Basic HTML Version
“Despised And Rejected”, May 5
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3
.
How few have any conception of the anguish which rent the heart of the Son of
God during His thirty years of life upon earth. The path from the manger to Calvary
was shadowed by sorrow and grief. He was the Man of Sorrows, and endured such
heartache as no human language can portray. He could have said in truth, “Behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow” (
Lamentations 1:12
). His
suffering was the deepest anguish of the soul; and what man could have sympathy
with the soul anguish of the Son of the infinite God? Hating sin with a perfect
hatred, He yet gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world, as He trod the
path to Calvary, suffering the penalty of the transgressor. Guiltless, He bore the
punishment of the guilty; innocent, yet offering Himself to bear the penalty of the
transgression of the law of God. The punishment of the sins of every soul was
borne by the Son of the infinite God. The guilt of every sin pressed its weight
upon the divine soul of the world’s Redeemer. He who knew no sin became sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. In assuming the
nature of man, He placed Himself where He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, that by His stripes we might be healed.
In His humanity Christ was tried with as much greater temptation, with as
much more persevering energy than man is tried by the evil one, as His nature
[120]
was greater than man’s. This is a deep mysterious truth, that Christ is bound to
humanity by the most sensitive sympathies. The evil works, the evil thoughts,
the evil words of every son and daughter of Adam press upon His divine soul.
The sins of men called for retribution upon Himself, for He had become man’s
substitute, and took upon Him the sins of the world. He bore the sins of every
sinner, for all transgressions were imputed unto Him.... “How shall we escape, if
we neglect so great salvation?” (
Hebrews 2:3
).
136