2) To Please His Heavenly Father

Christ Suffered and Died . . .

To Please His Heavenly Father

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief.

Isaiah 53:10 

Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:2

Jesus did not wrestle His angry Father to the floor of heaven and take the whip out of His hand.  Jesus's death was not the begrudging consent of God to be lenient to sinners. What Jesus did when He suffered and died, was the Father’s idea. It was a breathtaking strategy, conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned the history of the world. That is why the Bible speaks of God’s “purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”

(2 Timothy 1:9).

Already in the Jewish Scriptures, the plan was unfolding. 700 years prior to Jesus's birth, the prophet Isaiah foretold the sufferings of the Messiah, the One who was to take the place of sinners. He said that the Messiah would be “smitten by God” in our place. 

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities. . . .

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

But what is most astonishing about this substitution of Christ for sinners is that it was God’s idea. Christ did not intrude on God’s plan to punish sinners. God planned for Him to be there. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says, “It was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).

On one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God’s wrath because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ’s suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father. So Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). And yet the Bible says that the suffering of Christ was a fragrance to God. “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”

(Ephesians 5:2).

Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did the impossible: He poured out His wrath on His own Son— whose submission made Him infinitely unworthy to receive it. Yet the Son’s very willingness to receive His Father's wrath against mankind, was precious in God’s sight. 

Let's pray: "Father, I thank You for Jesus who willingly submitted to Your will. I thank You, Jesus, for obeying the will of God and fulfilling all that was required to pay for my wretched sin. I thank You, Father for that grace which You have shown me through Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit for revealing this Truth to me. Like Jesus, I too want to walk in obedience to Your perfect will, Father. I know Your plans are excellent and for the good of me and others. Please lead me in Your wisdom. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen. "

Be blessed,

Meghna and Ashish

(inspired by 'Fifty reasons why He came to die' by author John Piper)