- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
REDEMPTION AT CALVARY.
By Jonathan Edwards
At Calvary the sentence that Pilate pronounced was executed. The Roman soldiers nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to His Cross by His hands and feet. Here, Christ’s sufferings are brought to a peak and He drank from the “cup”, which He prayed would pass. In those days crucifixion was the most tormenting kind of death where a person experienced so much torment that the Roman word, which means “torment”, is taken from this type of death.
Besides what our Lord endured in this excruciating physical death, He endured much more in His soul. We read about this trouble of His soul in the prophet Isaiah, “it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” and “He poured out His life unto death” (Isaiah 53 v10-12). If the thought of this “cup” made Him sweat blood, how much more terrible must the drinking of it have been. Many martyrs have endured much in their bodies, while their souls have been joyful, and have sung for joy. This helped them support their physical body and so were victorious over the suffering. But this was not the case with Christ, who had no such support, yet His sufferings were mainly in His mind, though the other sufferings were great. In His crucifixion Christ did not sweat blood, as before, not because His agony was not great, but His blood was shed in another way. When His side was pierced, blood and water came out of His side. This was a direct fulfilment of the verse, “I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within Me” (Psalm 22 v14).
Under all these sufferings the Jews mocked Him and said, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” (Matthew 27 v40). Even the chief priest, scribes and elders joined in saying, “‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but He can’t save Himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him’” (v42). And probably the devil at the same time tormented Him as much as he could, for the Bible says, “this is your hour—when darkness reigns” (Luke 22 v53).
Under these sufferings, Christ cried out and finally said, “it is finished” and “with that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19 v30). So ended the greatest and most wonderful thing that was ever done, and the angels beheld it all. It accomplished everything that had been pointed at by the sacrifices from the beginning of the world.
Christ was brought under the power of death until He rose on the third day. This finished the great work that bought our redemption, which had been planned since time began. It finished all that was required in order to satisfy the law and all that was necessary to satisfy Divine justice. Now even the whole debt that was owed, was paid, and eternal life was purchased. There is no need for anyone to purchase anything else for the salvation of sinners, nor has anything been done since then, and nor will anything more be done forever and ever.
From ‘The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol I’.