He CHOSE To Suffer

This morning for my devotions I read chapter eight of the book "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" by John Piper. The chapter is called, "The Incomparable Sufferings ~ The Anguish of Jesus Christ". Click here to read the book on-line.

Author - John Piper

The content itself wasn't anything new for me, but it's the way it is written, the graphic reminder of just how much Christ suffered for us at his death that spoke to me.

Here are some of the points I gleaned from my time this morning:

• Jesus did not deserve to suffer, yet He suffered the most ever in history or the future
• Jesus was mocked, tortured and humiliated relentlessly, yet He did not take revenge; rather He remained silent and did not defend Himself (Luke 23:9) so as to fulfill Scriptures (Matthew 26:56)
• Jesus' friends betrayed and abandoned Him (Luke 22:48; Matthew 26:75)
• Jesus could have refused the suffering and crucifixion but he was obedient to His Father and CHOSE this path (Philippians 2:8).

It was God's will that Jesus suffer so intensely, "to crush him" (Isaiah 53:10). But Jesus accepted all of it to fulfill the Scriptures.

"Not only was it suffering by design, but also by obedience. Jesus embraced the pain. He chose it - "obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8). ~ Piper, p.70

Jesus CHOSE to die, even this hideous, humiliating death. Jesus knew that if He disobeyed and refused to go through the pain that all the people ever to live (including us) wouldn't / couldn't be free from our sins. He was obedient - even to the point of death!

"No one takes (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18).

Piper goes on to say that two purposes were accomplished in the suffering of Christ (p. 71):

1. The suffering of Jesus brought us to God who is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. "Christ...suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
2. In the very hour of death the Father and the Son were glorified. "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him" (John 13:31).

Piper concludes by saying, "Our joy in savoring God and his glory in saving us are one. That is the glory of Christ's incomparable sufferings" (p.71).

Knowing that Jesus CHOSE to suffer, was humiliated, taunted, mocked, ridiculed, endured excruciating physical pain as well as the pain of betrayal and abandonment; knowing that He went through all of that because He chose to...it makes me ever so grateful. He KNOWS how I feel when I am hurting, feel alone, have physical pain. He CARES about my pain. Today I am pondering about the depth of what this means to me.