What Did God
Determine Before to be Done
“For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done,” Acts 4:27,28.
The Absoluters claim this text; it is their fortress. They are sure it establishes their doctrine as no other text does.
But before we get to that, we need to establish what we mean by absolutism. Absolutism is the doctrine that before God ever created the world, he predetermined and predes-tinated everything that will ever happen in time. We are told that he so arranged all the events, and all the conditions and circumstances leading up to those events that everything that happens—good, bad, or indifferent— happens exactly the way he predestinated it to happen.
Those of us who do not believe that doctrine refuse to believe that he predestinated everything that happens. Especially we refuse to believe that he predestinated all the sin and wickedness in the world.
The Absoluter insists that his doctrine does not make God the author of sin, but he persists in his argument that God so arranged conditions and circumstances that everything that happens—both good and evil—takes place in exactly the way he predestinated it to happen.
All of that brings us to our text. There can be no question that the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, together with all the humiliation and mistreatment that was heaped on him, was the vilest, the most wicked, event in the history of the world. The Absoluter is sure that if he can prove God predestinated the wickedness that went on at Calvary, he will have no trouble in proving that God predestinated all the other wickedness in the world. And he is sure that is precisely what this text says. But that is not what it says. If you will stay with us for the next few minutes, I believe we can demonstrate that this text does not teach anything resembling the Absolute doctrine.
Two contrary forces at work
The first thing we need to point out is that there were two contrary forces at work that day, and it is impossible to imagine anything more different than those forces were. Those two forces had two different causes—two different sources—and, ultimately, two different ends in view. It is the failure to recognize those opposite forces—and the different causes behind those forces—that has caused most of the confusion about this text.
The first force was man at war with his maker. That war began with the sin of Adam in the very morning of time, and it continues until this very day, but it reached its climax at the crucifixion of our Lord. Never in all of history has man ever raged against his Maker the way he did at Calvary.
God became man; he was incarnate in human flesh. The adversary opposed him every step of the way; but it was especially at Calvary that he did everything within his power to destroy him.
The second force was the grace of God working out salvation on behalf of his people. God had determined from all eternity that he would save his people, and that is what he was working out at the cross.
One of those forces resulted in all those wicked men did to the Lord; the other resulted in the atonement.
The Crucifixion and the Atonement
The crucifixion and the atonement are two entirely different things, and we must not confuse the two. The crucifixion was man’s work; the atonement was God’s work. The cause of the atonement was the purpose, the grace, and the mercy of God. The cause of all they did to the Lord was the hatred and corruption their own depraved heart. It is the ultimate expression of man’s war against his Maker.
It was not God that put such hatred in their heart. We are told plainly, “They hated me without a cause.” That is, they did not need God to cause them to hate him. Those who claim God is the cause of everything those wicked men did that day have God to argue with. God tells us in no uncertain language, “They hated me without a cause.” Their hatred flowed naturally and freely from the corruption of their own heart. It did not flow from the purpose and grace of God.
God had determined from all eternity that he would work out the atonement on the cross; he prophesied he would do it that way, and there could never be any doubt that is the way it would take place. He would display his grace against the dark background of their wickedness. But their wickedness would play no part in what he was doing on behalf of his people, and there is no way anybody can show that he predestinated their wickedness—nor any wicked thing they did.
The significance of the crucifixion is that it was the ultimate climax of man’s rebellion against God—his war against God.
Man has been at war with his Maker ever since Adam sinned. All during the public ministry of the Lord the adversary did all within his power to destroy him. He could not destroy him. But when his time was fully come, the Father delivered his Son into their hands, and suffered them to do their worst. That is exactly what the Bible teaches.
“Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,” Acts 2:28.
The redemption was God’s work; the wickedness that went on at Calvary was part of man’s war against God, and we must never confuse the two.
