The heaviest load which Jesus had to sustain!

(Charles Simeon)  LISTEN to Audio!  Download Audio

"He was pierced for our transgressions,
 He was crushed for our iniquities;
 the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
 and by His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

From His trial before Pilate, Jesus was dragged away to execution. Laden with the cross to which He was to be affixed, He sank under the load, which another was compelled to bear to the place of execution. To this He was fastened with nails through His hands and feet; and then He was raised as a naked bloody spectacle to all His enemies!

Ah! with what taunts was He then assailed, assailed even by the thieves, who on either side of Him were suffering the same punishment! One would have thought that in such a situation at least, Jesus might become an object of pity; but no pity was found in the hearts of His blood-thirsty enemies! Their professed readiness to assuage His anguish, was only an impious mockery, and a cruel insult--they gave Him "gall and vinegar to drink!" Psalm 69:21

But the heaviest load which Jesus had to sustain, was laid upon Him by other hands than those of man--even by the hands of His heavenly Father!

Man could only touch His body; the wounds inflicted on His soul proceeded immediately from God, who "was pleased to bruise Him," and to punish Him for the iniquities of His people. All of His other sufferings He endured with lamb-like silence; but this forced from Him that heart-rending cry, "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken Me!"

The darkness which at mid-day veiled the whole land for the space of three hours, was a sad emblem of His state under the agonies of expiring nature, and the wrath of a sin-avenging God!

At last, having drunk the very last dregs of that cup of wrath which had been put into His hands--He bows His head, and dies!

After this slight sketch of our Redeemer's sufferings, let us proceed to consider that His sufferings were substitutionary.

That glorious person whose sufferings we have been contemplating, suffered not for Himself, but for us: "He was cut off, but not for Himself!" Daniel 9:26

Our Redeemer's sufferings were for the sins of His people. In all that He endured, He was our substitute. We had contracted the sin-debt, which He paid.

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!" 2 Corinthians 5:21

"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree!" 1 Peter 2:24

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God!" 1 Peter 3:18

"Is any suffering like My suffering that was inflicted on Me, that the Lord brought on Me in the day of His fierce anger?" Lamentations 1:12

What shall induce us to love our Savior--if the contemplation of His substitutionary sufferings will not? Can we think of this, I say, and not have our souls inflamed with love and gratitude to Him? Surely such unfathomable love must constrain us:
  to admire Him,
  to adore Him,
  to magnify Him,
  to serve Him with all our faculties and all our abilities.
The very stones would cry out against us--if we did not break forth, as it were, in continual hosannas to our adorable Redeemer!

"I lay down My life for the sheep!" John 10:15

"Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God!" Ephesians 5:2

"Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her!" Ephesians 5:25

"The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me!" Galatians 2:20