Title: Suffering of the Atonement
From today, Holy Week begins as we meditate on the cross carried by the Lord.
Why do all Christians observe this week as Holy Week?
It is because the suffering the Lord suffered was a special suffering.
The hardships we face are different.
Most of them face hardships for financial reasons.
In other words, there are sufferings due to poverty, suffering due to disease, and suffering due to sudden and unexpected accidents.
In fact, if you think about it, it is truly something to be grateful for to go through the day without an accident in the busy city life. How many people are in a car accident every day? How many people get sick every day?
Looking at it that way, I can't tell you how grateful I am to go through each day without any accidents or diseases. In this way, human beings may not know that life is to live with suffering. But the sufferings our Lord suffered were not the types of sufferings we faced in our daily life. The suffering suffered by the Lord is a special suffering.
1. The suffering the Lord suffered was the suffering of redemption.
The suffering of redemption means suffering received instead.
It means that even though it was a suffering that he would not have suffered, he suffered it instead.
That is, suffering was not due to his own fault, but suffering for the sins of others. There is no other person in the world who suffers like this.
All suffering is self-related.
Sometimes we suffer because of the mistakes of others. There is a person who is standing still and comes crashing into him and has his brain injured and is lying down like a vegetable. In this case, the pain is not due to your own fault. However, even such suffering is suffering because of one person, but the suffering of Jesus Christ is suffering related to the sins of all mankind. In other words, it was not the suffering caused by the fault of one person, but the suffering suffered for the sins of all human beings.
Therefore, through the suffering of the Lord, we were saved, and because of the suffering of the Lord, we enjoyed the privilege of being children of God.
The prophet Isaiah puts it this way: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace, and his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). is recorded.
Now, as we face the Holy Week, we need to reflect on the meaning of the Lord's suffering and return to the faith of living together with the Lord from a life that was deeply connected with the world.
I'll do it.
2. First, the suffering suffered by the Lord began with an unjust trial.
There will be no more unjust judgments like the one the Lord suffered. It was because it was a trial of a ceremonial act that was planned in advance according to the script. Because it was a trial where he had already decided to kill him.
So even now, such a trial like the Lord has been called the trial of the Pilate court.
Some of you may have experienced such a structured trial in the past when the struggle for democracy was fought. Or, maybe even now, who can conclude that this is not the case?
It is a fact that the unrighteous governments of the world are always repeating the trial of Pilate in order to maintain their place of power. Even today, there may be some degree of difference anywhere in the world, but it is a fact that all of these cases exist. Therefore, the judgment of the courts of this world is the fact that they are to be judged again in God's court.
The Lord was brought to trial by a Jewish priest and a Roman governor. The high priest at that time was Caiaphas, and he was first taken to Annas, Caiaphas' father-in-law. This is also procedurally impossible. Why would you have the high priest's father-in-law take Jesus away first? That would be proof that Elder Annas' breath was strong.
Annas tried to find out what was against the law while interrogating Jesus. At that time, Jesus said that I did not speak in secret, but did it openly in public.
At this time, one of Annas' men who was beside him slapped Jesus on the cheek and asked if you could answer the high priest so disrespectfully.
Then he took them to Caiaphas, the real high priest.
Caiaphas, the high priest, was the one who said that someone must die. Who did it refer to? Needless to say, Jesus of Nazareth was the one who thought he should die.
Without trial, he handed Jesus over to the Roman authorities. The reason why he was taken to the Roman authorities was because he had asked Pilate, the Roman governor at the time, to give him a judgment because Jews had no right to death.
Even though he knew he was not a sinner to die for, he cowardly gave up Jesus to maintain his throne. Therefore, to this day, Pilate's court was branded as a court of lawlessness. Even today, from those who believe in the Lord as their Savior, every time we worship, we hear the words, 'He suffered from Pilate, was crucified, and rose from the dead on the third day after being buried...'.
How damned is this? That is why the position of responsibility of power is so fearful.
In this way, the Lord suffered because of an unjust judgment. The court that judged the Lord was an unjust trial in which lies decided to kill the truth.
He was allowed to be killed in a snap without a formal trial.
Then the Lord went up to the hill of Golgotha, carrying the mold of death, receiving all kinds of insults and disrespect. Where else in the world can there be such suffering?
Those who have seen North Korea's people's trials may still remember the trial of Jesus. Public executions are taking place in the name of the people after putting a brand of . It is just like the unjust trial that Jesus suffered.
How many people suffer like this today?
But what can give them courage is that our Lord faced such a trial first.
Because if you suffer with the Lord, you will be crowned with the Lord. In the procession of countless martyrs of the early church, we see victims of unjust trials. However, they were able to endure and overcome as they looked to the Lord because they were convinced that unrighteous forces would be destroyed.
3. The Lord's suffering was to accomplish God's will.
Looking at the sufferings the Lord suffered, it looks like Jesus who died powerlessly before the power of Rome, but the Lord knew well that his death was to fulfill the will of God the Father. I have said many times that I have come into the world for that purpose.
In the Gospel of John, he calls himself the good shepherd, and says that 'the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep' (John 10:11).
Also, 'unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit' (John 12:24).
“Now I am going to the one who sent me, and none of you asks me where I am going, but because I say these things, your hearts are filled with sorrow. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. ' (John 16:5-7).
In this way, the Lord showed his disciples every moment, every moment, that his suffering was the suffering that accomplishes God's will. However, the disciples who followed him did not know what that word really meant, and followed him, looking only at the glory without the cross.
Jesus died on the cross saying, 'It is finished'.
What have you done?
It means that God the Father's work of atonement has been completed. So, it is true that the suffering of the Lord was the suffering of atonement.
Dear saints!
The unrighteous forces that judged the Lord still exist. The Roman spear that put the Lord to death still boasts its power.
But only the cross of the Lord will wear the laurel wreath of victory.
Many Christians had to die at one word from the emperor, and in front of the imposing figure of the Roman soldiers crucifying the cross, the figure of our Lord was truly humble, but what happened today?
Everyone knelt before Jesus Christ, who suffered for the ransom. Only Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The power of the cross is stronger than the power of the bayonet.
Two of the British African explorers are representative.
One is and the other is .
was the one who started the so-called Boer War in South Africa.
He was awarded the Order of the British Order and the title of patriot at the time for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Native Africans and earning gold and diamonds.
On the other hand, Eun went to Africa and fought against slavery and British aggression policies and criticized colonial oppression, and received the infamous title of traitor to her homeland from those in power at the time. Today, however, there are no graves, but the silver is buried in the British National Cemetery, attracting many visitors to this day.
What made them different?
One was conquered and taken away with the power of a gun and sword, but the other was the result of sacrificing oneself through suffering instead. The sufferings of the atonement are producing great results.
Just as a grain of wheat bears much fruit when it falls to the ground and is buried, our Lord's suffering has become a grain of wheat.
Now we are set free from eternal punishment through this Lord's atoning suffering.
Because he died for us, we are begotten. He was whipped for us, and we have peace.
Therefore, our life is now a life of new life in Christ.
The former has passed.
I put off the life that followed the old customs and changed into new clothes.
You have become a new creature who lives and wears clothes as the Lord.
With the clothes of the Lord's righteousness, we can now stand proudly before God.
I was all mortal by my own works, but now I am a new person through the atoning grace of Christ.
If you become a new person, you will have to live as a new person.
I hope that all the saints will walk with the Lord to the end of the world. ♣