Why did Christ have to Suffer Before He Died?

Brethren, we are only a few weeks away from the Passover. The next Beyond Today magazine, it gives us a number of excellent articles about preparing for the Passover and basically walking with God. Because when we walk with God, we build a relationship with Him. When you walk with somebody, you build a relationship with them. And as you live, quite often you wish you could just sit down and discuss with God a number of things. Now my wife always says, I want to ask why do we ladies have so much difficulty in childbearing? And she wants to have a little chat with Eve. I'm sure many of you ladies would probably feel the same. But how much it is that we want to walk and talk with God about specific problems and situations and how to handle and what is He thinking about? Now the Bible does reveal us a number of areas wherein we have a basic big picture of what God is thinking about. Basically, how to relate with Him and with one another. And the basic core of that is the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Bible is just an amplification of that. There are a number of areas that the Bible reveals what God is thinking. According to the Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy by J. Barton Payne, published in 1996, the third greatest number of prophecies about a theme that is in the Bible, which we guess what it is, the third greatest number of prophecies, is the Millennium. So you and I know a lot that God wants to do, to bring us peace on earth. Therefore, grace and peace will come when Christ comes back and He will rule the sick world.

The second number of key prophecies that we have, so Millennium was the third, so the second one that has more, which with 52 prophecies, is about Christ's coming. And obviously, that is in God's mind. And again, peace in the world will happen and God's grace on the world will be when Christ does come. But you know what is the number one with most prophecies? The number one. The number one is events relating to Christ's sacrifice and death, with 58 prophecies. So the Bible does reveal to us a lot about what is in God's mind as far as it pertains to Christ's sacrifice. So today we want to look at a few of those to just understand a little bit more about Christ's mind and specifically why did Christ have to suffer before He died? Is it because He died and His blood pays for our service? So why didn't He just die with an arrow on His head without suffering the painful death that He had to? Because if it was just dying, why suffering? In today's age you would say, well, just put a bullet on His head and that's it! He would have died! But no, He had to go through His suffering. Even the Old Testament sacrifices to animals, they were done in a way that the animals would go through the least sacrifice. You know, God wasn't putting the animals through suffering. They were done in a way that they would suffer the least. But Christ had to suffer for us. A horrible death. An extremely painful death. Excruciating death. The word excruciating comes from the word cross. So it was a very painful death. Why? Now, as a bit of background, we know that God wants to build a family. Hebrews 2 verse 10. I'm not going to go through all these scriptures. I'll make note of it. If you want to do a bit of Bible study on it, please write down and then do a Bible study on it. Then we read in John chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 that the word, in the beginning, the word existed. The word was in the beginning and the word was with the God, which became the Father. Once Christ, the word was flesh. And it says, and the word was God. So the word was God. It's a plain statement. This is the way people get confused because it's like saying, it's the kind of God beings, God, the kind of God beings. He was of that kind, of that form, God. But he was with the God, which was the Father. So once we understand that, it becomes a lot clearer. We're also reading John 1 verse 1 through 3 that everything was created by Christ. Christ created everything. So he was existing in the beginning, the word, and the word created everything. He even created the angels. You can read that in Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 through 17. He was the creator, even created the angels.

But even the angels had to choose. You see, even the angels did not have character. They did not have the nature of God. And the nature of God is, is the capability of saying, I will not sin.

That's the nature of God. I will not break what I am, which is love. This is sin. It's basically lacking love. So, and we also know that God cannot be tempted with sin, because he will not break his nature, his love, his grace, as we heard in the beautiful song, the grace of God, the love of God. So, angels also had to choose, because character is not created.

Character is developed. The nature of God, when you and I become, upon the resurrection, glorified with Christ, and he will be our brother, and we will be of the same kind, because we'll see him as he is, we will then have developed the character of God, in other words, the nature of God. And we will not have human nature, therefore we will not have the pulls of the carnal mind.

And so, this was a mystery of who God is, and then the mystery of God was not understood by mankind. The mystery of God had been hidden. And you can read that in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 8 through 11. The mystery of God was hidden. And in Ephesians 3 verse 10 talks about the manifold sides of wisdom, the many sides of God's wisdom. God's wisdom is so wise, and there's so many angles to it.

And then we see in verse 11 there that he has an eternal purpose, he has an eternal purpose to make you and I his children. So, God has a purpose, has a plan, and he's executing that plan. And that plan they decided long before the creation of man, and long before the creation of the heavens. You see, because the heavens and the earth and of movement of the earth and the sun, and basically define what we today call time.

