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The Suffering Savior
· LD 15 continues to break down the Apostle’s Creed
o “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified…”
o This of course gets into the core of Christian doctrine
§ What makes Christianity different than any other religion
§ Jesus didn’t just point us to God/Enlightenment etc.
§ Jesus is the way, he suffered to restore his people to right relationship with God the Father.
o Wrapped up in these Q & A are questions of why did he suffer? Who did he suffer for? Why crucifixion? Could there have been another way?
§ To answer some of these questions, we will need to deal with one of if not the most controversial Reformed doctrines, the doctrine of Particular Redemption
· More commonly known as Limited Atonement (the “L” in TULIP)
o Before we get there though, let’s look at Q&A 37
· LD 15 begins by seeking to understand the Jesus “suffered.”
o As quickly as it moves to the suffering Jesus faced on the cross, I love that it gives this short first line…
§ “That during his whole life on earth…” in other words, Jesus’ whole life was an act of suffering on our behalf.
§ Often want to FF to the cross and for good reason…
· But if that was all that mattered, Jesus could have just come on Good Fri.
§ Jesus’ full, perfect life means something
· His perfect life, live in complete fulfillment of the law earned him a righteousness that he willingly gave to you and me as we put our faith in him
o His perfect humanity becomes ours by faith.
o His life becomes ours and we are clothed in his righteousness
§ All given freely through the suffering life he experience on our behalf
· His life was a suffering life a “humiliation” in the old and new sense
o Old = brought low
o New = made to experience shame and sorrow in his life in many ways
§ Ursinus gives seven ways he suffered
· Removal of joy and happiness he gave up in the presence of the father
· The infirmness of our nature
· Extreme poverty and want
· Insults, hardships and rejection
· Temptations from the devil himself
· A horrible death
· The full wrath of God when he did no wrong
· All of this culminates in the question, of if this is why Jesus suffered then who did he suffer for?
o You might respond by saying to me, “Well, it says right here, ‘Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race.’”
o I would respond yes, but it the question is really not a matter of sufficiency, but rather a question of affect, or application.
§ IOW, you might say, Jesus’ suffering life and death was sufficient for the whole world, but only effective to those whom it is applied
· “Wait a minute, the catechism seems to make this clearer than you are making it.”
· In reality, this is exactly what Ursinus described in his commentary, “Christ satisfied for all, as it respects the sufficiency of the satisfaction which he made, but not as it respects the application thereof…Without this application, the satisfaction of Christ is of no benefit to us.[1]
o All of this would be clarified even more approx. 50 years after the Catechism was published when Synod of mostly grumpy Dutchmen came together to respond to some follower of a man named Jacob Arminius.
§ Out of that Synod would come what we know of as the Canons of Dort
§ One of the five points those Canons flesh out was this point, the scope and application of Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
· Important because it causes use to ask the question (which is a crucial question) Did Jesus die actually suffer and die for a people, or did he just make it possible for them to believe.
· IOW, was Jesus just a potential Savior, or did he actually save?
§ If Jesus did not know whether or not you would choose to follow him, or rather had not chosen you as one of his people, then his death would have only made it possible for you to come—rather than actually saving you.
· Get the distinction? -- Did Jesus die only to create the potential for you to believe, or did he die for you, as his chosen, as his people as his elect, as his sheep?
· Best way to sort this out is of course to look at scripture
o One of the clearest passages is our text this evening
o V. 11—“Good Shepherd… who lays down his life for his sheep”
§ Right here, we ought to see Jesus has someone in mind who he is going to lay down his life for
· Not a potential person, not to create an ability in you—but the sheep of his pasture
· The question might be, who are the sheep? V. 14
o Sheep are those whom Jesus knows and know him.
· Further definition in v. 3, “hear his voice” and Jesus “calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
o Ought to be getting a real picture of a specific, known people Jesus is referring to as his sheep.
o Step back look at this metaphor Jesus uses when referring to himself as a Shepherd
§ Used throughout the OT
§ Is. 40:10-11 “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”
§ Ps. 23
§ Ezek. 34:11-16 & 23
§
[1] Zacharias Ursinus and G. W. Williard, The Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism (Cincinnati, OH: Elm Street Printing Company, 1888), 215.