Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)
The death of Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is the most remarkable event in all history. Its uniqueness was demonstrated in various ways. Centuries before it occurred, it was foretold with an amazing fullness of detail by those men whom God raised up in the midst of Israel to direct their thoughts and expectations to a fuller and more glorious revelation of Himself. The prophets of Jehovah described the promised Messiah, not only as a person of high dignity Who should perform wondrous and blessed miracles, but also as one Who should be “despised and rejected of men” (Isa 53:3) and Whose labors and sorrows should be terminated by a death of shame and violence. In addition, they affirmed that He should die not only under human sentence of execution, but that “it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief” (Isa 53:10), yea, that Jehovah should cry, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd” (Zec 13:7).
The supernatural phenomena that attended Christ’s death clearly distinguish it from all other deaths. The obscuration1 of the sun at midday without any natural cause, the earthquake that clove asunder the rocks and laid open the graves, and the rending of the veil of the temple from top to bottom proclaimed that He Who was hanging on the Cross was no ordinary sufferer.
So too, that which followed the death of Christ is equally noteworthy. Three days after His body had been placed in Joseph’s tomb and the sepulcher securely sealed, He, by His own power (John 2:19; 10:18), burst asunder the bonds of death and rose in triumph from the grave. [He] is now alive forevermore, holding the keys of death and hades in His hands (Rev 1:18). Forty days later, after having appeared again and again in tangible2 form before His friends, He ascended to heaven from the midst of His disciples. Ten days after, He poured out the Holy Spirit, by Whom they were enabled to publish to men out of every nation in their respective languages the wonders of His death and resurrection.
As another has said, “The effect was not less surprising than the means employed to accomplish it. The attention of Jews and Gentiles was excited; multitudes were prevailed upon to acknowledge Him as the Son of God and the Messiah; and a Church was formed, which, notwithstanding powerful opposition and cruel persecution, subsists3 at the present hour. The death of Christ was the great subject on which the apostles were commanded to preach, although it was known beforehand that it would be offensive to all classes of men; and they actually made it the chosen theme of their discourses. ‘I determined,’ Paul said, ‘not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified’ (1Co 2:2)…In the New Testament, His death is represented as an event of the greatest importance, as a fact on which Christianity rests, as the only ground of hope to the guilty, as the only source of peace and consolation, as of all motives the most powerful to excite us to mortify4 sin and devote ourselves to the service of God.”5
Not only was the death and resurrection of Christ the central theme of apostolic preaching and the principal subject of their writings, but it is remembered and celebrated in heaven. The theme of the songs of the redeemed in glory is the Person6 and blood of the Savior: “Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev 5:12). “The atonement made by the Son of God is the beginning of the ransomed sinner’s hope and will be the theme of his exultation, when he shall cast his crown before the throne, singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.”7
Now, it is evident from all these facts that there is something peculiar in the death of Christ, something that unmistakably separates it from all other deaths, and therefore renders it worthy of our most diligent, prayerful, and reverent attention and study. It behooves8 us by all that is serious, solemn, and salutary9 to have just and right conceptions of it, by which is meant not merely that we should know when it happened and with what circumstances it was attended, but that we should most earnestly endeavor to [find out] what was the Savior’s design in submitting to die upon the Cross, why it was that Jehovah smote Him, and exactly what has been accomplished thereby.
But as we attempt to approach a subject so important, so wonderful, yet so unspeakably solemn, let us remember that it calls for a heart filled with awe, as well as a sense of our utter unworthiness. To touch the very fringe of the holy things of God ought to inspire reverential fear. But to take up the innermost secrets of His covenant, to contemplate the eternal counsels of the blessed Trinity, to endeavor to enter into the meaning of that unique transaction at Calvary, which was veiled with darkness, calls for a special degree of grace, fear, and humility, of heavenly teaching, and the humble boldness of faith…When we remember that the Atonement is the most important subject that can engage the minds of either men or angels; that it not only secures the eternal happiness of all God’s elect, but also gives to the universe the fullest view of the perfections of the Creator; that in it are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, while by it are revealed the unsearchable riches of Christ; that through the very Church that has been purchased thereby is being made known to principalities and powers in the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:10)—then of what supreme moment must it be to understand it aright! But how is fallen man to apprehend these truths to which his depraved heart is so much opposed? All the force of intellect is less than nothing when it attempts, in its own strength, to comprehend the deep things of God. Since a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven (Joh 3:27), much more is a special enlightenment by the Holy Spirit needed if he is to enter at all into this highest mystery.
“Great is the mystery of godliness” (1Ti 3:16). Amazing beyond all finite conception is that transaction that was consummated at Golgotha! There we behold the Prince of Life dying. There we gaze upon the Lord of Glory made a spectacle of unutterable shame. There we see the Holy One of God made sin for His people. There we witness the Author of all blessing made a curse for worms of the earth. It is the mystery of mysteries that He Who is none other than Immanuel, should stoop so low as to join the infinite majesty of Deity with the lowest degree of abasement that was possible to descend into. He could not have gone lower and be God. Well did the Puritan Sibbes say, “God, to show His love to us, showed Himself God in this: that He could be God and go so low as to die.”10
To what source then can we appeal for light, for understanding, for an explanation and interpretation of the Cross? Human reasoning is futile, speculation is profane, the opinions of men are worthless. Thus, we are absolutely shut up to what God has been pleased to make known to us in His Word…
The plan of redemption, the office of our Surety,11 and the satisfaction that He rendered to the claims of justice against us have no parallel in the relations of men to one another. We are carried above the sphere of the highest relations of created beings into the [majestic] counsels of the eternal and independent God. Shall we bring our own line to measure them? We are in the presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—one in perfection, will, and purpose. If the righteousness of the Father demands a sacrifice, the love of the Father provides it. But the love of the Son runs parallel with that of the Father; and not only in the general undertaking, but also in every act of it we see the Son’s full and free consent. In the whole work, we see the love of the Father as clearly displayed as the love of the Son. And again, we see the Son’s love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity as clearly displayed as the Father’s, in that work of which it were impossible to tell whether the manifestation of love or righteousness is most amazing. In setting out upon the undertaking, we hear the Son say with loving delight, “Lo, I come to do Thy will” (Heb 10:7, 9). As He contemplates its conclusion, we hear Him say, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (Joh 10:17). They are one in the glorious manifestation of common perfections and in the joy of all the blessed results. The Son is glorified by all that is for the glory of the Father. And while, in the consummation of this plan, the wisdom of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—shall be displayed, as it could not otherwise have been, to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Ruined man will be exalted in Christ to heights of glory and bliss otherwise unattainable.
Notes:
1 obscuration – darkening.
2 tangible – able to be touched or perceived through the sense of touch.
3 subsists – continues to exist.
4 mortify – put to death.
5 John Dick, Lectures on Theology, Vol. 3 (Stoke-on-Trent: Tentmaker Publications, 2004), 95.
6 See FGB 219, The Person of Christ, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
7 James A. Haldane, The Doctrine of the Atonement (William Whyte & Co., 1845).
8 behooves – is appropriate for.
9 salutary – beneficial.
10 Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Vol. 5, 327.
11 Surety – one who assumes the responsibilities or debts of another; as our Surety, Christ guaranteed a full legal satisfaction for our sin and our deliverance upon His payment of our debt upon Calvary’s cross.
From Studies in the Scriptures, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY. A.W. Pink (1886-1952): Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, author; born in Nottingham, England.