You see, so the beginning of time was when the earth and the sun and the moon were created, and that's how we have time, day and night and months and years. Time is because of those heavenly bodies. So, before the beginning of time is before the creation of that physical world. And all that was planned beforehand. You can read in Ephesians 1, verse 9 through 12. You can read in 1 Peter 1, verse 18 through 20. That this was foreordained planned before the foundation of the earth. You can read in Revelation 13, verse 8, that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world.

In other words, he was condemned to die the moment that this plan started being executed. Because mankind has to develop character. In other words, needs to have free moral agency. And both for that, sooner or later, mankind would sin. And that means the wages of his death.

Therefore, Christ would have to give his life for us. And that's why it was important why Christ had to do the creating. Because he is the creator, his life is more valuable than all our lives. So therefore, as the creator, his life would pay for all our lives. That's why. Now, considering this context, let's get back to the mind of God and the way God feels.

Because we read in Philippians chapter 2, verse 5. So let's go there. Philippians chapter 2, verse 5. Philippians chapter 2, verse 5. And it says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You see, we need to be of the same mind, of the same humility. You read that in the first few verses before verse 5. Because of what Christ did. You see, this was all planned. And before the earth and the heavens were created, this had been decided.

Now, how long ago were the heavens and the earth created? We don't know, but could have been billions of years. Not just six thousand years, billions of years. So, they knew this. Christ knew this before the beginning of time, before the physical world was created. And so he knew that he had to give up his life. He knew, read here in verse 6, he says, who being in the form of God, Christ was of the God kind, was of the form of God. As we read, read, or refer to in John 1 verse 1, Christ the Word was God.

So, Christ was, or who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Did not consider it, let's call it, identity theft, to be equal to God. So, what did he do? He says here in verse 7, but he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, becoming the likeness of man.

So, in other words, he left, let's call it, his home. He left his kind, God, and became of the kind mankind. So, he left the God kind, and he became mankind. So, what do we have, therefore, is a very serious commitment by Christ of leaving his own and his epithet, and becoming a human being. So, therefore, when we see that he told Abraham to leave his home and to go to another area, there was nothing else than what he had already done, or what he would be doing. Even greater was he going to do.

He gave up everything. He gave up everything. So, when you and I are told that we got to give up everything, it's nothing special that he has not done. He was a God being, and became a human being, and he died on a cross.

He gave up everything in absolute trust and belief in confidence in the Father. Going back to the sermon, that we got to believe God. Not just believe in God, but believe God. So, Christ believed the Father, and therefore he was prepared to die. That is the faith of Christ. That is the trust of Christ in the Father, that the Father would resurrect him. So, he gave up everything. So, when you and I read in Luke 14, you read, and I read in Luke 14, starting in verse 18, Luke 14.

Where is that section that says, count the cost? Very familiar. From verse 18 to verse 33, count the cost. And so, that basically gets down to a point, particularly when we get right down to verse 33, at the conclusion of that section. It says, whoever of you does not forsake all. Very yes. He cannot be my disciple. Brethren, Christ forsook all. He had eternal life. He was an eternal being. And he forsook all.

So, we can see Christ's thinking. The way Christ thinks, the way Christ thinks, is that he loves us so much. He has so much concern for you and I, that he was prepared to give up his life. And brethren, it's not life like you and I have, which is physical life. You was prepared to give up his eternal life for you and I.

Well, so when we read in John 3, 16, it says, so God loved the wall that he gave his only begotten Son. Yes, the Father had to do that, but so did Christ, had to give up. Both have to give up. And that shows grace.

The song that we heard, grace, it's God's nature. You see, grace, of course, is kindness and giving, but it's much more than that. It's his nature.

That's who he is. And that's who you and I need to be. Imagine, if you had to give up your son or your daughter, and you had to watch your son or your daughter die in extreme pain, and you had the power to stop it, and you didn't do it because of the love for others, that is God's love for us. I think that is huge. And so, when Christ came to earth, he knew what he had to go through. You know, the prophecies of Old Testament said what he had to go through.

