Throughout eternity past, God the Father delighted
in his Son. This was more or less true during
his earthly ministry when Jesus Christ was incarnated
and came to the earth. A number of times God
the Father indicated his pleasure in his Son.
For example, at his baptism he said, This is
my beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased. On
that day when Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and went to the mountaintop and was there transfigured,
God the Father spoke on behalf of his son and
said, This is my beloved son. Hear him. In Isaiah
3, 2, 1, the Lord says, Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect. in whom my soul delighteth.
His servant there is the Lord Jesus Christ, whom
Isaiah identifies as the servant of the Lord.
And yet we find this strange verse that we read
together from Isaiah 53, in which it says, It
was the Lord's will, or the Lord's pleasure,
to crush him and cause him to suffer. Does that
not seem, contradictory to you, or at least mysterious,
that God the Father, who from eternity past had
delighted in his Son, was on that day, 2 ,000
years ago, delighted to crush him and to cause
him to suffer. How could it be that the Lord
be pleased to bruise the Lord Jesus Christ? But
it was certainly not the act of his dying and
his suffering that the Lord delighted in. But
it was the blessed results of what occurred on
that day that caused the Lord to have pleasure.
It seems to me that there are three results because
the Lord was pleased to bruise him on that day.
Results that affect you and me. The first result
of the work of Calvary was that revealed the
love of God. We hear a great deal about love
these days. The word love is easily spoken. The
Bible says that it is not the word that counts,
but it's the deed to prove love. God has loved
us not only in word, but in deed. I read verses
from 1 John 4. This is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son, as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Or it could
be read this way. He loved us and sent his Son
as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking
away our sins. When you and I look at the cross
of Calvary in the eye of our mind, as much as
anything else, It reveals to us how much God
loves us. The essence of his nature is love,
for the Bible says God is love. That is not to
deny God's wrath and his justice. But it wasn't
the cross that God was pleased to reveal his
love for you and for me. God allowed sin to enter
into his creation. and its results to take place,
so that in the process of time, his nature as
the God of love could be realized by men. In
this sense, even sin itself serves the purpose
of God, because through its presence and its
results, God was able to show love toward mankind.
By allowing his son to die for the sins of the
world. As Paul says in Romans 5 .8, that God
demonstrates his love in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. It is customary
that we give gifts to those that we love on Valentine's
Day. Sometimes it's a box of candy, other times
maybe a card only, or perhaps some flowers. But
I tell you that the greatest gift of love was
the gift that God gave to you and to me in the
death of his son for our sins. It pleased the
Lord to bruise him because through that process
God was able to demonstrate his love to the world.
There's a second reason that it pleased God to
bruise his son. It is because through that God
reconciled the world to himself. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, God's word puts it this way. Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has gone, the new has come. All this
is from God, who reconciled us to himself through
Christ and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation.
that God was reconciling the world to himself
in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.
God made him who had no sin to be sin or to be
a sin offering for us so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God. Another aspect
of that transaction that took place at the cross
is what happened between the world and God. On
that day, God rendered all men savable. In the
death of Christ, he did not save all men, but
he made it possible for all men to be saved.
Through the cross, he radically changed the relationship
between himself and the world of sinners. Now
it wasn't that God changed or that the world
changed, but the relationship between them changed.
Before and after the cross, God was and is a
God of holiness and righteousness, as well as
a God of grace and mercy. Before and after the
cross, the world is still filled with sin and
rebellion against God. But because of the work
of the cross, the relationship between God and
the world was changed so that God is able now
to show mercy toward sinners because of what
Jesus did for us. After that time, men's sins
were covered over as an atonement, and God overlooked
them as it were. But on that day when Christ
shed his blood, he made it possible for God to
put away sin. The second blessed result of Calvary
is that we were reconciled to God. Why then did
it please the Lord to bruise his son? Because
through that process he could render the world
savable, so that today whosoever will may call
upon the Lord and be saved, even you and me.
And then there's a third result of the cross.
The result of which pleased the Lord, and that
is that through the cross, God redeemed the sinner.