Wicked men were active in every part of the crucifixion. Men took him through the mock trial. Men beat him with whips. Men beat him into such a bloody mess that he hardly looked like a man (Isa. 52:14). Men assembled the cross. Men drove the nails. A man pierced his side. Men mocked him, and ridiculed him. That was all man’s work, but man had no part in redemption. Man played no part in the atonement.
The wicked were involved
in his humiliation
Having said all that, we must acknowledge that what they did contributed in a very real way to his humiliation. The mocking, the beating, the spitting, the crown of thorns, the denial of the very modesty of his own clothing, all that was a very real part of his humiliation; and the wickedness of man played a part in that.
Luke tells us, “In his humiliation his judgment was taken away,” Acts 8:33. In Isaiah it reads, “He was taken from prison and from judgment.”
Part of his humiliation was the false judgment that was passed on him. The spotless and pure Son of God, who “had done no violence, nor was deceit found in his mouth,” was judged as if he was a common criminal, deserving of death.
But God draws a very clear boundary between the humiliation of the Lord and the atonement. Heb. 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Our Lord despised the shame—the humiliation—of all they did to him. Can you imagine the mortification of being stripped of his clothing, and crucified, exposed to the mockery of that sacrilegious mob.
But there was a “joy that was set before him.” That was the joy of redeeming his people and atoning for our sins. For the joy of the one he endured the shame of the other. It is hard to imagine how he could have drawn a clearer and more distinct boundary. The one was a source of joy; the other brought shame and embarrassment. The sins of men were very much a part of the one; they were not a part of the other.
God delivered his Son
into their hands
Old Elder Benjamin Lampton used to say, “It was not necessary for God to predestinate wickedness; man has done a very good job of that all by himself.”
We are simply told that God delivered his Son into their hand. Their wicked depraved heart did the rest.
“Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,” Acts 2:23.
In his determinate counsel and foreknowledge God determined to deliver his Son to their vengeance. He determined to suffer them to heap every indignity on his own beloved Son. They would mock him, and ridicule him. They would plow his back, and jerk out his beard. They would spit in his face, and beat him until his face no longer looked human. They would taunt him, and call him names.
All that was a part of his humiliation; but his humiliation was not the atonement. Their mockery was not the price of our redemption. Their parting his garments among them was not the price of our redemption. Their beating him in the face did not redeem us. Rather he redeemed us by laying down his life for us (John 10:11,15).
His humiliation causes the atonement to shine all the more brightly, and that was the very purpose of the humiliation, but they are not the same thing.
Delivered into their hands
God did not determine to cause them to do any of those things; but in his determinate counsel and foreknowledge he did determine to deliver him into their hands. Their depravity would do the rest.
God prophesied they would do all of that, and there was never any possibility it would take place in any other way. How could God do that? He is the eternal one; he inhabits eternity. He can look across time as easily as you and I can look across a room. But he is no more the cause of all he sees than we are the cause of all we see.
God determinated from all eternity that he would deliver his son into their hands. He did not determine to accept their work as any part of the atonement. So far as the atonement is concerned, the Lord trod the winepress entirely alone.
Sin did not bring salvation
Nothing those men did contributed in any way to our salvation. There is no way around it. If what those men did contributed to the atonement, then sin brought salvation. If what they did contributed to the atonement, then Jesus did not do the work by himself. That would make them his helpers. But that is not the way the Bible tells it.
“I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me….And I looked and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury it upheld me,” Isa. 63:3,5.
He says it over and over; there was nobody involved in this work except himself. The Arminian thinks the preacher is involved; the Absoluter thinks those who nailed him to the cross were involved. They are both wrong.
God did not need their help
The atonement was a transaction between God the Father and God the Son—on behalf of his people—and those wicked men were not parties to the transaction. God did not need their help, and nothing they did added anything to what God accomplished on our behalf.
The Lord told us over seven hundred years ahead of the time, “I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me.” He went on to say, “I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold, therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me.” God did not need those wicked men to assist him in his work. He was perfectly capable of saving his people, and he did it all by himself.
Ultimate Good and Ultimate Evil
Never in time or eternity did the ultimate good and the ultimate evil come face to face the way they did at Calvary. In the very face of the greatest evil this world has ever known God worked out the salvation of his people, and nothing they could do could stop him.
Keep in mind that the Bible is one harmonious fabric throughout. It is consistent; it never contradicts itself. If there is ever a contradiction, it is in your own mind.
Also keep in mind that in studying the Bible you begin with what is clear and undeniable. Then (with the Lord’s help) you study and reason your way—step by step—toward that which is not so clear. If you start with what is most clear, and move one step after another to the next most obvious fact, by the time you finish, you will often discover that those unclear questions have fallen into place. That is certainly the case with this text.
What God
determined before to be done
First, notice what Christ was doing at Calvary in the first place. God determined from all eternity that his Son should suffer, bleed, and die on behalf of his people.
That is what he “determined before to be done.”
That is why he came into this world; that is why he went to Calvary. God imputed our sins to his Son, and he died to pay our sin debt. Our sins, and the guilt of our sins, were removed by the suffering and death of our Lord.
“For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done,” Acts 4:27, 28.
Exactly what does he mean by what God’s hand and counsel “determined before to be done?” The Absoluter tells us it involves all that went on that day. He tells us God orchestrated and manipulated every stroke and every blow that struck our Lord, that he predestinated every vile thing that was done to him.
But we must never charge God with being the author of sin, and we must never charge him with manipulating any man, and causing him to sin.
The Absoluter can come up with some mighty fancy footwork, explaining how God can arrange conditions and circumstances, and something he calls second cause, so that everything man does—for good or evil—God predestinated him to do it. It is amazing what elaborate tapestries he can weave in explaining how God can cause men to do everything they do, without being the cause of what they do.
But we do not need theological mumbo-jumbo. If we will just let the Bible say what it says, most subjects become fairly simple. And this subject is simple enough, if you just let the Bible say what it says.
God purposed that his Son
should suffer, bleed, and die
It was the purpose of God that his Son should suffer, bleed, and die, and up to that point that was also the purpose of those who were gathered together.
It was the purpose of that mob that Jesus should suffer, bleed, and die. It is in that sense they were gathered to do what God determined before to be done. They were gathered together to bring about the suffering and death of the Lord.
The same intent; different causes
But their motive, and the cause of their action were totally different from God’s purpose. God determined that his Son should give his life; the mob intended to take his life.
The cause of what God did was the most loving and gracious of all motives. The cause of all they did was the most evil and hateful of all motives. The one sprang from the purpose, the love and mercy of God; the other sprang from the corruption of their own depraved heart.
No one can reasonably deny that they were, indeed, gathered together for to do whatsoever God’s hand and counsel determined before to be done. They were gathered together to bring about the suffering and death of the Lord. But God was no more the cause of what they did, than they were the cause of what God did.
The Absoluter limits God’s
ability to know the future
We need to realize first that God knows everything there is to know. He knows everything that will ever happen before it happens, and he has known it from all eternity. That is one of the proofs that he is God. The Absoluter tells us that God cannot know what is going to happen, unless he has determined to manipulate and orchestrate all the conditions and circumstances leading up to that event, so that whatever happens is the inevitable result of all that has gone before, and so the inevitable result of God’s decree.
But that notion limits God. It has God using his power to prop up his foreknowledge. It would have us believe that if God did not cause all things to happen just the way they do, the foreknowledge of God would come crashing to the ground.
Those who think God must make men do what they do, in order to know what they are going to do, have imagined that God is like we are. But God is not like us. He is not so limited that he cannot know what is going to happen without orchestrating and manipulating it to make it happen. He can look across time as easily as you and I can look across the room.
God knows all that will ever happen, and when he chooses to do so, he reveals to us as much as he wants us to know. Over a period of hundreds of years he inspired the prophets to write all that was needed to be known about the life and death, the ministry and crucifixion of the Lord. There could never be any doubt that all that would transpire at Calvary would come about the way God said it would.
