Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Here we find the outline of the humility and condescension of Christ. And the admonition to seek this same attitude as our own. What lessons does the Cross of Calvary have for us?

Calvary presents to our dull senses that indeed "God so loved the world," so loved you and me that He gave not one son among many, but the only Begotten full of grace and truth. In the cross is all the gift of heaven bestowed. "Wonder O heaven and be astonished O earth! And "unto us which are saved it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18, 24. It is the wisdom of God, the revelation of love at the cross that "riches and honor" "and righteousness " is found (Proverbs 8:18).

Let us by the Holy Spirit seek "the deep things of God" "not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." For "we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory." "But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." 1 Corinthians 2:10, 13, 7, 9, 10.

Let us begin looking at the mystery, the hidden wisdom that will change us from "glory to glory" through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as we compare spiritual truth with spiritual truth.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law.

Cut Off:

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was He stricken.

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Jesus was cut off; what does that mean?

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

And what is the curse?

The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. And he said unto me, what seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth [the eighth commandment,] shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth [the third commandment] shall be cut off as on that side according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

We find here that to be "cut off" as Jesus was means to die the death that all unrepentant sinners shall face.

For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. And He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.

We see in these verses that it is the wicked that are cut off, destroyed in the lake of fire, suffering the vengeance of eternal torment. It is the mental anguish and guilt of the wicked that Christ bore, not for Himself, but for all humanity. He was made sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God.

There are two deaths spoken of in the Bible. Since many thousands died of crucifixion, what made Christ's death different? Christ bore the wages of sin.

Two Deaths of the Bible

The First Death Called a Sleep:

So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

In the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, twenty-five times the record says of their deaths, "He slept with his fathers." The Scripture records the words of Christ regarding His friend Lazarus who fell sick and died, Jesus said of him: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said the disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death; but they thought He had spoken of taking rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." John 11:11–14. The words of Christ are clear: "Lazarus sleepeth;" "Lazarus is dead."

Therefore the word of Christ is that when a man is dead, he is asleep. Paul says that "David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption." Acts 13:36. And Peter says of him, "David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:34. And the reason is that "David slept with his fathers and was buried." 1 Kings 2:10. Of Stephen it is recorded: "He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, laid not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Acts 7:60. It is certain, therefore, that the Bible plainly teaches that when man dies he is unconscious, this the word of God plainly likens to sleep.

The Second Death:

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Christ experienced a type of second death for sin, in that He suffered the guilt, shame, and separation from God that sinners will experience.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Taste—To experience. Christ tasted the sting of death. See 1 Corinthians 15:56.

Many have suffered death by slow tortures; others have suffered death by crucifixion. In what does the death of God's dear Son differ from these? It is true He died upon the cross a most cruel death; yet others, for His dear sake, have suffered equally, so far as bodily torture is concerned. Why, then, was the suffering of Christ more dreadful than that of other persons who have yielded their lives for His sake? If the sufferings of Christ consisted in physical pain alone, then His death was no more painful than that of some of the martyrs.

But bodily pain was but a small part of the agony of God's dear Son. The sins of the world were upon Him, also the sense of His Father's wrath as He suffered the penalty of the law transgressed. It was these that crushed His divine soul. It was the hiding of His Father's face—a sense that His own dear Father had forsaken Him—which brought despair. The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary. He was oppressed by the powers of darkness. He had not one ray of light to brighten the future.

1. Sinner:

The soul that sinneth it shall die an everlasting death,—a death from which there will be no hope of a resurrection.

Christ:

Bright hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the tomb a conqueror.

2. Sinner:

These shall go away into everlasting punishment.

Christ:

The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that their separation was to be eternal.

3. Sinner:

He smiteth through the proud. For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Christ:

Isaiah 53:4; Zechariah 13:7

Smitten of God.

4. Sinner:

Wrath of God abideth on him.

Christ:

Psalm 88:7

Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves.

The sins of the world were upon Him, also the sense of His Father's wrath as He suffered the penalty of the law transgressed. It was these that crushed His divine soul. It was the hiding of His Father's face—a sense that His own dear Father had forsaken Him—which brought despair.

5. Sinner:

Cast into outer darkness; blackness of darkness forever.

