is a torment to Him which pierces His heart.

            2. He is afflicted: the word means He is bowed down, humbled, made very low.

            3. Verse 11 speaks of the travail of His soul: the effort of suffering is hard labor and toil, which exhausts Him physically and emotionally; and His soul is poured out unto death.

   2. But, beloved, that is not the half of it! The two thieves who were crucified with him felt very similar physical pain, but Christ’s sufferings were infinitely greater because He suffered at the hands of God Himself!

      1. When men crushed Christ He felt great anguish; but God stretched out His hand to crush Him and that was infinitely worse. The HC sums it up, “He sustained (carried) … the wrath of God” (Q&A 37).

         1. God’s wrath is His hot displeasure. We read of that in LD 4 (“God is terribly displeased with our original as well as actual sins and will punish them …”)

            1. It is terrifying to be in the presence of an angry man whose face is red with rage, but how much more dreadful to fall into the hands of an angry God!

            2. God’s wrath is His burning hatred against sin and sinners which are an affront to His holiness; it manifests itself as intense anger which consumes the sinner.

            3. God’s wrath is not Him losing His temper but it is His settled disposition of opposition to the sinner which abides on the unbelieving and impenitent sinner all his life, and will utterly destroy him forever in hell.

         2. Now, this wrath was directed toward Christ, a man who was approved of God, indeed, a man who as to His Person is the only begotten Son of God!

            1. Jesus who was forever in the bosom of the Father, always enjoying the smile of His Father’s face, who was always the Father’s delight, becomes a man and experiences the fierce anger of God.

            2. The Father treats Jesus as if He were His enemy, as if He wanted to destroy Him. In fact, v. 10, “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, he hath put him to grief

            3. What suffering, what a burden for the Holy Son of God! Who can fathom it?

      2. Christ was judged as a sinner; God’s holy law condemned Him.

         1. It was terrible to be ill treated and condemned by Pilate as judge; how it must have pained Jesus to hear the words, “Ye take him and crucify Him.”

            1. But as Jesus was led away to execution God’s dreadful verdict rang out: Guilty! Worthy of death! Not fit to live!

            2. God constituted Christ guilty before Him and then treated Christ as one who had committed the most dreadful of sins: here was a man in whom the sins of murder, adultery, robbery, idolatry and every other sin met, and God dealt with Him according to strict justice without mercy.

         2. And this was infinitely worse for Christ b/c He knew He was innocent.

            1. Christ remained obedient, utterly submissive; He suffered without complaining, He did not loudly protest His innocence; He did not curse those who cursed Him, but rather He prayed for His tormenters. Read I Pet. 2:23.

            2. As Isaiah put it, “He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not His mouth” (v. 7) .

            3. Dreadful sufferings in body and soul!

2. VICARIOUS SUFFERINGS

   1. The Bible does not tell us about the sufferings of Christ so that we can feel sorry for Him and be moved to tears (“Weep not for me …” Luke 23:28). The sufferings of Christ are significant because they are vicarious. Vicarious means that something is done in substitution for another or for the benefit or advantage of another. When we speak of vicarious we mean Christ suffered for others, not for Himself.

      1. Christ did not suffer for His own faults: He was perfectly innocent.

         1. Isa. 53 clearly describes the sufferings of an innocent man.

            1. We said that all the sins of murder, adultery, robbery, idolatry etc met in Jesus Christ, but Christ never committed one sin; Isaiah speaks of Christ as “My righteous servant” (53:11), that is, He conformed perfectly to the standard which God has given in His holy Law.

            2. Moreover, verse 9 adds that He had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in His mouth.

            3. Jesus was and remained the spotless, sinless Son of God; yet He suffered as no man has ever suffered.

         2. The HC also emphasizes this when it mentions Christ’s trial before Pilate.

            1. No one had been able to lay any charge to the account of Christ: the Pharisees had tried but had to bring false witnesses whose testimony ultimately broke down; three times Pilate confessed that Christ had done nothing worthy of death, and yet they crucified Him.

