Christ Suffered For Us

When did Christ’s sufferings begin?

• We immediately think of the cross. 
• However, we must not restrict Christ’s sufferings just to the cross. Yes, that is where His suffering was greatest, but Christ’s suffering began at the beginning of His life. 

Christ’s sufferings began right at the beginning of His life. 

• He was born to poor parents. 
• At His birth, there was no room for Him in the inn, which symbolized what Christ said later: 
• “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). 

The rejection of Christ began already at His birth. 

• Herod threatened his life so that He had to flee. 
• And His suffering continued throughout His life. 

During His earthly ministry He was misunderstood, misquoted. 

• He had to endure weakness of faith in those who loved Him, 
• and open hostility from those who hated Him. 
• Yet the suffering of Christ reached its horrible climax on the cross.
• Christ suffered from the beginning of His life on earth to the end thereof.

Christ suffered in body and soul. 

• Christ’s affliction was not limited to the whipping He received from the hands of Pilate’s men prior to His crucifixion. 
• It was not limited to the pain that came from the crown of thorns put on His head. 
• It was not limited to the agony of nails piercing His hands and feet. 
• It was not limited to the horrible pain of slow suffocation that came through crucifixion. 

There was also the spiritual suffering of Christ in His soul. 

• Since man had sinned in body and soul, our Mediator was to be punished in body and soul. 
• Christ suffered in both that He might deliver both from destruction.

Christ’s spiritual sufferings were also lifelong. 

• He endured the shortcomings of His parents as a child in Nazareth.
• He bore the abuses of His brothers and His peers. 
• He suffered the taunts of the Jews and even more, He had to endure the rejection of God. 

For three hours the sun ceased to shine. 

• In Scripture, light is a symbol of God’s favor; 
• darkness is a symbol of God’s disfavor, of being forsaken by God.
• After the three hours of darkness, Christ cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 
• That was the greatest suffering of Christ! 

Men on earth have experienced greater physical suffering than Christ,

• but none on earth have experienced any spiritual suffering comparable to that which Christ endured. 

Q. What do you confess when you say that He suffered? 

• During all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end, Christ bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race.
• Thus, by His suffering, as the only atoning sacrifice, 
• He has redeemed our body and soul from everlasting damnation,
• and obtained for us the grace of God, righteousness, and eternal life.

To be continued...

Adapted Excerpt from Only By True Faith by Van Delden