Christ:

The sin of the world, with all its terribleness, was felt to the utmost by the Son of God. The displeasure of the Father for sin, and its penalty, which is death, were all that He could realize through this amazing darkness. Christ felt much as sinners will feel when the vials of God's wrath shall be poured out upon them. Black despair, like the pall of death, will gather about their guilty souls, and then they will realize to the fullest extent the sinfulness of sin.

6. Sinner:

Wages of sin is death.

Christ:

He was made sin for us. Tasted death for every man.

7. Sinner:

To them that do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.

Christ:

I …mingled My drink with weeping. Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted Me up, and cast Me down.

The Suffering of Rejection:

What was to be gained by this sacrifice? How hopeless appeared the guilt and ingratitude of men! In its hardest features Satan pressed the situation upon the Redeemer: The people who claim to be above all others in temporal and spiritual advantages have rejected You. They are seeking to destroy You, the foundation, the center and seal of the promises made to them as a peculiar people. One of Your own disciples, who has listened to Your instruction, and has been among the foremost in church activities, will betray You. One of Your most zealous followers will deny you. All will forsake you. Christ's whole being abhorred the thought. That those whom He had undertaken to save, those whom He loved so much, should unite in the plots of Satan, this pierced His soul. The conflict was terrible.

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? Why art thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. But Thou art He that took Me out of the womb: Thou didst make Me hope when I was upon My mother's breasts. I was cast upon Thee from the womb:

Thou art my God from My mother's belly. Be not far from Me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed Me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset Me round. They gaped upon Me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. 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. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws; and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death.

For dogs have compassed Me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me. They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture. But be not Thou far from Me, O LORD: O My strength, haste Thee to help Me. Deliver My soul from the sword; My darling from the power of the dog.

False witnesses did rise up; they laid to My charge things that I knew not. They rewarded Me evil for good to the spoiling of My soul. But as for Me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth: I humbled My soul with fasting; and My prayer returned into Mine own bosom. But in Mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against Me, and I knew it not; they did tear Me, and ceased not: With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon Me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt Thou look on? rescue My soul from their destructions, My darling from the lions.

I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of My heart. Lord, all My desire is before Thee; and My groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth, My strength faileth Me: as for the light of Mine eyes, it also is gone from Me. My lovers and My friends stand aloof from My sore; and My kinsmen stand afar off. They also that seek after My life lay snares for Me: and they that seek My hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

Reproach hath broken My heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

Lord, why castest Thou off My soul? Why hidest Thou Thy face from Me? I am afflicted and ready to die from My youth up: while I suffer Thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over Me; Thy terrors have cut Me off. They came round about Me daily like water; they compassed Me about together. Lover and friend hast Thou put far from Me, and Mine acquaintance into darkness.

Bearing the Wrath of God:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

Forsake—Desert, leave behind, abandon.

The Book of Hebrews:

M.L. Andreasen, pp. 109, 110

In any evaluation of the sufferings of Christ, consideration must be given to the spiritual aspects of the agony rather than the mere physical. As far as bodily suffering is concerned—others have suffered as much or more, and exhibited a courage that must command admiration.

But mere physical agony does not explain the heart-rending cry that came from the lips of the Saviour, ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?' Matthew 27:46. Only spiritual distress can account for this, a feeling of being forsaken, being left alone, and that in the crisis hour. We hear no complaint as the nails are driven into His hands; we hear no complaint as the cross is rudely thrust into the ground; we hear no complaint as He is spit upon, scourged, reviled; the thing that occupied His mind was the hiding of God. Martyrs were upheld in their last hour by the assurance of the love and care of God. But not so [with] Christ. He was alone, and apparently forsaken. To Him, God seemed far off.

Oh, was there ever suffering and sorrow like that endured by the dying Saviour! It was the sense of His Father's displeasure which made His cup so bitter. It was not bodily suffering which so quickly ended the life of Christ upon the cross. It was the crushing weight of the sins of the world, and a sense of His Father's wrath. The Father's glory and sustaining presence had left Him, and despair pressed its crushing weight of darkness upon Him and forced from His pale and quivering lips the anguished cry: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring?

Christ's heart was pierced by a far sharper pain than that caused by the nails driven into His hands and feet. He was bearing the sins of the whole world, enduring our punishment,—the wrath of God against transgression. His trial involved the fierce temptation of thinking He was forsaken of God.