            2. Thus the HC says, “He, being innocent, and yet condemned …”

      2. Instead of suffering for His own faults –He had none– Christ suffered for others, and He did it willingly.

         1. This is the constant refrain of Isa. 53.

         2. Notice the repetition of the word “OUR.”

         3. Surely, He hath borne OUR griefs and carried OUR sorrows (v. 4) … but He was wounded for OUR transgressions; He was bruised for OUR iniquities … the chastisement of OUR peace was upon Him (v. 5) … the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of US all … (v. 6).

         4. In addition, verse 11 says, “He shall bear THEIR iniquities … and verse 12, “He bare the sin of MANY.”

   2. If Christ did not suffer for His own sins, for whose sins did He suffer?

      1. The answer of Scripture in Isaiah 53 is clear

         1. Remember that Isaiah is writing to believers.

            1. Throughout the chapter he refers to us, that is, to members of believing Israel.

            2. He refers to my people in verse 8 (“for the transgression of my people …”).

            3. He refers to many in verse 11-12, and notice that the many whom He justifies are the many whose iniquities He bears (“By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for He shall bear their iniquities”).

         2. Does that mean that Christ only died for Jews: that the “us all, the many, my people” refers only to Israel of the OT?

            1. Of course not! The “my people” of the OT includes the Gentiles of the NT who, although they once were not a people, are now a people, and are included in the elect of God. Hosea prophesied this. The NT confirms it.

            2. Indeed, the many does not even include all the Jews, because not all the Jews were the people of God; only elect, believing sinners, whether Jew or Gentile, are truly the children of Abraham. For these Christ died.

         3. But how is it possible for Christ to die for the sins of others?

            1. The answer is imputation, a word of great importance in Scripture: God laid our sins to the charge of Christ and reckoned them to His account, and then treated Him accordingly as a transgressor.

            2. That is what Isaiah means by “the Lord hath LAID ON HIM the iniquity of us all” and “the chastisement of our peace was UPON HIM.”

            3. Thus God imputes to us who believe in Christ the perfect righteousness of Christ; He shall justify many for He shall bear their iniquities, the glorious truth of double imputation of sin and righteousness.

      2. But does the HC not teach that Christ died for all mankind?

         1. It does but the question is what does that phrase mean?

            1. The term all mankind refers to men, women and children from every nation, tribe and tongue; that is how the Bible describes those for whom Christ died.

            2. It does not mean that Christ died for every human being who ever lived, but that the work of Christ crosses all borders, all social classes, and includes a truly catholic or universal church.

            3. This, as I have demonstrated repeatedly, is the way in which the Scriptures employ the terms “world,” “whole world” and “all men.”

         2. Also, the Canons of Dordt are the authoritative interpretation of the HC

            1. The Arminians wanted to revise the Creeds and the theologians at Dordt examined the HC and found it to be agreeable to the Word of God in every particular, yet they affirmed LA or Particular Redemption. They saw no contradiction between their position and LD 15.

            2. Here is a quotation from Canons Head 2, Art. 8, “… that He should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation and language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation …”

            3. Because, you see, if Christ died for all men without exception, but all men are not saved by His suffering and death, Christ’s sufferings are not efficacious.

3. EFFICACIOUS SUFFERINGS

   1. Something is efficacious or effectual when it accomplishes what the person doing it intended. X’s sufferings are efficacious when they accomplish what God intended.

      1. Clearly, God intended to achieve something when He sent His Son to suffer and die; it would be the height of folly for God to sacrifice His Son with no goal or purpose in mind. There are really three views here.

         1. Some say that God intended, purposed and willed to save all men through the sufferings and death of Christ.

            1. Christ died for all, God laid on Christ the iniquities, transgressions and sins of all men, so that He paid for the sins of all men.