Exodus 12 talks about the Passover. The Passover symbolized what Christ had to go through, because the possible lamb was killed for the sins of the people. So, this whole sacrificial system pointed to Christ, and he is the Word, was the Word, the one through whom all these prophecies were inspired. He was the agent, representative of God the Father, the Word of God the Father, the spokesman of God the Father, the executor that acted in place of the Father, acting and doing the Father's will and communicating that to us. So, he knew very well what he would have to go through. He knew about his death, but he also knew about his sacrifice that you would have to go through. And he knew that before the creation of the world. Now, imagine if you know that you're going to have to go tomorrow or whatever day, you're going to have to go through XYZ suffering, the anguish in your mind that you're going to have beforehand for all that time period before it happens. The stress, the emotion that you would have.

So, let's turn to Isaiah 53 because Isaiah 53 tells us a little bit about the suffering that Christ had to go through. Isaiah 53.

From verse 1 and 2, basically he is saying or predicting his birth and maturing because he says, Who has believed our report and to whom as the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before he must attend the plant and as a root out of the dry ground. He has no form of commonliness and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. So, it's basically talking about the arm of the Lord, which is Christ, that he is going to be born and he's going to grow and he's not going to be the most pretious Lord. He's going to be the little boy out there or young teenager that everybody's going to love. He's just going to have no kind of commonliness or appearance that he's the prettiest guy on the block. So, he's not going to be that. But then from verse 3, pictures, Christ's sacrifice and death. He says, He is despised. What does despised mean? It means he's to be held in contempt, is to be disdained. So, Christ was held in contempt by others, was disdained by others. And then he says, He's despised and rejected. What does it mean to be rejected? That means he was forsaken. People just said, ah, it's nobody, don't count him. Rejected by men. Now, Christ was perfect. You and I know He's perfect. It's difficult for you and I to grasp how despised and rejected He could be because He was perfect. But that's what happened at that time. If you just keep a finger or a marker on that section, let's look at one or other scripture. The first one I want to look at is Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. In verse 12 through 14, Luke chapter 19, Christ is now giving Yah a patable, and He says, A certain noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. That patable is talking about himself. He's talking about himself. And so He called ten of His servants and delivered to them ten minutes and said to them, Do business till I come. But look at verse 14. But His citizens hated Him and sent a delegation after Him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. The citizens hated Him. He was despised. Look also at John chapter 1. John chapter 1. And we're going to now look at verse 11. John chapter 1 verse 11. He says, He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. He was rejected and forsaken.

How do you feel when somebody treats you as nothing?

When somebody treats you like you're just a piece of junk? How do you feel?

You know that they even called Christ a bastard? A fraud? They did. That's not a nice word. I see some of the children looked at me when I said that. Yeah. It's not a nice word. They've been well trained by their parents. Well done.

But saying that of our Lord Christ, it's even worse. Jesus Christ knows what is it like? What does it feel when you're not accepted? Maybe in your job, your colleagues treat you like a second-class citizen.

You feel yuck.

Maybe those close to you. Maybe you do not have a good marriage, and your spouse treats you with disdain.

Christ knows what it feels like.

He knows what it is to be spoken against.

He knows what it is to be looked down on. So let's go on to Isaiah 53. We're reading from verse 3. And then the next line says, a man of sorrows. What are sorrows? Sorrows is pain, both physical and mental. Yeah. Did he have mental pain? Yes. Knowing for millions of years that you're going to have to go through this surely was painful mentally, emotionally.

Now, you and I have to go through certain trials for so many years, and we say, for our long God, well, Christ knows what it feels like for even longer, since the beginning of time to when he died as a human being. So he's a man of sorrows, physical and mental. And then we continue to read, an acquainted with grief. What is grief? Grief is like sickness, because he suffered.

Thus, grief, physically, mentally, emotionally, not only just when he was crucified, but throughout his ministry, many times. And therefore, Christ can have empathy for you and for me, for us. He has empathy for us. Look at Hebrews chapter 5 verse 8. Again, keep a finger there on Isaiah 53, Hebrews 5 verse 8. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. He learnt what it feels like to go through pain and still be obedient through suffering. Because as a God being, as a being of the kingdom of God, doesn't have pain. But coming as a human being and going through pain, he learned what that is. And so he can have compassion and feeling empathy for us. So he knows what it is to be made fun of. He knows what it is to be ridiculed. He knows what it is to be put down. My wife has an expression for that, which I'm not going to say. When you put down.

So, let's go on with Isaiah 53. It says, And we hid as it were our faces from him, and we was despised, and we did not esteem him. Verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs, and in the margin says our sicknesses. The emphasis of the Reverend is the word our. Our griefs. Our sicknesses.

And continue reading, and carried our sorrows. See, so the emphasis here is our sorrows, our pain. Christ bore the pains of our body and of our sicknesses in his own body. Because, brethren, sin does not only produce death. Yes, the wages of sin is death, but sin does not only produce death.

Sin produces suffering, and this world is suffering. That's why so many people ask, why so much suffering in the world? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Because we have sinned! That's why. Oh, I don't believe in God because there's suffering in the world, otherwise he could stop it. Yeah, he could stop sin, but then it would not be three moral agents. And therefore, we would not be, we would not fulfill this plan of being sons of God. Sons of God. Therefore, we'll just be robots, but we have to develop character. And therefore, we have to go through this to become better people.

Therefore, Christ had to suffer for us.

You see, when you and I sin, it affects our minds. Our minds become perverted. Our thinking becomes twisted. Our affections are vile. Our desires are wrong.

And that needs to be healed.

You see, quite often we just think, oh well, healing, well, I'm sick, I need to get better. Healing is we're going to change our minds.

We're going to change the way we think. Our minds have to be healed.

Our desires have to be healed.

And you see, when we sin, we cause scars. You know, physical scars, it takes time to heal. There is mental and physical and emotional scars because of things we've done, of things we said to somebody else. And these are scars. These are emotions that have been affected by sin.

Look at some of the sins of mankind. Abuse, rape, incest, killing, tragedies in war, for instance, plagues, pandemics, created by man's sin. They leave deep scars and hurts. We have scars from bad relationships. We have scars from family problems. We have scars from parents or from children or from mates or from society. And this requires the forgiveness of God.

And you and I need to have a sound mind. Our minds need to be healed to become a sound mind.

And what are the physical effects of sin? I mean, I've just talked. These first few are emotions, scars. But what about physical? Things like adultery, for instance, or fornication, or homosexual acts. What are the physical results of it? For one, it's sexually transmitted diseases.

What impact does this have on a person, on his family, on their mates, on their children, on their friends?

Brethren, society needs to be healed. So let's go back to Isaiah 53 verse 4. We read verse 4, but part of it says, Surely he has borne our sickness or our griefs. He carried our sorrows, yet we steam the stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. So we said, oh well, it was his fault. He was hit, beaten, he received a blow, he was afflicted, because he sinned. How many times do you say, this person is suffering? What is he sinning? What is he doing wrong? What did Job do wrong? When God said, is there nothing wrong? Okay, he had certain things to overcome, and God used that as an opportunity to work on certain things to improve. But he said, so there might be certain things that we need to improve, and so we have some of the trials, but it's not because we have sinned, necessarily. Job had not sinned. Christ did not sin, but he had to go through trials, and he had to learn certain things. What pain is all about? Look at verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement was for our peace that was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. So, as he was wounded, he was bruised, he was chastised, and he had stripes.

Wounded, do you know that he was pierced? He was killed by a sword thrown onto his, pushed onto his side, and blood came out, and that's how he died. That's why they didn't have to break his legs. He was crushed or shattered, he was bruised. He was chastised, he was corrected, he was disciplined. And the stripes, meaning he had wounds and blows on him.

Why? Why did Christ have to go through all this? Why did Christ have to go through this suffering?

The answer is right here.

He was wounded for our transgressions. That's why.

Transgression means rebellion. You transgress, you rebel, you're going against. He was bruised for our iniquities. Iniquities means our perversity, our sins, our guilt, our depravity.

So the punishment of that, of that iniquity. And he was chastised for our peace.

I think it was very appropriate that we had that special music today.

You know, brethren, these ladies wanted to have done the special music weeks ago.

But God washed it out that it should be today, to fit with today's message. Wow! How God works through circumstances that we don't even begin to understand. He's in charge. Glory to God.

So it says that chastisements were for our peace. Peace comes from the Hebrew word shalom, which means completeness, soundness, being well, being at peace, peace of mind.

For our peace of mind. You know, and the scripture says, which is beyond understanding. If you are doing what's pleasing to God, that peace of mind is something that we have to appreciate.

It's beyond understanding. Look at John 14 verse 27. John 14 verse 27.

John 14 verse 27. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Let your heart not be troubled, neither let it be afraid. We live in difficult times, brethren. Very, very difficult times.

But, as it says, let not your heart be troubled. You are a child of God, and He wants you there.

