Gospel

The Sufferings of Jesus During His Passion

by Ladd Wheeler
02/16/14
For Sale
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

The suffering that Jesus endured in His agonizing in the Garden and during His trial at night and then especially during the day on Friday with his scourging and crucifixion was exceedingly greater than any other person has ever or could ever withstand.

There has been much attention given to His physical and emotional suffering — the mocking, the plucking of His beard, the spitting in His face, the slashing and fileting of His back by scourging, the pressing of the crown made of thorns into His skull, and, of course, being nailed hands and feet on the cross followed by the gruesome horribly agonizing crucifixion.  And, rightfully so; this was a terribly painful death that relatively speaking, very few people have been subjected to.

However, Jesus’s suffering was not limited to the physical and emotional realms — He also suffered spiritually.  As we will see, His spiritual suffering far eclipsed the level of agony and suffering from the physical and emotional torment He endured.  There are at least three aspects of spiritual suffering visited upon Him; these are the weight of the guilt of all the sins placed on Him, the punishment of all the sins He carried, and separation from His Father.  Let’s consider each of these in turn.

Weight of Guilt of All the Sins of Those For Whom He Died

Jesus lived a sinless life.  He never once in even the smallest way sinned.  Therefore, His life was totally free from guilt.  But, during His passion, God the Father, the LORD, “laid on him the iniquity” (Isa. 53:6 ESV) of all those for whom He died.  When that happened, Jesus immediately also took on the weighty guilt for those sins.

But how weighty was that?  Recall, if you can, a time when you did something you should not have done and you became aware that your mother or father or teacher or principal or someone in authority saw what you did.  How did you feel?  You knew what you were doing was wrong; you were caught in the act; and you experienced a sinking sick feeling of guilt for it.  The weight of guilt that pricked your heart was noticeable; it was not nothing.  No doubt the weight of guilt is proportional to the egregiousness of the sin — the guilt of murdering a man is far more heavy than the guilt of stealing a penny from him.  Even though your sin may have been “light”, the guilt was still noticeable and uncomfortable to your soul. 

Consider now adding up the guilt for all the sins you have committed and will commit in your life.  The total load of that guilt is quite appreciable and inflicts spiritual pain.  But Jesus didn’t take on only one person’s sins with its accompanying guilt.  The guilt He took on was billions of times greater.  It was the guilt of myriads of lies, thefts, blasphemies, murders, treacheries, and much more.  The sum total weight of all of that guilt was enormous.  No man or woman ever has or ever will carry such an agonizing weight of guilt as Jesus did, not even close.

Punishment for All The Sins He Carried

Not only was the lifetime sins of all those for whom Jesus died placed on Him with its accompanying guilt, Jesus was “stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” and was “pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:4-5 ESV).  While Jesus was on the cross, God the Father poured on Him the full force of His wrath against all those sins.

What was the measure of that wrath?  Had the sinners each have had to suffer God’s wrath for their own sins, the accumulated heinousness of their sins could not be satisfied even by unending punishment.  Such is the measure of the wrath for one sinner’s sins.  However, Jesus did not suffer for just one sinner.  He received the just punishment for all the sins of all for whom he died.  God’s wrath would not be satisfied by less.  The wrath that Jesus endured was infinite! 

How can it be that Jesus satisfied the wrath of God for the many in a few hours when the wrath due each of the many for their own sins can not be satisfied by never-ending punishment?  The answer lies in the merit of the one enduring the wrath.  Jesus, the infinite eternally beloved Son of God, co-equal with God the Father, is of infinitely greater merit than even the best of mankind.  One moment’s enduring of punishment by Jesus infinitely assuages more wrath than the same moment’s enduring of punishment by any of mankind.  This, however, does not mean that Jesus’s sufferings were minimal.  They were not.  They were so huge that Isaiah declared that He “was crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5 ESV).  The weight of suffering Jesus endured was crushing!

Who else has ever suffered so?  No one.  No other one ever has suffered even close to that level of affliction.  No one else ever could.

Separation from the Father

Prior to His incarnation, Jesus had immediate and constant intimate communion and relationship with the Father.  He, the second person of the trinity, the Son of God, existed eternally and simultaneously with both the Father and the Holy Spirit.  As the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, they existed in intimate relationship with each other, loving and communicating with each other.  The relationships among them was a source of great joy and peace.

After His incarnation, Jesus could commune at any time with His Father in prayer.  He also had constant communion with the Holy Spirit who dwelt in Him.  On the cross, however, having been “made sin” (2 Cor. 5:21) because He took on the sins of those for whom He died, His communion and relationship with God was broken.

Consider how you would feel if someone you love deeply no longer would talk with you or have anything good to do with you and even turned to inflict pain on you.  Jesus experienced that.  His Father broke off fellowship with Him and no longer answered His call.  What’s more, His Father was treating Him as an enemy, pouring out His wrath on the sins Jesus was carrying, meting out the punishment on Jesus that was due for each sin.

The intimate relationship with the Father which for an infinite time had provided such joy and glory to Jesus was gone.  Surely the suffering resulting from that loss was infinitely agonizingly painful.  No wonder, no wonder that He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46 ESV).

Conclusion

The suffering Jesus bore for our sins was enormous.  The physical and emotional distress He endured was exceedingly great, at a level that few people have ever had to endure.  However, as we have seen, the level of spiritual misery he was subjected to was an infinite accumulation because of taking on the sins and punishment for the sum of sins of all those for whom He died.  Certainly He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3 ESV).

It is staggering to the human mind to attempt to fathom what gigantic level of suffering Jesus endured.  And for what purpose did He do that?  One reason He did it was “for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2 ESV) — for the joy of sharing His righteousness with those for whom He died that they may enjoy the awesome splendor of intimate relationship with the triune God forever.  What an amazing Savior is He!  No wonder will we one day behold

“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
   “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
      to receive power
           and wealth
           and wisdom
           and might
           and honor
           and glory
           and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
  “To him who sits on the throne
      and to the Lamb
           be blessing
            and honor
            and glory
            and might
                forever and ever!””
(Rev. 5:11-13 ESV)

Copyright 2014 by J. Ladd Wheeler

__________________________________________________

[email protected]