The Hidden Life Of Jesus
By Johnny Tatum
#12) JESUS SUFFERS THE FULL PENALTY
Presented In The Gospels:
People around Jesus mocked Him and condemned Him:
And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads, and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself? If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him, and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we shall believe in Him, He trusts in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He takes pleasure in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers also who had been crucified with Him were casting the same insult at Him. (Matthew 27:39-44)
As Jesus is seeing all of these people around Him, He realizes that He is a lower status than they are. Why? He has more sins on Him than they do.
7 All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the
lip,
What kind of faces do we make at people? We stick out our tongue. They separate with the lip meaning nanny-nanny boo-boo.
they wag the head, saying,
And they shake their head.
8 “Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”
Jesus’ enemies are mocking Him and saying All those years, You said, “Trust in Him,” now look at what has happened to You. Jesus is aware of it.
He is still asking why:
9 Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
Jesus does not quote Scripture, does He? At twelve years of age, Jesus was in the Temple teaching the wise men of the Scriptures (the rabbis). At the Temptation, Jesus was quoting obscure passages in Deuteronomy. However, here at the Cross, all Jesus can do is vaguely remember. Why does He not quote Hosea? Why does He not quote Exodus? He cannot remember them; He is numb.
Jesus does remember:
You made me trust when upon My mother’s breasts.
10 Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb.
Then why was He forsaken?
The answer is in Isaiah 53.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face
That is why people were mocking Jesus—He looked so horrible after all the beatings.
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah is identifying with the onlookers of the Cross; and in a bigger picture, with all the people of all time who look at Jesus and say He must have done something wrong if He was crucified.
Then Isaiah makes it clear in the following verse:
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastisement for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
This is a very critical passage.
FOUR THINGS
THAT HAPPENED TO OUR SIN AT THE CROSS
First: He Was Pierced Through For Our
Transgressions
What happens when somebody is pierced? The person bleeds—piercing refers to blood—meaning Jesus bled for our transgressions. That is why He had to be pierced: there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood…for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” (Leviticus 17:11)
And according to the Law…without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)
At the Temple in Jerusalem, the high priest put the blood of the sacrificed animals on the Mercy Seat. So the blood of animals was brought in, sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, and they were accepted. In fact, in 1 John 4:
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
The word propitiation is really Mercy Seat; therefore Jesus was the Mercy Seat for our sins.
In Hebrews 9, we learn that the Temple in Jerusalem was a copy of the Temple in heaven, and in the actual Temple in heaven there was a Mercy Seat. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He brought His blood with Him, He spilled His blood on that Mercy Seat in heaven, and when He did, that bloody Mercy Seat changed. Why? There is no blood in heaven. Do you know what happened? That bloody Mercy Seat became a beautiful crystal lake in front of the Throne of God (see Revelation 4:6). Why? Because God says Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin—our sins would not have been forgiven unless Jesus was pierced through for our transgressions. Pierced through means the penalty was paid, which is the basis for our forgiveness.
Second: He Was Crushed For Our Iniquities
This is referring to Jesus’ body. Our sins not only required the shedding of blood; our sins required death:
The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
To die you need a body. So when Isaiah says He was crushed for our iniquities, he is not referring specifically to Jesus’ blood; he is referring specifically to the body Jesus had. Our sins required the death penalty; therefore, God produced a Body, the Body was killed, and the penalty was paid.
Third: The Chastisement For Our Well Being
Fell Upon Him
This is a critical one. In the original language, the phrase well being refers to a harmonious relationship. This is talking about the chastisement that leads to our [unbroken] fellowship with God. And that is why we do not have to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness to maintain fellowship with God; we always have a harmonious relationship with God, because He never withdraws fellowship.
Note: People who teach If you sin then God breaks fellowship with you; therefore, you must confess that sin and be forgiven to restore fellowship are really saying that sin is a rare thing: Oh, I sinned this afternoon. What a surprise! Get real: we are full of sin because we are flesh. If we really fell out of fellowship every time we sinned, then we would never be in fellowship. Jesus took more than the penalty for our sins; He suffered the total loss of fellowship that accompanies sin. If Jesus had not done that, then we would have eternal salvation, but we would not have fellowship with Him on earth. Why not? Because we could never keep up with our sins enough to confess them for fellowship with Him.
All the
agonizing loss of fellowship that Jesus suffered on the Cross was for us; our
fellowship with God is guaranteed, whether we confess our sins, or not.
Fourth: By His Scourging We Are Healed
This verse is used by many people who believe in automatic healing Since the forgiveness of sins was automatic, then healing of the body is too. The problem with that [wrong] thinking is the word healed does not mean, “bodily healing.” It means healing of the relationship.
Application: We no longer need to suffer emotional burdens, unwarranted anxieties, clouded thinking, or guilty feelings due to our sin. Why not? Because we were forgiven 2,000 years ago at the Cross when Jesus took on the effects of our sin, including the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical consequences of our sins. So when we are tempted to feel emotionally – mentally – spiritually – physically burdened from our sins I am worried about what I did and how it is going to affect me, then we can know that Jesus has already dealt with that.
Taking On God’s Perspective: God’s Forgiveness Of Sins Happened
At The Cross, And It Is Complete!