            2. It is God’s earnest desire, then, that all men are delivered from sin, rescued from hell and brought to heaven.

            3. But, they freely admit, that not all men are saved, many perish, and therefore, the sufferings of Christ are not efficacious.

         2. Others say that God did not so much intend to save anyone as such by the death of Christ, but that God desires the salvation of all men, and sent Christ to suffer and die to make salvation possible for all men.

            1. God’s purpose, then, would be fulfilled if Christ suffers and dies for all, and nobody at all is saved by His death: the possibility is there for everyone.

            2. Therefore Christ died for all, but died to save no one in particular. That is a more subtle form of Arminianism, the kind condemned at Dordt.

            3. You could argue, then, that the sufferings of Christ are efficacious but only because you have denied the main purpose of them.

      2. The Scriptures teach that God intended, purposed and wiled to save His people, His elect, and them only, and that is what He actually did.

         1. X died for some; He bore their sins; paid their punishment and they are saved.

         2. Clearly, then, in this view, Christ’s sufferings are wonderfully efficacious.

         3. Many evangelicals deny the efficacy of the cross because success or failure of X depends on man’s freewill to accept or reject what X did. But such a view denies the saving value of Christ’s work – He died for many who still perish; He paid for the sins of many who still must be punished for sins forever, and God punishes Christ for sin and then the sinner for the same sins, a denial of God’s justice.

   2. Scripture, though, teaches something quite different and the HC reflects this.

      1. The purpose of God with the sufferings of Christ is twofold.

         1. First, the purpose is to redeem us from sin.

            1. What is the purpose? “… That by His passion, as the only propitiatory sacrifice he might redeem our body and soul from everlasting damnation.”

            2. What is the purpose? “… That He might thereby free us from the severe judgment of God to which we were exposed.”

            3. What is the purpose? That He took upon Him the curse which lay upon me.

            4. Christ’s death was a propitiatory sacrifice, that is, a sacrifice which appeases God, turns away God’s wrath & satisfies God’s justice. God made X’s soul “an offering for sin” (Isa. 53:10)

         2. Second, the purpose is to obtain for us the blessings of salvation.

            1. What is the purpose? “ … obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness and eternal life.”

            2. As sinners we were exposed to the wrath of God; Christ obtained for us the favor of God; as sinners we were unholy and perverse in God’s sight; Christ obtained for us righteousness, and as sinners we were worthy of death; Christ obtained for us eternal life by His sufferings and death.

            3. And do not be put off by that word might: might does not mean that maybe it might happen but might indicates purpose.

      2. In the sufferings of Christ God did accomplish His purpose; the outcome is exactly what God intended.

         1. Verse 11 of Isaiah 53 sums it up this way, “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.”

            1. This means either, God shall see the travail of Christ’s soul and be satisfied; or Christ shall see the outcome of His toil and be satisfied.

            2. There is satisfaction with the payment or satisfaction with the outcome; and both ideas are true. God was satisfied with the propitiatory sacrifice and Christ was satisfied with the fruit of His death.

            3. If Christ died for some who perish in hell, He could not be satisfied, but would be disappointed.

         2. Isaiah also speaks in other terms of the benefits of Christ’s death.

            1. Since God laid on Christ our iniquity, transgression and sin and He bore the punishment for them, we will never be punished for our sins.

            2. The punishment or chastisement which was upon Christ brings about our peace, v. 5; and by His stripes we are healed, actually made whole.

            3. It is not that by the stripes of X all men are potentially healed, or that X makes healing possible by His stripes. But by His stripes WE ARE HEALED.

         3. And this is to our comfort – if Christ’s death does not save, then it is vain for me to trust in Him for salvation; but if Christ’s death, His stripes, His wounds, His sufferings actually save, what great comfort is mine!

            1. I am assured, says the HC, that Christ took on Him the curse which lay upon me and therefore it will never be on me.

            2. And if Christ died for me, then surely He will freely give me all things.

            3. And since Christ died for me, I will live for Him, and for His glory, in thankfulness to Him. Amen.