This scene, or rather these scenes of Matt. 28, are very striking and solemn. In them we see Satan and man acting, doing deadly work, and telling out their thoughts and feelings toward God's holy One; He in meekness and grace submitting to all. Here He is seen as the unresisting Lamb, whether in man's cruel and wicked hands, or in the hand of Him who made Him sin for us, and dealt with Him accordingly. It is marvelous the perfection that comes out in this lowly, self-emptied One, as He passes through these scenes. Moral glories surrounded Him, which God alone appreciated, which our hearts, even now, but feebly enter into, but which will be a wonder to us throughout eternity.
The blessed Jesus has passed through the trying scene of Gethsemane, sweat, as it were drops of blood, has rolled from His precious brow; the dark, deep cup of anticipation has been emptied. He has submitted to be captured and bound by His enemies, and having been led to the high priest's palace and condemned by him, He is sent to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, to receive further trial.
" And Jesus stood before the governor." How strangely inconsistent! God revealed in flesh, standing at the bar of man, man daring to try at his faulty tribunal his Creator; the King of kings standing bound, to be adjudged of the princes of this world the Holy One of God, Jehovah's fellow, in the power of man, unholy man, to do with Him as he pleased, staying not in his Satan-led course until he had stained his hands in the blood of the Lamb of God! Herein was indeed the culmination of human guilt, the worst of man's acts, the full expression of his badness, and enmity against God; but at the same time the heart is relieved by the lowly grace, the profound humility, the unresisting love, and perfections of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Man's side could not be darker but how wondrously bright that of the Son of God.
Man's trial of Jesus was a moment above all others in man's history. Scan the past and look into the future; however bad it may be, it seems not to rise up to this. Man's future attempts to dispute with the rightful Heir (Rev. 19;11-21), will be but the result of his seeking to get rid of Him here. His hands stained with His blood, and having succeeded' in casting Him out of the inheritance (Matt. 21:33- 41), what more natural than that he should seek to retain an inheritance that he has " seized," and dispute the claims of the Son of Man when He comes.
This trial of the Lord Jesus was a moment of deepest interest to the angels of heaven; for with what awe and deep feelings they must have gazed upon the scene; as it was in the ways of God with man. This act of man's, this full, deep and awful expression of his wickedness and what he was capable of doing, were but to be the moral judgment of man in the sight of God. " Now is the judgment of this world." After this it would be no longer man as a probationer, but as one judged already, although allowed to go on during the lingerings of divine grace, and the accomplishment of God's purpose, ere the sentence already passed be executed.
Now look at the scene. There is Pilate, the judge upon the seat of judgment, though not of justice;. there are the priests and the people, Jews and Gen- tiles, kings and princes, yea, the representatives of the great, human family; and in the midst stands Jesus the Son of God. What a moment for heaven, and what a moment for earth!
Pilate says: " Art thou the king of the Jews? " The lowly prisoner says: " Thou sayest."
Pilate again speaks, but this time addresses the multitude before him, the accusers of Jesus: " Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? "
His wife's dream interrupts him, and the chief priests and elders incite the people on, that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
Again the governor appeals to them: " Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? "
What a moment! The Son of God and Barabbas are in the scales of human judgment. Which will man take? Whom will he choose?
Ah, listen! and let those who boast of human goodness be ashamed at the decision.
They said, " Barabbas!"
“ What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? "
They all say unto him: " Let him be crucified."
But one more appeal and all is over; the Roman governor, as if somewhat alive to the innocence of his prisoner, says: Why, what evil hath He done? "
This only irritated the foes of Jesus and the enemies of justice, and as if they thirsted for His blood and were angry at the delay, " They cried out the more, saying, Let Him be crucified."
The judge having washed his hands of condemned innocence, and the people having taken upon themselves the responsibility of the deed, though in nowise clearing Pilate, the trial closes. The innocent One is condemned; oppression rejoices against judgment;-but for a little.
Jesus is hurried from Pilate's judgment hall, to that of the common hall, there to receive at the soldiers' hands further insult and scorn, of which the scarlet robe, the crown of thorns, the reed, the spitting, and the smiting, are the witnesses. But without a murmur! Wonderful perfection!
From the common hall He is hurried to Calvary’s hill, then by wicked hands impaled on the tree. Here the sentence passed was executed the blood thirsted for was obtained; and as if to make sure of the death of the object of their hatred, they pierce His holy side with a spear; and to give a finishing touch to the dark picture, and a fuller expression to the wickedness and hardness of their hearts, they deride and scoff at the expiring Sufferer.
But not a word that spoke of murmuring, or that expressed aught but love escaped His lips; but rather the contrary: " Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
Man has done his worst, and seemingly Satan has triumphed; they have, for a moment, prevailed against the Son of God.