The sin of the world, with all its terribleness, was felt to the utmost by the Son of God. The displeasure of the Father for sin, and its penalty, which is death, were all that He could realize through this amazing darkness. He was tempted to fear that sin was so offensive in the sight of His Father that He could not be reconciled to His Son. The fierce temptation that His own Father had forever left Him caused that piercing cry from the cross: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

Christ felt much as sinners will feel when the vials of God's wrath shall be poured out upon them. Black despair, like the pall of death, will gather about their guilty souls, and then they will realize to the fullest extent the sinfulness of sin.

O Lord God of My salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee: let My prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto My cry; for My soul is full of troubles: and My life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom Thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from Thy hand. Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon Me, and Thou hast afflicted Me with all Thy waves.

Thou hast put away Mine acquaintance far from Me; Thou hast made Me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon Thee, I have stretched out My hands unto Thee. Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Shall Thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? or Thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But unto Thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall My prayer prevent Thee.

Some have limited views of the atonement. They think that Christ suffered only a small portion of the penalty of the law of God; they suppose that, while the wrath of God was felt by His dear Son, He had, through all His painful sufferings, the evidence of His Father's love and acceptance; that the portals of the tomb before Him were illuminated with bright hope, and that He had the abiding evidence of His future glory. Here is a great mistake. Christ's keenest anguish was a sense of His Father's displeasure. His mental agony because of this was of such intensity that man can have but faint conception of it.

He felt that by sin He was being separated from His Father. The gulf was so broad, so black, so deep, that His spirit shuddered before it. This agony He must not exert His divine power to escape. As a man He must suffer the consequences of man's sin. As man He must endure the wrath of God against transgression.

Bearing the Sins of the World:

The sins of men weighed heavily upon Christ, and the sense of God's wrath against sin was crushing out His life.

Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones.

Could mortals have viewed the amazement and the sorrow of the angelic host as they watched in silent grief the Father separating His beams of light, love, and glory from the beloved Son of His bosom, they would better understand how offensive sin is in His sight. The sword of justice was now to awake against His dear Son.

The death of Christ proclaimed the justice of His Father's law in punishing the transgressor, in that He consented to suffer the penalty of the law Himself in order to save fallen man from its curse.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father's mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.

For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Died of a Broken Heart for You:

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and he bowed His head, and gave up the Ghost. One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

When the soldier pierced the side of Jesus as He hung upon the cross, there came out two distinct streams, one of blood, the other of water. The blood was to wash away the sins of those who should believe in His name, and the water was to represent that living water which is obtained from Jesus to give life to the believer.

Reproach hath broken My heart.

Christ the sinless became sin for man. He bore the guilt of transgression, and the hiding of His Father's face, until His heart was broken and His life crushed out.

It was not the spear thrust, it was not the pain of the cross, that caused the death of Jesus. That cry, uttered "with a loud voice" (Matt. 27:50; Luke 23:46), at the moment of death, the stream of blood and water that flowed from His side, declared that He died of a broken heart. His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world.

He bore the guilt and shame of sin, and the hiding of His Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke His heart and crushed out His life on Calvary's cross.

Faith is the Victory:

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit; and having said thus, He gave up the Ghost.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

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.

In silence the beholders watched for the end of the fearful scene. The sun shone forth; but the cross was still enveloped in darkness. Priests and rulers looked toward Jerusalem; and lo, the dense cloud had settled over the city and the plains of Judea. The Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the world, was withdrawing His beams from the once favored city of Jerusalem. The fierce lightnings of God's wrath were directed against the fated city.

Suddenly the gloom lifted from the cross, and in clear, trumpet like tones, that seemed to resound throughout creation, Jesus cried, "It is finished." "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." A light encircled the cross, and the face of the Saviour shone with a glory like the sun. He then bowed His head upon His breast, and died.

Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father's acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father's favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.

Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, pp. 210, 211

In His dying agony, as He yields up His precious life, He has by faith alone to trust in Him whom it has ever been His joy to obey. He is not cheered with clear, bright rays of hope on the right hand nor on the left. All is enshrouded in oppressive gloom. Amid the awful darkness which is felt by sympathizing nature, the Redeemer drains the mysterious cup even to its dregs. Denied even bright hope and confidence in the triumph which will be His in the future, He cries with a loud voice: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." He is acquainted with the character of His Father, with His great Love, and in submission He drops into His hands.