But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities… and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5, 6
Someone might say, “God the Father punished His Son, Jesus, for sins that He did not commit! Isn’t that a grotesque perversion of justice? What kind of father would do this to his own son?”
Abraham, in the Old Testament, laid his son Isaac on the altar and was ready to offer him up as a sacrifice to God. A.W. Pink points out that Isaac would have been a young man, not a boy, when he climbed the mountain with his father. Isaac was a man in the prime of his life and he could easily have overpowered Abraham, who was over 100 years old, if he had wanted to.
Abraham was a father who was willing to give up his son, and Isaac was a son who was willing to give up himself. They were one in what they were doing.
Isaiah tells us what happened at the cross from the perspective of God the Father: “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (53:6). And then, immediately, Isaiah tells us what happened from the perspective of God the Son: “Like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (53:7). God the Father and God the Son were one in self-giving for the world.
Which is harder, to lay down your own life or to give up the one you love? God experienced both agonies at the same time. God the Father “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). God the Son “loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
The love of God is displayed at the cross, because there, at immeasurable cost to the Father and to the Son, God accomplished something of infinite value to us. He saved us, redeemed us, and reconciled us to Himself.
What does this help you grasp about God’s love for you?
