The Price Paid For Sin,
Harry Ironside
The four accounts of the crucifixion taken together give us the full meaning of the work of the Cross.
Jesus is presented as enduring the shame and physical anguish inflicted upon Him by man for three awful hours. In that period He gave no evidence of perturbation of spirit.
He was in perfect communion with the Father, and manifested a tender concern for others, but there was no word of self-pity or commiseration for His own sufferings.
In the last three hours He was enduring the terrible ordeal of bearing the judgment our sins deserved.
His cry of loneliness is the key to the deeper suffering of those hours when God, the righteous Judge, had to abandon Him to the inward spiritual suffering as the Surety for sinners.
It was then His soul - not merely His body - was made an offering for sin.
Observe, it was the Lord, God Himself, who dealt with Christ in judgment when He hung upon
the tree.
Isaiah 53:10-11
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
It was not what man did to Him that made reconciliation for iniquity, but what He
endured at the hand of God, leading to Immanuel’s orphaned cry, “My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?”
The Gospel is based upon what He endured on that Cross, and this message goes out to all who have
ears to hear.
“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself”