Christ Our All-Satisfying Sacrifice
Christ Our All-Satisfying Sacrifice
Jesus Christ, our everything. Our portion, our delight, our deliverer, our redeemer, our Passover, our treasure, One who does all things well. He is the One in whom has been given all authority on earth and in heaven, One who lays down His life, and One who can take it up again, the One who is the first and the last, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, the great I Am. The English language does not have adequate enough, superlative enough, or descriptive enough words to fully convey His majesty. The Word has become flesh and has dwelt among us, and now is seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. He is indescribable, invincible, God only wise. And we have come to know God thru Him. And God's word which we hide in our hearts is that written word that formed His thoughts, filled His heart, and regulated His ways. Now that we are 6 weeks into the New Year, how are we all doing at beating a path to that Word? There is still time to be reading, meditating on, and memorizing His word yet this year.
He has experienced so much for us, has shown such a love that transcends understanding to us, the One who justifies the many, as He did bear their iniquities. The agony in Luke 22:44 “And being in agony, He was praying very fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.” It is a feeling of great fear, excruciating anguish, and wrenching torment. This is the only place this Greek word for agony is used, AGONIA, in the New Testament, and the only Person it is used for. As we cry to the Father from Earth, He cried out from the Cross. He was human as Mary's Son, just as He was Divine as God's Son. Hebrews 5:7,”In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” The Greek word for crying, KRAVI, is used only 6 times in the New Testament, used also in Rev.21:4, “There will no longer be any mourning, crying, or pain.” Not for Christ, not for you, not for me.
And then there was distress. Matt.26:37, “And He took with Him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.” The Greek word for distressed is ADEMONEO, used only two other times in the New Testament, and used by another gospel writer Mark, and again only for the man Christ Jesus. It has to deal with a great amount of stress. As His love for us is past finding out, past comprehension, so His pain for us in going to the cross and impending death for us is past finding out, past comprehension as well. So as in Isa.53:11, part of it was quoted earlier above, as a result of the anguish of Jesus’s soul, the Father will send it and be satisfied, by the Father's knowledge, the Righteous One, Jesus, the Father's Servant, will justify the many, as Jesus will bear their iniquities.
Commentator Alexander Maclaren states, “We also cannot but think of the innocent blood, shed on Calvary, of the Brother of us all, whose sacrifice was accepted of God, His blood too, cried from the ground, has a voice which speaks in the ear of God, but not to plead for vengeance, but for pardon.” It was this act, this most unfair act, acted upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that satisfied Divine justice, and brought us sinful rebels to experience God's forgiveness, to taste the promise of an eternity with Him of undeserved bliss!
Elder Randy Slak
02/15/2023
Jesus Christ, our everything. Our portion, our delight, our deliverer, our redeemer, our Passover, our treasure, One who does all things well. He is the One in whom has been given all authority on earth and in heaven, One who lays down His life, and One who can take it up again, the One who is the first and the last, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, the great I Am. The English language does not have adequate enough, superlative enough, or descriptive enough words to fully convey His majesty. The Word has become flesh and has dwelt among us, and now is seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. He is indescribable, invincible, God only wise. And we have come to know God thru Him. And God's word which we hide in our hearts is that written word that formed His thoughts, filled His heart, and regulated His ways. Now that we are 6 weeks into the New Year, how are we all doing at beating a path to that Word? There is still time to be reading, meditating on, and memorizing His word yet this year.
He has experienced so much for us, has shown such a love that transcends understanding to us, the One who justifies the many, as He did bear their iniquities. The agony in Luke 22:44 “And being in agony, He was praying very fervently, and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.” It is a feeling of great fear, excruciating anguish, and wrenching torment. This is the only place this Greek word for agony is used, AGONIA, in the New Testament, and the only Person it is used for. As we cry to the Father from Earth, He cried out from the Cross. He was human as Mary's Son, just as He was Divine as God's Son. Hebrews 5:7,”In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” The Greek word for crying, KRAVI, is used only 6 times in the New Testament, used also in Rev.21:4, “There will no longer be any mourning, crying, or pain.” Not for Christ, not for you, not for me.
And then there was distress. Matt.26:37, “And He took with Him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.” The Greek word for distressed is ADEMONEO, used only two other times in the New Testament, and used by another gospel writer Mark, and again only for the man Christ Jesus. It has to deal with a great amount of stress. As His love for us is past finding out, past comprehension, so His pain for us in going to the cross and impending death for us is past finding out, past comprehension as well. So as in Isa.53:11, part of it was quoted earlier above, as a result of the anguish of Jesus’s soul, the Father will send it and be satisfied, by the Father's knowledge, the Righteous One, Jesus, the Father's Servant, will justify the many, as Jesus will bear their iniquities.
Commentator Alexander Maclaren states, “We also cannot but think of the innocent blood, shed on Calvary, of the Brother of us all, whose sacrifice was accepted of God, His blood too, cried from the ground, has a voice which speaks in the ear of God, but not to plead for vengeance, but for pardon.” It was this act, this most unfair act, acted upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that satisfied Divine justice, and brought us sinful rebels to experience God's forgiveness, to taste the promise of an eternity with Him of undeserved bliss!
Elder Randy Slak
02/15/2023