So, look, going back to chapter 53 of Isaiah, it says, And by His stripes we are healed. It's for our healing. We need healing restoration.

That is why Christ had to go through this beating and suffering for our healing. As it says, for our iniquities, for our transgressions, for our peace.

One chapter earlier in Isaiah 52, verse 13 through 15, it says, Behold, my servant, that's Christ, shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished that you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and is formed more than the sons of man. That was the magnitude of His beating, that He was marred more than any other human being.

So, let me ask a question. When Christ was on earth, did He know that He was going to die? Did He know that He was going to suffer? Absolutely yes!

And so that's why we're reading Luke 2, verse 49. I'm about my father's business. He was full of wisdom. You read that also in Luke 2, verse 40. And in verse 52, He says, He increased in wisdom and stature. He Himself predicted His death. In Mark 8, verse 31 to 33, in Luke 18, 31 to 34, He predicted that He was going to die. Well, the apostles didn't get it. He predicted that He would resurrect. John 3, verse 14. John 12, verse 31 and 32.

And look at Matthew 20, verse 17 through 19. Let's just look at that. Matthew 20, verse 17 through 19.

Now Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed. He knew He was going to be betrayed.

He knew He was going to be condemned to death. He knew He was going to be mocked. He knew He was going to be scorched. He knew He was going to be crucified. And indeed, on that Passover ceremony before He died, He gave the symbols of the wine and the bread, which pointed to Him giving up His life, His body, the bread, the suffering, and the wine, the pouring of His life.

And so we read that He was mentally distressed, and He went to the Father saying, If it's possible, let us cut, pass from Me. Which cut? The cut that He adjusts of the lives a few hours before in the Passover, the pouring of His blood, His life. And He was going through absolute, pure, mental anguish.

He was fully young.

He was fully young. And He said, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

In other words, that was the degree of mental distress that He was going through.

If you don't understand, or you beg a pardon, if you think that God does not understand what it is, depression, you're wrong.

Because even Christ was exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

In other words, He wished He could just die now rather than having to go through. But as He said, nevertheless, not as I will, but you will, He was utterly prostrated on the floor, and He was so distressed that He wasn't just perspiring, His perspiration was blood. It was blood coming out of it.

So His mental state was absolute agony. Look at Luke 22, verse 44.

Look at chapter 22, verse 44. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly, and then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

He knew He had to die for our sins. That was never the question. That's why He came to the world. But imagine what went through His mind as a human being, because it was fully human.

The raw stress, the raw dread of going through that pine for the crucifixion that He knew He had to go through. So it was not just His death that He had to go through the next morning and later in afternoon, but it was the suffering that would go between that moment that He was praying, and when that would happen, the agony that He went through. So we know that Christ sacrificed us His death to give His life to pay for our sins.

But let's not forget that His death was only the final act.

That's why the death was represented by the wine. But the bread was all that went on before the wine. That's why the bread is before the wine.

So why was it necessary for Him to go through this agony? Why is it necessary for Him to be tormented and tortured?

Why did this all have to take place?

Why this sacrifice? The bottom line, brethren, the bottom line is sin is much more than dying.

The wages of sin is death, but there's much more. There's just death in the wages of sin. There's a lot of suffering. A lot of suffering. So sin brings a lot of pain.

So sin brings agony and pain and misery and suffering. When we sin against God, we sin against others, we bring pain and suffering upon others and ourselves.

And before the suffering of Christ came betrayal. Betrayal. Jesus suffered betrayal.

He was tempted in all ways like we are.

So He can't sympathize with us. And that's why we read in Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Verse 7 and 8.

He says, For in the days of His flesh, when He offered up prayers and supplications with them in cries and tears, to Him was able to save Him from death and was hurt because of His godly fear. Though He was a son, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.

We have a high priest that understands your pain. Whatever your pain is, however profound your pain is, I might not understand it. Other people around you might not understand it, but Christ does.

What a blessing that is. What a blessing that is. He went through all the emotions and the agonies, the fear, the betrayals, the pain that we go through. And He said, Not my will, but I will, that.

And so the day finally came, the hour finally came, that He had to die. And that is the eternal purpose of God, so that you and I can be children of God.

He knows what you're going through. He knows what I go through. He knows what we go through. He's a compassionate, high priest. He's experienced everything you and I need to experience. He sympathizes with us. That is the love of God. That is His nature of grace. And the outcome of it all, He wants us to have peace eternally in the heavenly Kingdom.