Imagine two giant millstones, one turning on top of the other. Imagine that caught between the two is a single grain of wheat that is pulled under the massive weight. First, its hull is crushed beyond recognition, and then its inwards parts are poured out and ground into dust. There is no hope of retrieval or reconstruction. All is lost and beyond repair. Thus, in a similar fashion, it pleased the Lord to crush His only Son, and put Him to grief unspeakable. Thus, it pleased the Son to submit to such suffering that God might be glorified and a people might be redeemed.
We should not think that God found some gleeful pleasure in the suffering of His beloved Son, but through His death, the will of God was accomplished. No other means had the power to put away sin, satisfy divine justice, and appease the wrath of God against us. Unless that divine grain of wheat had fallen to the ground and died, it would have abided alone without a people or a bride. The pleasure was not found in the suffering, but in all that such suffering would accomplish: God would be revealed in a glory yet unknown to men or angels, and a people would be brought into unhindered fellowship with their God.
The beloved Puritan writer John Flavel once wrote a dialogue between the Father and the Son regarding fallen humanity and great price that would be required to obtain our redemption. It beautifully illustrates the true agony of the Cross, and the love of the Father and the Son which moved them to embrace it. Flavel writes: “Here you may suppose the Father to say, when driving His bargain with Christ for you –
Father: My Son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls? And thus Christ returns.
Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe Thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shall thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer their wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.
Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.
Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it!”
It is sometimes thought and even preached that the Father looked down from heaven and witnessed the suffering that was heaped upon His Son by the hands of men, and that He counted such affliction as payment for our sins. This is heresy of the worst kind. Christ satisfied divine justice not by merely enduring the affliction of men, but by enduring the wrath of God. It takes more than crosses, nails, crowns of thorns, and lances to pay for sin. The believer is saved, not simply because of what men did to Christ on the Cross, but because of what God did to Him – He crushed Him under the full force of His wrath against us. Rarely is this truth made clear enough in the abundance of all our Gospel preaching!
God Will Provide
In one of the most epic narratives in the Old Testament, the patriarch Abraham is commanded to carry his son Isaac to Mount Moriah, and there, to offer him as a sacrifice to God.
“Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
What a burden was laid upon Abraham! We cannot even begin to imagine the sadness that filled the old man’s heart and tortured him every step of his journey. The Scriptures are careful to tell us that he was commanded to offer “his son, his only son, whom he loved.” The specificity of the language seems designed to catch our attention and make us think that there is more meaning hidden in these words than what first glance can tell; that this man and this boy are simply types or shadows of a greater Father, a greater Son, and a greater sacrifice!
On the third day, the two reached the appointed place, and the father bound his beloved son with his own hand. Finally, in submission to what must be done, he laid his hand upon his boy’s brow and “took the knife to slay him.” At that very moment, the mercy of God interposed, and the old man’s hand was stayed. God called out to him from heaven and said:
“Abraham, Abraham!” …Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
At the sound of the Lord’s voice, Abraham raised his eyes, and found a ram in the thicket that was caught by its horns. He took the ram, and offered it up in the place of his son. He then named that place YHWH-jireh or “The Lord will provide.” Thus, it is a faithful saying that remains until this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
As the curtains draw to a close on this epic moment in history, not only Abraham, but also everyone who has ever read this account, breathes a sigh of relief that the boy is spared. We think to ourselves what a beautiful ending to the story, but it was not an ending, it was a mere intermission!
Two thousand years later, the curtain opens again. The background is dark and ominous. At center stage is the Son of God on Mount Calvary. He is bound by loving obedience to the will of His Father. He hangs there bearing the sin of His people. He is accursed – Betrayed by His creation and forsaken of God. Then, the silence is broken with the horrifying thunder of God’s wrath. The Father takes the knife, draws back His arm, and slays “His Son, His only Son, whom He loves.” And the words of Isaiah the prophet are fulfilled:
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed… But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.”
The curtain is drawn to a close on a slain Son and a crucified Messiah. Unlike the account of Isaac, there was no ram to die in His place. He was the Lamb who would die for the sins of the world. He is God’s provision for the redemption of His people. He the fulfillment of which Isaac and the ram were only shadows. In Him, that dreadful Mount called Golgotha is now renamed YHWH-jireh or “The Lord will provide.” And it is a faithful saying that remains until this day:
“In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
Calvary is the mount and salvation is the provision. God once called out to Abraham: “Abraham, Abraham… now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Those of us who believe now cry out to God with a similar prose:
“God, my God, now I know that you love me since you have not withheld your Son, your only Son, whom You loved, from me.”
The curtains are drawn on a dead Messiah, but it is still not the end. One more scene remains… A resurrection is to follow and a great coronation is to be held!