The more I ponder this aspect of our Lord’s agony on the Cross, the more I realize how ineffable our Subject really is! (“Ineffable” means, using Latin as its base, “not” plus “utterable!” Beyond words!)

But I sure am thankful that Matthew, under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, tells us this much: Jesus’ Soul was “exceeding sorrowful” while at Gethsemane. Matthew 26:38 … “Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.”

The Greek expression “exceeding sorrowful” is the meaning of one single adjective. Spelled “perilupos,” it’s a blend of two different words. “Peri” means overflowing and “all around” you. “Lupos” is cognate to “lupe,” the noun for “pain, grief, affliction, mourning.”

Soul suffering … for He has not yet been nailed to the Cross or scourged by Pilate’s lictors … spiritual pain over some area of His upcoming Atoning Sacrifice for sin!

We might just have to say this … beyond his physical torture, and there was plenty of that … Jesus suffered mentally, emotionally, internally and yes SPIRITUALLY … to a greater degree than we will ever know. That is, until we get to Glory!

Then Mark adds this nugget: that Jesus was “sore amazed“ in the Garden of Gethsemane as well. (Mark 14:33) This is another “loaded” Greek expression. “Ekthambeo,” It means “astonished, stunned,” maybe even (according to some scholars) “rendered immoveable!”

Again I mention … before the Cross itself!

While I cannot understand it all … I can “stand amazed” in His Presence, as I behold and adore and worship Him by faith!

More than every I say … WHAT A SAVIOUR!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Thank Him for what He underwent, all because He loved the lost and came to save them.

That included me!

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Soul sufferings?

Is this thought even Biblical?

Let me show you some vocabulary words that will help us answer that important question.

We are going to John chapter 10, a critical Body of Information on Jesus’ Life and Death.

There in verse 10 (of John 10) Jesus claims one of His great Titles. “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” Of course He here has the Cross at Calvary on His Mind. But let me share with you the word, the noun, Jesus used for His “LIFE.” It is the Greek word “psuche.” It is pronounced psoo-khay’ and is found 105 times in the New Testament. What does it mean? Over half of those occurrences “psuche” is translated (in our King James Bibles) “soul!”

Yes, He gave His Life for us old sinners. But here the primary emphasis is His SOUL. Now granted, “psuche” can also be translated “life” and indeed is a total of 40 times in Scripture. It is also rendered “mind” 3 times and “heart” 1 time.

The same Truth is presented in John 10:15 … “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life (psuche) for the sheep.”

Need more examples? “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life (psuche), that I might take it again.” John 10:17

No one (among Christians anyway) is doubting the Fact Jesus DIED on the Cross, gave His Body, His Life in that sense. I am just going further, deeper, and saying He suffered in His “soul” as well.That may be the area where His greatest Sufferings occurred!

(Frankly, I suspect on the Cross Jesus suffered in His soul, in His spirit, the equivalent of all my anguish and pain I would have faced in an eternal Hell. Had I not been saved! In other words, He paid my sin debt! Add to that the sufferings for all the lost world for whom Jesus died! Which I believe is everyone! Surely, we can never even imagine the tonnage of such weight on our dear Saviour. Soul sufferings indescribable.)

Likely, and I will return to this again and again in this series of lessons, the apex of Jesus’ soul sufferings occurred as He uttered these Words: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, quoting Psalm 22:1.

Let’s ponder these verses a couple of days. Then we will meet again and I’ll write more. There’s a lot to learn here. In fact, these Sufferings of our Lord are neglected today by too many believers.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I read this line preparing for our lesson today. “God’s Wrath in the soul is the soul of suffering.”

Another Preacher believes that these Words of Jesus, spoken from the Cross, epitomize the very depths of His “soul-suffering.” Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 both carefully record them: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Is that WHY (or one of the reasons anyway) the Father “forsook” His Son that Day? The verb “to forsake” used here is powerful, compound, unique! It is a blend of two prepositions and a verb … “en” plus “kata” plus “leipo.” It means “to leave” or even (ghastly) “to fail” someone! And the two prefixes strongly intensify the action!

What’s that possible reason, Preacher?

I truly believe this. God’s fierce Wrath being poured out on sweet Jesus those Hours on the Cross!

And if so, I can already sense some degree (anyway) of the spiritual or soul suffering our Lord must have endured!