But, let us not hurry on as if this were all in this scene. It was not all. Man and Satan have acted hitherto; but ere the blessed One expires, He has to tread other ground, pass through other scenes, bear a. mightier load, hear and experience the roarings of deeper waters, feel a heavier hand, and endure greater woes and sorrows.
The blessed One passes from the dealings of man to the dealings of God; from the scene of the expression of human sin to that where atonement was made for it; from the stroke of man to the stroke of God; from the abandonment of man to the forsaking of God. He must, in His death, be not only the expression of human guilt, which His death was, viewed in one way, but He must also be made sin, and the hand of God must lay on Him, the holy Substitute, the sins and iniquities of His people. And as such, lie must turn His face from Him! Now He is alone, absolutely alone; no angel to strengthen Him here as in Gethsemane. Gethsemane's sorrows reach not to these, though they led to them. Anticipation of the cup then, but here, the cup itself.
Ah, now listen! listen to that cry from amidst that darkness, and from the depth of those waves. Listen to the roar of those waters, but this voice rises above them all: " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? "
These are scenes whither we cannot come; these are waters we cannot fathom; and, blessed be God, these are woes, though due to us, we shall never taste.
There was a distance between the ark and the host (Joshua in 4). And the Lord had said to Peter, when he vainly thought he could follow Him Thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter" (John 13:36). Yes; when the terrible form of death had been taken away, and that which was its sting atoned for, and the strength of sin-the law, had in every way had its claims met, then Peter as a martyr could follow.
Flesh and blood would not avail him. Nothing short of the absolute perfection of the Lamb of God could stand in these roaring waves. The boastful Peter quailed at the words of a servant-maid; but the One of whom we speak, trusted in God though forsaken and judged of Him.
Ah, yes; it is a reality of infinite worth, to faith, that He was judged of God. A substitute stands and acts in the place of another. So it was here. " The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all." "He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He path put Him to grief; when Thou shalt make His soul a' n offering for sin," &c. " 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" (Isa. 53). " Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree " (1 Peter 2:24). " He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification " (Rom. 4:25). What treasures these passages are to the believing sinner, and what a clear note they sound, as to the precious doctrine of substitution. Jesus took cm. place; made Himself responsible for His people's sins places Himself under the dreadful consequences of His people's condition, and God inflicts upon Him all the righteous judgment due to them. " He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him " (2 Cor. 5:21).
" Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." All is finished; God is glorified; redemption is accomplished; salvation procured, and God in righteousness can carry out all the purposes of His grace and love. " God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Wonderful facts!
But will God wait until the third day to give expression to His appreciation of His Son and His estimate of what was accomplished? Ah, no; true, the full pleasure of God was expressed when He, by His power and glory, raised Jesus from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in glory, but before that lie told out in unmistakable language His delight and estimate.
" And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept, arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many (ver. 51-53). Instantaneous was the response from God, glorified about sin, to the holy Sufferer now dead upon the cross. The Lord Jesus dies having finished the work; God immediately expresses His divine satisfaction with what was done. The veil is rent, the rocks rend, and the graves open. Blessed threefold testimony of the satisfaction of Heaven!
What a voice this has for the believer. God had no pleasure in The multitude of sacrifices in the old dispensation; but in this He has infinite pleasure, because now He can in grace come out to the sinner and conduct him as a pardoned and justified soul right into the very holiest of all. God can have the sinner with Himself. Nothing short of this could possibly, satisfy the heart of God. In this He has infinite pleasure and delight. God in righteousness can save the sinner, and the sinner thus saved, can stand within the holiest, having no more conscience of sins-a conscience purged by the blood of Jesus.
Thus we see that that which gave a full expression to man's sin, and Satan's enmity, also manifested God's great love to man and in His divine wisdom He turned that death, which expressed man's wickedness, into a channel of blessing to him, on the ground of there having been by the same death, a full atonement for sin made, and the accomplishment of redemption. Thus God in the fullest sense, made the wrath of man to praise Him. He is glorified about sin, and every claim of His moral government maintained and established, while at the same time the love of His heart finds satisfaction, in carrying out its blessed purposes respecting man.
And through the whole the perfection of the Lord Jesus is seen, standing in marked contrast with man's extreme wickedness, keeping the place of the dependent and obedient One, submitting to the will of the Father, and accomplishing that will by enduring the unutterable woes and horrors of the cross: that cross which not only involved man's hatred and Satan's power and enmity and a violent death at their hands, with all the exposure and ignominy attending it; but which also involved "being made sin," being “being “shut out from God,” and in the way of “Judgment” treated as the sinner.
Surely it is the Christian's joy and glory to know that He who went down so far that „He could go no farther down, has been seated on the pinnacle of glory at God's right hand, having all power and judgment put into His hands, and that there He is crowned with glory and honor, and from thence will come to assert His rights.