How could he do that? He is God, he can do anything he chooses to do. He inhabits eternity. The prophet tells us that. Time does not encompass God the way it encompasses us. He encompasses time. He is the I AM, the eternal one.
There is ever so much God does that we cannot explain. In fact, we cannot explain much of the how of anything God does.
We cannot explain how he created an entire universe out of nothing. He is so vast the very heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and yet he was born of a woman and lived in a body such as you and I have. We cannot explain that. We cannot explain how the Spirit does its work in regeneration. We cannot explain how he is going to raise the dead. So we should not be surprised that we cannot explain how he can know every tiny detail of what is going to happen in the future.
But it is the height of folly to try to explain the unexplain-able by insisting that God knows the future, because he pulls the strings, and makes everything—both good and evil—happen just the way it does. Nobody was ever more unwise, than when he tries to compensate for his own ignorance by charging God with being the cause of all the evil in the world.
God succeeded at the cross;
the mob failed
But we are reminded that it says, “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,” Acts 2:23, or when it says they “killed the Lord Jesus,” 1 Thess. 2:15. Over and over God charges them with killing the Lord Jesus.
If it was the death of the Lord that purchased salvation, and if they killed their Lord, was it not their killing the Lord that brought salvation? At least in that sense, was the sin of man not an integral part of our salvation? How could the Lord have saved his people if the soldiers had not done their part in bringing about his death?
The soldiers did not bring about his death;
the Lord gave his life;
First off, that line of reasoning assumes too much. The Lord clearly tells us they did not have the power to take his life.
“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,” John 10:11. They did not take his life; he gave it.
Verse 15, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Again we are told, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father,” John 10:17,18.
But we are reminded that we read over and over that they killed the Lord Jesus. If they did not actually bring about his death, why does the Bible repeatedly use that language.
Divine justice speaking
One thing we must keep in mind, especially in this context, is that we belong to God; we are his property. And the law belongs to him. He has a right to say what is required of us, and he has the right to set the penalties.
It is his right—not ours—to say what constitutes murder. He says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,”
1 John 3:15. If God claims the right to charge one who hates his brother with being a murderer, I, for one, am not going to argue that he has no such right. And if God claims the right to charge one with murder if he hates his brother, he certainly has the right to charge those wicked soldiers with having killed the Lord.
We must be very careful about setting limits on what God can do, or what charges he can bring against sin and sinners.
The nature of the act
lies in the motive of the heart
In his book entitled Justification, Elder J. H. Oliphant explains it very well. “Sin resides in the will, the intent; not so much in the act as in the will. A man shot with the design to kill a deer; he missed the deer and killed a friend; there was a man killed, but the crime of murder was not committed. Another man shot with the design of killing a man; he missed the man and killed a deer. In this case there was murder, but no one killed; the crime was in the will. In this way men may be guilty of murder, theft, adultery, etc., without the deed actually being committed. The will is the nest of sin.”
They intended to kill the Lord. They were gathered together for the purpose of killing him. They did everything necessary to be done in order to kill him—if it had been possible that he could have been killed. And they left thinking they had killed him. So they did everything necessary to incur their guilt.
Bear in mind that the nature of the act is determined by the motive of the heart. That is a principle clearly established in law. A prosecuting attorney told me recently that he had sent men to the penitentiary on that distinction.
Even though they failed in their effort to kill the Lord, they were guilty of killing him, nonetheless—and God so charges them.
Purged with blood
But, if the wickedness of man added nothing to the atonement, how is it that our sins are purged by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. How could we have been redeemed by blood, if the soldiers had not done their part?
Was it not the place of those soldiers to shed the Lord’s blood. Was that not their contribution to the atonement?