I do know this. God’s Wrath is abiding on every sinner on earth this very second! “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36

And logically, if (and He did) Jesus took our place on Golgotha’s Hill, God’s Wrath must have necessarily rested on the Saviour!

A thought perhaps beyond our comprehension!

God turned His Face from His Son … when Jesus became our sin-bearer!

When Jesus faced God’s Judgment (Wrath) in our place!

When we speak of Jesus being the “Propitiation” for our sins (1 John 2:2 … “And He is the propitiation for our sins.”) … we are saying that Jesus appeased (placated, satisfied) God’s Righteous Anger on Calvary!

Soul suffering?

Absolutely no doubt!

And I suspect the MORE we understand His Spiritual Agony, the more we will love Him.

Isaiah 53:6 is so right … “The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

What a Saviour!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Of course as I research this holy Subject, Jesus’ Soul Sufferings or Jesus’ Spiritual Sufferings, I try to read widely on the Matter. And one writer believes those Agonies began at Gethsemane!

John 18:1 … “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”

There Luke informs us … “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:44

No pierced hands yet, but certainly a burdened Heart! Jesus knows what he faces! Yet the Bible is clear, our Lord came to die on that Cross!

Luke 12:50 seems to be telling us that Jesus actually anticipated dying for our sins. Pleasing His Father to that extent! “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”

Prophetically, in Isaiah 50:8-9 Jesus also says of the Battle He faces at Calvary … “Who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.” Is this not a challenge, an invitation to the devil? Here Jesus is claiming Victory in advance! (What a Saviour!)

Yet then, how explain we the Pressure Jesus was facing that night in Gethsemane?

I personally believe he was under Satanic attack. That the devil was trying to kill our Lord before He could reach the Cross, before He could shed His precious Blood to forgive sin!

Jesus was near death during that hour! Sweating drops of blood! This is Doctor Luke’s report, mind you. Dangerously near a fatal stroke!

THAT IS WHAT JESUS WAS ASKING HIS FATHER TO REMOVE! THAT CUP, PREMATURE DEATH, BEFORE THE CROSS!

And if I am right (a belief that I am by no means alone in holding) … God the Father answered Jesus’ Prayer. He heard and spared His Son to be crucified the next Day, God’s Will was done!

But just think of the torture, torment, emotional and spiritual Pressure on Jesus at that time, at Gethsemane!

Soul suffering!

Hebrews 5:7 applies beautifully to this situation … “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared …”

Oh, how He suffered to provide Redemption to us lost souls!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Yes, Jesus suffered physically on the old rugged Cross. Untold pain, beyond our ability to grasp. Yet, surprisingly, the Gospel Accounts of Calvary do not concentrate on that pain. (For example, no gory details of the long nails being driven into His willing Body.)

His Agony seems to have gone beyond the savage physical torture. (Though Rome certainly knew how to “hurt” her victims.)

I think we get a glimpse of that Truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21, a line of that deep, sacred Verse of Scripture.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (King James Version)

And the Line to emphasize?

“He hath made Him to be sin.” But we must identify the Pronouns … “God the Father hath made Jesus His Son to be sin!”

Can you imagine the “shock” of that event?

Jesus Who is “sinless!”

Who is “holy, harmless, undefiled,” according to Paul in Hebrews 7:26!

Suddenly, “made to be sin!”

Actually, in Greek the infinitive “to be” is supplied by the skilled King James Version translators.

The Text literally, unenhanced, reads: “He made Him, God made Jesus ‘sin’ for us.”

Does that mean our Lord Jesus sinned on the Cross?

Of course not!

He never sinned.

(Personally, I do not think Jesus could have sinned. That’s the doctrine of the “impeccability” of Christ.)

Then what happened on Calvary that Day?

Jesus so identified with our sin that He personally took our filth, sin, degradation and claimed it as He Own.

The sinless One taking my sin upon Himself!

Oh, the untold horror that must have been for our pristine, perfectly holy Saviour!

His soul suffered, His spirit agonized at being our sin Bearer!

Fathomless sorrow, grief, shock … because He loved us enough to suffer whatever it took to redeem our lost souls!

Yes, on the Cross … “And the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

This is at least a “hint” of His spirit, His soul (not His Body only) receiving, accepting and dying for our sin. Jesus forensically had imputed to Him (by God the Father at Jesus’ Acquiesce) all the sin of the world! (1 John 2:2)

Mercy indeed, what a Saviour!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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