Friday, June 19, 2009

The wrath of God let loose upon His Son

"Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause
Him to suffer." Isaiah 53:10

Not all the vials of judgment that have or shall be poured
out upon the wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a
sinner's conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced
against the rebellious demons, nor the groans of the damned
creatures--give such a demonstration of God's hatred of sin--
as the wrath of God let loose upon His Son!

Never did divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the
time our Savior's countenance was most marred in the midst
of His dying groans--when God had turned His smiling face
from Him, and thrust His sharp knife into His heart, which
forced that terrible cry from Him, 'My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me!'

(Stephen Charnock, 1628-1680)

******************************************************

Thank God He loved the world so much as to send His only Son to be inflicted on my behalf (John 3:16). Thank God Christ was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:8).

Through repentance and faith in Christ God has delivered me from the power of darkness and delivered unto me the right to inherit the Kingdom of His Son because He has redeemed me and forgiven me my sins. (Col 1:13-14)

Praise Him

7 comments:

Paul Latour said...

Terrifyingly lovely.

Steve Martin said...

The theology of the cross.

Painful, sorrowful, wonderful.

Brazen Hussey's said...

Amen. I didn't know Steve Martin commented here, Wayne: that's impressive.

OK, seriously, love Charnock and the description of Christ's suffering. We see both the severity of Justice in its purest, holiest form: God smote His only begotten Son...and in the same stroke, the greatest and deepest mercy and grace, unveiled.

Love the Christocentricity.

Steve Martin said...

Alright, you Brazen Hussey, not a word of Steve Martin hanging out with Dawg on the Lawn.

He's a reputation to protect.

Carolyn said...

Wonderful post Wayne. I just read Isaiah 53 again last night. It spoke volumes to me, but I like this showing absolute wrath and incredible love. I am so blessed to be adopted into the Family of God through Jesus! God Bless!

Question of Identity said...

The song 'In Christ alone' has the following verse:

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.
(Keith Getty & Stuart Townend)

The sadness is that in some churches want to twist and reverse the doctrine of penal substitution. I have even been to a church that changed the words in this song from 'the wrath of God was satisfied' to 'the love of God is exemplified'

You can imagine I was seething about this!

Dawg said...

Yes Neil, I would be seething too.

To some churches, even the words of the hymns are offensive.