God “laid on him” (Isa. 53:6), imputed to him, “the iniquity of us all,” and he judicially and legally carried those sins on the cross. The shedding of his blood put away those sins.
Atonement by blood is, indeed, the central fact of the gospel. Aside from the virtue of Christ’s shed blood nothing else means anything.
We are told, “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission,” Heb. 9:22.
Peter tells us, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” 1 Pet. 1:18,19.
Paul tells us about “the blood of the everlasting covenant,” Heb. 13:20.
When the Lord gave us his own Supper, he said, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins,” Matt. 26:18. The list goes on, and on, and on. The very focal point of the gospel is that we are redeemed by the suffering, the death, and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Then, if our sins are atoned for by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, how could they have been atoned for, if those soldiers had not beaten him, if they had not plowed his back. How could they have been put away if that soldier had not pierced his side? Did they not, at least, assist in our salvation to the extent they shed his blood?
That is a valid question, and it must have an answer. But first we must realize there is a difference between those soldiers’ drawing blood, and the Lord’s shedding his blood. The Lord freely and voluntarily shed his blood, and it is that shedding of his blood that brought salvation. Our salvation was purchased by the Lord’s shedding his blood; it was not purchased by soldiers drawing blood. There is a difference, and it is the most profound of all distinctions.
The Lord freely and voluntarily
shed his blood
After I wrote the first draft of this little booklet one good brother pointed out that my application of Psalms 22:14 was probably not right. I have gone back and read the text several times. Even though it leaves me having to admit that I have been wrong all along in my application of that text, I appreciate his faithfulness. None of us is right all the time, and I appreciate those who are faithful to point out my errors.
The lesson I was drawing from that verse is right; Christ did consciously and experientially feel the weight and the guilt of our sins pressing down on his soul as he hung on the cross. That was the very travail of his soul that Isaiah talks about. But I was using the wrong verse to prove it. This verse teaches an entirely different lesson.
That is one of our advantages as Primitive Baptists. We do not have seminaries, and do not want them. But you can be sure that if you miss the mark, and if your error is funda-mental, your brethren will beat your ears down. That can be painful, but I would not have it any other way. That fact generates a kind of uniformity the seminaries can ever produce.
Poured out like water
But, let’s go back to the verse and see exactly what it does say. It is amazing the light it casts on the subject before us.
In Psalms 22:14, we are brought to the moment of the Lord’s death. It reads like this; “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
It am of the opinion that you should read any text literally, unless there is a clear reason to do otherwise. This is one of the most literal of all texts, and it is a powerful statement, when you just let it say what it says.
If you look up that verse in Strongs’ Concordance, you will notice that the word translated melted is number 4549 in Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon. (That is in the back of Strong’s Concordance.) The word is mawsas. That did not help much; so I looked up mawsas in Gesenius’ Lexicon. According to Gesenius, mawsas means “to cause to flow, to flow down, to dissolve, to melt.”
You cannot imagine the thrill that ran over me when I read that definition. Admittedly, it meant that I had been reading the verse wrong for all these years; but I am perfectly willing to give up any opinion, if someone can show me that opinion is in error. The brother did me a great service; and I shall be forever in his debt.
Now, let’s go back and read that verse one more time. Remember that this entire passage is a prophecy of Christ on the cross. He is brought into the dust of death (vs. 15), and at the moment of his death, he says, “My heart is like wax.” In other words, his heart is no longer firm, and under pressure, and pumping blood. His heart is like wax; it is soft, and limp, and pliable.
Then he tells us why his “heart is like wax.” He says, “It is melted in the midst of my bowels.” His heart has melted (emptied, flowed down) into the midst of his bowels.
Emptied into the midst of his bowels
But to make it abundantly clear, he uses two different words to signify the same thing. He begins the verse with, “I am poured out like water. The word translated poured out is shawfak. If you look up that word in Strong’s Lexicon (it is number 8210), it is defined as “to spill forth….gush out, pour (out).” He says his blood gushed out into the midst of his bowels.
