Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I posted the first post on why Christ suffered and died: To Absorb the Wrath of God. So today is day #2 focusing on the greatest event in human history. (Keep in mind I’m “ordering” these for the sake of organization, not importance) Also Bri will be posting a four month Caleb update (so fast eh?!?!) tomorrow after his doc appt.

#2 - Christ Suffered and Died to Please His Heavenly Father

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief – Isaiah 53:10

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:2

Jesus did not wrestle his angry Father to the floor of heaven and
take the whip out of his hand. He did not force him to be merciful
to humanity. His death was not the begrudging consent of
God to be lenient to sinners. No, what Jesus did when he suffered
and died was the Father’s idea. It was a breathtaking strategy,
conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned the history
of the world. That is why the Bible speaks of God’s “purpose
and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”
(2 Timothy 1:9).

Already in the Jewish Scriptures the plan was unfolding. The
prophet Isaiah foretold the sufferings of the Messiah, who was to
take the place of sinners. He said that the Christ would be “smitten
by God” in our place.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we
esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities. . . . All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

But what is most astonishing about this substitution of Christ
for sinners is that it was God’s idea. Christ did not intrude on
God’s plan to punish sinners. God planned for him to be there.
One Old Testament prophet says, “It was the will of the LORD to
crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).

This explains the paradox of the New Testament. On the one
hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God’s wrath
because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ’s suffering is a beautiful
act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father. So
Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” (Matthew 27:46). And yet the Bible says that the suffering
of Christ was a fragrance to God. “Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”
(Ephesians 5:2).

Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of
God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did
the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his own Son—the one
whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it. Yet
the Son’s very willingness to receive it was precious in God’s sight.
The wrath-bearer was infinitely loved.

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.

Happy Easter!  What an awesome day this has been.  A time to reflect upon the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a time spent with family and friends in celebration.  We had a fun time with Caleb, as he got the opportunity to spend some quality time with the Grandparents and the Great-Grandparents, as well as his uncle and aunt.

Reflecting upon today, we might ask what was the purpose of the death of Christ?

I thought it might be edifying to go through John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” (50 Reasons Why He Came To Die) - one post per reason, one at a time.  Perhaps this 50 days might be a time to grow in understanding of the greatest event in human history - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Why did he suffer and die?

Appropriatly, post #1 is on Easter Sunday:

#1 - Christ Suffered and Died to Absorb the Wrath of God

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us—for it is written,

“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” - Galatians 3:13

“God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness,
because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” - Romans 3:25

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to
suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness
for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving.
Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.
God’s law demanded, “You shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”
(Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more.

This is what sin is—dishonoring God by preferring other things over
him, and acting on those preferences. Therefore, the Bible says,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23). We glorify what we enjoy most. And it isn’t God.

Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small
Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the
one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of
respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him
is not trivial—it is treason. It defames God and destroys human
happiness.

Since God is just, he does not sweep these crimes under the rug
of the universe. He feels a holy wrath against them. They deserve to
be punished, and he has made this clear: “For the wages of sin is
death” (Romans 6:23). “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).
There is a holy curse hanging over all sin. Not to punish would
be unjust. The demeaning of God would be endorsed. A lie would
reign at the core of reality. Therefore, God says, “Cursed be everyone
who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the
Law, and do them” (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26).

But the love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over
all sinful humanity. He is not content to show wrath, no matter how
holy it is. Therefore God sends his own Son to absorb his wrath and
bear the curse for all who trust him. “Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in the text
quoted above (Romans 3:25). It refers to the removal of God’s
wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God
himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the
wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God’s wrath
is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.

Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never
stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness
of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But
when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look
at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to
be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.