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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