Specifically—
Application: How Do We Access These Things?
A Note About Confession: It really worries me when believers go through so many ordeals about their sin, which Jesus already suffered at the Cross. For example, if we could ever get it into our conscience that there is never any loss of fellowship with the Lord our God, then our lives would be transformed—we would no long stop communicating with Him! It is important to confess our sins, but not for God’s sake, it is for our sake. Confession removes the guilt from a believer’s conscience—
How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from sin to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)
It does not say cleanse you from sin; it says cleanse your conscience from sin. The problem we have is not our sin—it was dealt with at the Cross—the problem we have is our consciousness of sin, which is why we want to confess our sins: to cleanse our conscience from sin.
The people around Jesus are described in the next verse:
11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near; For there
is none to help.
Again, Jesus is in a weakened state.
He sees them as bullies:
12 Many bulls have surrounded me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
He sees them as lions:
13 They open wide their mouth at me, As a ravening and a roaring lion.
In the next verse, all of a sudden Jesus starts to feel the physical effects, which, I think, He was not really aware of to a point:
14 I am poured out like water,
For a crucifixion victim, all bodily fluids would pour out simultaneously.
And all my bones are out of joint;
When did that occur? When they placed the Cross down in the hole. As Jesus continued to hang, all of His weight would have been coming down on Him so that His bones would have slipped out of joint and His ligaments would have stretched until, ultimately, they snapped.
My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
By far, the main cause of death at a crucifixion would have been asphyxiation. The victim could not breathe because the lungs would be pushed down and out of shape. The diaphragm, which supports the lungs, would be crushed and the victim could not breathe because of the hanging. So the soldiers inserted a peg on the bottom portion of the Cross so the victim would rest his feet on it and then lift himself up to breathe—the body’s involuntary response to keep alive—by using the peg to raise himself up to breathe. Once Jesus did that, there was more agonizing pain, and He would sink back down. Eventually, His heart actually ruptured.
And, of course, His deep thirst:
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my
tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death.
Again, Jesus looks at the crowd:
16 For dogs have surrounded me;
Who are dogs? The Gentiles.
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
Now He feels something:
They pierced my hands and my feet.
Again, why did the soldiers put the peg there? It was to extend the torture, not for mercy. Many times, crucifixion victims could stay on the cross for days. And they gave them water to prolong their time on the cross. In fact, I have read of people who hung on the cross for 12 to 13 days.
17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;
That is vivid; Jesus hung there and His bones were visible.
18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.
Note: We know the executioners got the clothes of the victim; they divided among themselves the outer garments (probably, sandals, head covering, belt, and cloak), and they cast lots for the inner tunic (the most valuable piece of clothing that was woven in one piece).
Jesus still continues to pray:
19 But You, O LORD, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my assistance.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, My only life from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth; From the horns of the wild oxen. You answer me.
You can see that Jesus is speaking in short gasps, in very short sentences. He is confused; He is in and out; His mind is numb; He is gasping.
In verse 22, the whole thing changes; it smoothes out, and He is speaking fluid again:
22 I will tell of Your name to my brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel.
In the original text it is very clear: He changes His entire tone.
Look at verse 24:
24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.
25 From You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.
26 The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; Those who
seek Him will praise the LORD. Let your
heart live forever!
And in verse 27:
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S And He rules over the nations.
What happened? Let us look at verse 31 to find out:
31 They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that it is finished.
Why did Jesus change His tone? The Father answered Him all of a sudden! Can you imagine how Jesus felt? After all of this darkness, the Father answered Him! Why?
It
Is Finished: The Penalty Was Paid
Presented In The Gospels:
It is finished corresponds to what we read in John 19, as follows:
When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)
In the original, it is finished is one word—one word that was spoken 2,000 years ago that is probably the most important word in our lives. It is a very common word in business, in commerce, from that period. In fact, it is a word that appeared on the bottom of invoices (bills) when they had been paid. When an invoice goes out and it was paid, they would stamp It is finished on it, meaning paid in full.
Jesus paid the penalty.
Let Us Close With The Following Verse:
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:5)
What does For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance mean?
Question: What is the purpose of knowing this?
So we will know that this Human Being actually took our sins at Gethsemane. We have seen the results of what happened at Gethsemane. When Jesus is on the Cross, we are seeing the results of our sin. It was not some play-acting; it was not just a judicial maneuver; our sins were physically put on Him, and at that point, He became the lowest of the low. Why? Because our sin was imputed to Him. Why is that important to know? Because that means Jesus took all of our sins down to the death, so we get 100 percent of the fullness of His righteousness. How? It is accessible to us by faith.
Heavenly Father, thank You that at the Cross, not only did You provide the penalty for our sins, You amazingly even decided that You would deal with the loss of fellowship, the oppression, and the mental and spiritual consequences of our sin, at the Cross.
Although we do not fully understand that, would You help us to, day by day, understand all that You did for us at the Cross: You put all of the penalty, the anguish, the guilt and the depression, which accompanies our sin, along with our sins on Jesus, so that His sufferings are ours in abundance.
We thank You for Jesus’ namesake. Amen.
Next: Hidden
Life #13) JESUS ANTICIPATES GOING TO HADES
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