That was his own voluntary act; it was not the work of those wicked soldiers. He voluntarily poured out (shed) his life’s blood on behalf of his chosen.
It appears the Holy Spirit is making the text as clear as it needs to be—my own initial confusion notwithstanding. It is amazing how simple, how clear, the Bible becomes, if we just let it say what it says.
Isaiah tells us, “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior,” Isa. 45:15. That wicked crowd did not assist the Lord; they did not even know what was going on. At the moment God was providing salvation for his people, he hid what he was doing from the prying eyes of the wicked. They could see what they were doing; but they could not see what he was doing—out of their sight.
He voluntarily laid his life down
I am told that when a person was crucified, he did not die from his wounds. Having nails driven through their hands and feet was not in itself a mortal wound. Painful though those wounds were, they were not by themselves life-threatening. Rather, when a person was crucified, as his strength failed, his body would sink lower and lower, his lungs would fill with fluid, and the weight of his body pressing on his lungs smothered him. He would hold his weight up as long as he could, and when he could do so no longer, he finally smothered to death. That is one of the reasons crucifixion was such a slow, painful, agonizing death.
But the torment of the crucifixion, painful though it was, was not sufficient to kill the Lord. Just before he died, he cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. A person smothering to death does not cry with a loud voice. He was demonstrating for all to hear, that though he was about to die, they did not, and could not, kill him. He was about to voluntarily lay his life down.
At one moment he cried with a loud voice—he was very much alive. The next moment he yielded up the ghost and died.
Those who persist in claiming the soldiers succeeded in actually bringing about the death of the Lord need to tell us, what did those men do to the Lord between the time he cried with a loud voice and the time he died. At one moment he was very much alive; the next moment he was dead. What did the soldiers do—in that interval of time—that was sufficient to kill him?
The fact is that during that interval of time there was one final act that brought about his death. We are told that he yielded up the ghost. That was the single act that brought about his death. For all they did to him, he did not die until he voluntarily yielded up the ghost. But that was his act, not theirs. The Lord freely and voluntarily laid down his life.
When he died
our redemption was complete
It was the death of the Lord that paid our sin debt; and the instant he died, our sins were forever put away. Just before he died, he said, “It is finished;” he cried with a loud voice; he yielded up the ghost, and he died. The earth shook; the rocks rent; the veil of the temple was rent in twain; and God rolled our sins away.
John 19:32-34, “Then came the soldiers and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water.” It was after the Lord died—after our sins had been atoned for—the soldier pierced his side.
When he pierced the side of the Lord, “forthwith came there out blood and water,” not just blood, but blood and water. He had been some time dead; the separation of the blood that takes place at death was already well under way.
It is hard to imagine that soldier made any contribution to the atonement, when the atonement was already finished before he came along with his spear.
With his stripes we are healed
But somebody reminds us that Isaiah says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5.
I do not claim to have all the answers about this question, nor any other. I have had to change my mind too many times about too many things to claim to have more than a few answers about a few subjects. I have been wrong too many times to fall out with my brother, because he cannot exactly pronounce my favorite Shibboleth.
But, having said all that, I believe the Bible is clear enough for us to know that in the work of redemption the Lord did his work entirely alone.
Isa. 63:3, 5, “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me….and I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.”
The humiliation of the Lord,
and the atonement
To end where we began, we need to keep in mind that there were two contrary forces at work that day. The first was man at war with his Maker. The second was the grace of God working out the salvation of his people. The one resulted in all the abuse and the indignity—the humiliation—that was heaped on our Lord. Man was very much involved in that work. The second was the grace of God working out the atonement on behalf of his people. In that work God was entirely alone.
The abuse and the indignity they heaped on the Lord—and the stripes they laid on his back—cause the grace of God to shine all the more brightly; but nothing those wicked men did contributed in any way to our salvation. The stripes with which we are healed were not the stripes those wicked men put on his back. Those stripes contributed to his humiliation, but they were not the stripes with which the people of God are healed.
