The Passion of Christ

Isaiah 53 v 1-6 

with Heinrich Bullinger 

The Son of God became incarnate in order to make a sacrifice to appease God’s justice and to purge away our sins in his own body. 

Read Isaiah 53 v 1-6 

What kinds of suffering did the person described here go through? 

For whom did he endure all this? 

He Suffered under Pontius Pilate 

This article of the Creed declares the purpose and use of the Lord’s incarnation. For he became man that he might suffer and die, and by dying and suffering might redeem us from eternal death and the torments of hell, and make us (being once cleansed) heirs of everlasting life. 

We confess that our Lord truly suffered and not just to the appearance only; and that he truly suffered the calamities and miseries of this world and, after that, the torments of the slaughtermen, and death itself in most bitter pangs. He suffered therefore both in soul and body, in many ways. But truly he suffered all this for us, for in him was neither sin nor any other cause why he should suffer. 

We do expressly declare the manner of his death, for we add, “he was crucified and died on the cross”. But the death of the cross, as it was most shameful, so also was it most bitter or sharp to be suffered. Yet he took that kind of death upon him, that he might make satisfaction for the world, and fulfil that which from the beginning was prefigured. 

The Fruit of his Death 

What is the fruit of Christ’s death? First we were accursed because of sin; he, therefore, took our curse upon himself, being lifted up upon the cross, so that he might take our curse away, and that we might be blessed in him. 

The inheritance bequeathed to us by his “will and testament” could not come to us unless he which bequeathed it did die (Hebrews 9 v 15-17). But God bequeathed it, and so that he might be able to die, he became man and died according to his human nature. He did this so that we might receive the inheritance of life. 

Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5 v 21). Our Lord therefore became man, by the sacrifice of himself to make satisfaction for us. 

Apply

Read through Isaiah 53 v 4-6 again, putting your own name, or “my” instead of “our”, to appreciate all that Christ did for you. 

Count up all the different aspects of the cross which are discussed here—do you understand what they all mean? If not, how will you find out more? 

Pray

Praise God for what Christ has done in your place. 

Ask God to help you understand more about the fruit of the cross.