Jesus did more than merely deflect the wrath of God from us.
I believe a word that forcefully captures the essence of Jesus’ work of propitiation is the word exhausted. Jesus exhausted the wrath of God. It was not merely deflected and prevented from reaching us; it was exhausted. Jesus bore the full, unmitigated brunt of it. God’s wrath against sin was unleashed in all its fury on His beloved Son. He held nothing back.
The prophet Isaiah foretold this when he wrote, “yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5, emphasis added).
Note the italicized words: stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, punishment, wounds. They describe the pouring out of God’s wrath on His Son. During those awful hours when Jesus hung on the cross, the cup of God’s wrath was completely turned upside down. Christ exhausted the cup of God’s wrath. For all who trust in Him there is nothing more in the cup. It is empty.
It was the immediate prospect of drinking the cup of God’s wrath that caused Jesus such intense agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. That is why the Scriptures say, “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). That is why as Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And then at the end of those terrible hours Jesus again cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30; see also Mark 15:37). This was not a cry of relief, but a cry of triumph. He had accomplished what He came to do, to save His people from the wrath of God. And He did this, not merely by deflecting it away from us, but by consuming it in His own person.
—Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life: Turn to the Liberating Power of the Cross…Every Day (Colorado Springs, NavPress, 2002), p. 56-57. Italics in original.
Leave a comment