At the very most all they did to the Lord was a reflection of what God the Father did to him—out of their sight. “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel the Savior” (Isa. 45:15). While they were striping and bruising his body, God striped and bruised his soul. But God would not allow them to watch as he did his mighty work.
Someone recently made a movie about the crucifixion and the final hours leading up to it. I have not seen the movie; I don’t expect that I will. I do not want to see any actor pretending to be my Lord—not even play-acting. But from all over the land we hear reports of how people have been affected, and their lives impacted, by the graphic portrayal of his suffering and death.
I have no doubt the movie is as faithful to the facts as any movie has ever been. But I believe it is safe to say that the movie comes nowhere near portraying the actual suffering of the Lord. Isaiah says, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14). His visage (his face) was beaten until he hardly looked human. I have seen snippets of the movie on television, and it does not portray his beating as being all that brutal. So as graphic as the movie is, it still falls short of portraying his suffering for all it was.
But while I never expect to see the movie, I do often think about his suffering and death, and I cannot think about the beating he took, without, somehow, feeling the sting of the whip. I cannot think about how they slapped him and spat in his face, without feeling the anger rise up in me. I cannot think about how they denied him the modesty of his own clothing, without wanting to find something, a robe, a blanket, anything, and run up and cover him from their mockery. Oh, the mockery, the shame, the humiliation of it all. We could never, and should never, minimize the agony, the shame of all he suffered at the hands of those who crucified him. When I realize all he suffered for me, I want to fall at his feet, and say, “Thank you Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The travail of his soul
But, still, for all the shame, and the excruciating physical pain, he suffered, that was a small thing compared to the travail of his soul.
Isa. 53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”
For over fifty years I have preached about how the Lord legally and judicially carried our sins to the cross. And that is true; he did. That is the theme of this fifty third chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. But then, one day, I realized that, not only did the Lord legally and judicially carry my sins to the cross. He consciously carried my sins.
As he was hanging on the cross he could consciously feel the weight and the guilt of my sins. The Lord had never been so precious to me as he was, when I realized that he could consciously feel the guilt of my sins pressing down on his soul.
If you will, think back to a time when you did something you knew was wrong. You thought about it before you did it. You argued with your conscience. You decided that at any other time, and under any other circumstances, and, perhaps, for anybody else, it would be wrong, but maybe, just this once and never again, it would be alright. When you argue with yourself over whether something is wrong, you always lose.
So you went ahead and did whatever it was you were thinking about, and no sooner than you did it, your conscience woke up. Your conscience can be a very poor guide. It will be as quiet as a mouse until the deed is done, and then, when it is too late, it will wake up and accuse you.
Do you remember how guilty you felt, how helpless and undone? There was no excuse; you did it with your eyes open, and then you paid the consequences. There is no torment more painful than the torment of a guilty conscience. When you consider how you felt when your sins were pressing on your soul, suppose that at some time you should feel all the guilty consciences you have ever felt in your entire life tormenting you at the same time. Do you think you could bear the load?
Now consider that not only did the Lord consciously feel the weight and guilt of all your sins pressing on his soul as he was hanging on the cross, he could consciously feel ALL the guilt of ALL the sins of ALL his people.
Our consciences are more than a little hardened by sin. We do not have the same sensitivity to sin the Lord had. So it is impossible for us to feel what the Lord felt. More than that, the human mind cannot conceive of the travail of his soul as our Lord consciously felt all the weight and all the guilt of all the sins of all his people pressing down on him.
That was the travail of his soul Isaiah was talking about. That was what he carried on the cross. It is in that sense that Isaiah said, “He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” That was the greatest agony of the cross. Compared to that, the physical pain, excruciating though it must have been, was a little thing.