Peter puts it this way in his first epistle,
chapter 1, verses 18 through 21. For you know
that it was not with perishable things, such
as silver or gold, that you were redeemed. from
the empty way of life handed down to you from
your forefathers, but with the precious blood
of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
He was chosen before the creation of the world,
but was revealed in these last times for your
sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised
him from the dead and glorified him, and so your
faith and hope are in God. Through the work of
the cross and the shedding of the blood of Jesus
Christ, God has redeemed the sinner. By redeemed
had a specific meaning in the day in which the
New Testament was written, a meaning that is
lost in our day because of the change in our
societies. In that day, slavery was prominent.
Most of the people who lived in the Roman Empire
were slaves of one sort or another. To be redeemed
to a slave, had a very special significance.
The word redeem means to purchase a slave in
the slave market, to remove the slave from that
location of the slave market, and then to set
him free. What God did at the cross was to pay
the price for our slavery to sin. So that when
we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our own Savior,
we are brought out of the slave market of sin
and set free. Free. Free from slavery to sin.
Free from the destiny of death, which we're sure.
Free then to subject and submit ourselves to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Peter says that
Jesus was God's Lamb who Before the world was
ever created, he was appointed by God to die
for the sins of man who was still yet to be created.
You see, even before God created, God knew what
was going to happen. And God made provision even
before he spoke, let there be light. He made
provision for man to be redeemed from sin. He
was the man chosen before the creation of the
world, but then revealed. in these last times
for your sake and for mine. Isn't that amazing
that God had you in mind and had me in mind before
Adam ever knew existence? And in his mind, he
offered up his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us
from our sin that we had yet to even commit in
time. And yet that was God's purpose. And so
why did it please the Lord to bruise his son
in whom he delighted? Because of the wonderful
results that took place because of his work at
the cross. The result of revealing the love of
God, the essence of his nature. Because it reconciled
the world to God. And because it redeemed the
sinner so the sinners might live forever in heaven.
having been forgiven and cleansed of all their
sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise Christ because
of the results that were accomplished. I think
that these theological results that we've talked
about can be condensed into an anecdote that
I heard or read one time by Henry Bosch in which
he told of a tramp who knocked at the back door
of a home in New Hampshire some years ago and
asked for something to eat. The mother invited
the tramp to come in to have something to eat.
And as she was fixing the meal, she began to
learn that he had at one time lived a better
life. Strong drink, however, had driven him from
one sin to another. It had dissipated him and
had sacked his ambition until he became a drifter
and a beggar. And now he was convinced that there
was no one in the world who loved him or who
could care for him in his condition. There was
a small boy in that home who listened to all
of this and finally walked over to the tramp
and placed his little hand upon the ragged coat
sleeve of that man and said to him, Man, do you
love God? Repeating the question several times.
and gave no answer, the child concluded, Well,
man, God loves you. The baby's eyes filled with
tears, and he began to tremble as the truth struck
his heart, and yet he made no reply. The little
boy then went to his room, and there he got ten
pennies that he had been saving to buy candy.
Then, with a great deal of childish or childlike
sympathy, He walked into the room and gave those
ten pennies to the beggar. The man's head bent
even lower than this. And as he rose and left
the house, there was a tear in his eye. Many
months later, a letter came addressed to the
boy in the house. And in part, this is what it
said. Many run your words saved me from hell.
After I left your home, all I could hear as I
walked along was, man, God loves you. Repentantly,
I finally threw myself on the ground and wept
all the hardness out of my heart. I cried, oh
God, give me the faith of that little boy once
more and save my poor soul for Jesus' sake. I
have a job now and clothes and a place to sleep.
God bless you, son, for helping to lead an old,
dirty tramp to the Savior. You see, my friend,
that's what the cross is all about. It's for
sinners. People like you and me. No one can be
too far gone for the cross to be able to save
him. There is no sin that is too deep but that
the blood cannot cleanse it from the life. I
hope that you know the meaning. of that cleansing
and that your sins have been forgiven. If that
is true, then on this afternoon as we meet together,
our hearts surely are drawn in new and fresh
devotion to the Savior who died there for our
sake. I'd like for us to take our hymnals as
we close. We'll sing the first and third verses
of 218. These words of A .B. Christensen, blessed
Redeemer. Let us stand as we sing verses 1 and
3 of 218.