CALVARY shows us a wondrous sight, the death of the Son of God, a death quite of its own kind. Ours is the wages of sin, the due reward of our deeds, the natural moral result of our condition and character. But Jesus was not in this state. He was "separate from sinners." No sin, no principle of death was in Him. "In Him was life." If death, therefore, touch Him, it must do so in a way altogether peculiar.
And so it did. "He was made sin for us." He presented Himself to God, as One, who, though carrying life and title to life, was ready to surrender it for us, who carried death and the righteous sentence of it in ourselves.
It was to God Jesus turned, offering Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and was made sin. And the three hours of darkness were the expression of God's acceptance of this offer. For no darkness need there be at any other death. Death is but the issue of man departed from God, according to the early threatening. The sun may continue to shine then; nature, in all its order, may hold on its way; nothing beyond the ordinary course of an alienated and self-destroying creature goes on then.
But now something new and strange was doing. One had presented Himself to God to die, though He carried in Himself all title to life, and was in no debtorship to death. And He did this that He might destroy him that had the power of death.
Sin, in every other death, was dealing with the creature; but here God was dealing with sin. And God must take His place accordingly. If He accept the offer, He will see sin on the cross, and must withdraw Himself; And the darkness expresses this. It tells us of God's taking His place in relation to this unspeakably solemn object, and thus of His accepting Christ in the sinner's place, as made sin for us.
What strong consolation is this! What solid ground under our feet is here! In the simplest form, God gives witness that He is dealing with sin now. The billows and waves of divine wrath flow in to fill the place, instead of the kindly shining’s of the divine presence. All retires but the soul of Jesus and God's judgment of sin, the victim and the hand that bruised Him. The offer is accepted.
This is of all comfort to poor sinners. This is the first great and solid standing under the feet of the consciously guilty one. He who offered Himself to the righteous God, as sin in the sinner's stead, has the offer here solemnly accepted, as is witnessed by this mysterious darkness in daylight, this desertion of the Son by Him who was judging sin.
But there is more. There is acceptance of the work as well as of the offer. And this is next witnessed to us. For the moment the work was accomplished, its acceptance by God, or the victory of the Lamb of God, is felt in heaven, earth, and hell. As the life was rendered up the veil of the temple is rent from top to bottom, the rocks of the earth are rent, and the graves where the power of death held its prisoners are open. Heaven gladly opens to let sinners in, and the enemy's hold is made to open to let them out. Willing or unwilling, all have to own the victory of the bruised Seed of the woman. The bands were loosed, prison doors forced open, and the captives of darkness walk, in pledge of this victory, in the light of the holy city. And earth owns it also. Its rocks are rent at the same instant of the blood-shedding of this great transaction at Calvary, as heaven delighted to own it, and the grave was forced to own it. The work is accepted.
All this affords further peace and comfort to the sinner that believes. The ground is firm under his feet. He leans the whole burden of his conscience now on the sureness of the accepted work, as before on the sureness of the accepted offer. And the resurrection publishes the confirmation of all.