If his physical suffering was the greatest torment of the cross, there have been others who have suffered similar agony. We all know of people who have died in indescribable physical pain. But no man ever experienced what the Lord suffered as he felt the weight and the guilt of our sins pressing down on his soul. No man ever suffered what Isaiah calls the travail of his soul.
The justice of God is satisfied
The agony those soldiers imposed on his body did not satisfy the righteous demands of God’s law, but the travail of his soul did. At the very most all they did was a reflection of what God was doing—out of their sight. Let’s take one last look at what Isaiah calls the travail of his soul.
Isa. 53:4, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken of God, and afflicted.” Notice he was smitten of God; that is not the same as being beaten by the soldiers. At the very time the soldiers were doing their worst—out of their sight—God was doing all that was best for his people. He was afflicting the soul of our Lord.
Verse 5, “But he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities; he chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Again, notice that all of this was for our transgression, for our iniquities. Everything the soldiers did was for the purpose of satisfying their own malice. They did, indeed, beat him, but it was for a different cause.
Verse 10, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.” These are the bruises God put on him; they are not the bruises the soldiers inflicted. Again, it is God who put him to grief. The grief God heaped on his soul was far greater than the grief the soldiers inflicted on his body.
Verse 11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” He did not say, “He shall see the pain in his hands and his feet.” He did not say, “He shall see the pain in his back.” The travail of his soul satisfied the demands of the broken law of God; the pain inflicted by those soldiers did not.
Verse 12, “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death.” The word that is here translated poured out is different than either word used in Psalm 22:14. Here the word is arah. Gesenius defines the word as, “to empty a vessel, to pour out, in doing which its bottom is laid bare, uncovered.” The word used is different, but the principle is the same. The Lord “poured out his soul unto death.” His heart gushed out into the midst of his bowels. That was his act; it was not the act of those wicked soldiers. He voluntarily laid down his life; it was not taken from him.
Again, the question is whether, all by himself, he redeemed his people by shedding his blood, or if the soldiers participated by drawing blood.
The prophet will not allow us to miss the point. “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief,” verse 10. The passage is as clear as it needs to be. The Lord bruised him; the Lord put him to grief. That was God’s work, and it is with those stripes we are healed.
If you are convinced that was man’s work, I hope you will not feel hard at me for believing that—from beginning to end—and in every respect—the atonement was God’s work.
The Old Testament type
If you will, allow me one more thought as a postscript. The Old Testament sacrifices were symbolic of the sacrificial death of Christ. In those sacrifices there were four elements necessary. There was the sacrifice, the lamb, the bullock, etc. There was the priest to offer the sacrifice. There was the altar on which the sacrifice was offered. And there was God himself to accept the sacrifice. That is a clear picture of the offering of Christ on our behalf.
First, Christ was himself the sacrifice. John 1:29, “Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” Those Old Testament sacrifices pointed to him.
Second, he was the priest offering the sacrifice. Heb. 2:17, “Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”
Third, his own deity was the altar on which, in his human nature, he was offered as a sacrifice to God. It was the altar that sanctified the offering. Matt. 23:19, “Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?” The altar on which the Lord was offered to the Father was not Calvary. If that was the case, the altar was desecrated; there were two thieves crucified with him. The altar on which he was offered to the Father was his deity. It was his deity which set apart and sanctified his humanity.
Fourth, there was the Father, who accepted the offering as full and complete satisfaction for our sin debt. He imputed our sins to his Son (Isa.53:6); he poured out on him his wrath against sin; he smote him (vs. 4), bruised him, and brought him to grief (vs.10); and he was satisfied with the travail of his soul (vs. 11) as an offering for sin (vs. 10).
This was strictly a transaction between God the Father and his Son—man was not included in that transaction
He did his work out of sight of the crowd. They did not participate in the transaction. They did not even know what was going on. The only thing they accomplished was to rage against their Maker at the very time he was working out redemption on behalf of his people.
Isa. 63:3, 5, “I have trodden the winepress along; and of the people there was none with me….And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury it upheld me.”
THE END