It was not the nails!

(J. C. Philpot)

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Mark 15:34

It was not the nails driven through His hands and feet;
it was not the crown of thorns placed upon His brow;
it was not the stripes which mangled His back;
it was not the languor and faintness under which He
suffered--which caused the Lord to die.

It was not the mere bodily agony of the cross; it was
not the mere pain, though most acute and severe, of
the nails driven through His sacred hands and feet. It
was not the being stretched upon the cross six hours
that constituted the chief part of the Redeemer's
suffering. But it was the almost intolerable load of
imputed sin--the imputed sins of millions. It was the
tremendous pouring of the wrath of God into His holy
soul; it was the hiding of His Father's face, and the
very pangs of hell that there caught hold of Him.

Our suffering Savior drank the cup of the wrath of
God to the very dregs--when our vile, dreadful, and
horrible sins were laid upon Him!

"Yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten
 by Him, and afflicted." Isaiah 53:4

"Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him, and cause
 Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His
 soul an offering for sin . . ." Isaiah 53:10