Page 66 - That I May Know Him (1964)

The Weight of God’s Wrath, February 27
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his
own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6 .
In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man’s stead, and the
human nature of the Son of God staggered under the terrible horror of the
guilt of sin, until from His pale and quivering lips was forced the agonizing
cry, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”; but if there
is no other way by which the salvation of fallen man may be accomplished,
then “not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39).
The power that inflicted retributive justice upon man’s substitute and
surety, was the power that sustained and upheld the suffering One under
the tremendous weight of wrath that would have fallen upon a sinful world.
Christ was suffering the death that was pronounced upon the transgressors
of God’s law. It is a fearful thing for the unrepenting sinner to fall into the
hands of the living God. This is proved by the history of the destruction of
the old world by a flood, by the record of the fire which fell from heaven
and destroyed the inhabitants of Sodom. But never was this proved to so
great an extent as in the agony of Christ, ... when He bore the wrath of God
for a sinful world....
Man has not been made a sin-bearer, and he will never know the hor-
ror of the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No sorrow can bear any
comparison with the sorrow of Him upon whom the wrath of God fell with
overwhelming force. Human nature can endure but a limited amount of test
and trial. The finite can only endure the finite measure, and human nature
succumbs; but the nature of Christ had a greater capacity for suffering; for
the human existed in the divine nature, and created a capacity for suffering
to endure that which resulted from the sins of a lost world. The agony
which Christ endured, broadens, deepens, and gives a more extended con-
ception of the character of sin, and the character of the retribution which
God will bring upon those who continue in sin. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.35 [65]
35S.D.A. Bible Commentary 5:1103.
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