Vital signs- Tuesday, April 12th, 2022

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.”

(Isaiah 53:10a)

When Jesus Christ suffered as our substitute, He took the full force of the Father’s wrath. The fires of God’s wrath burned themselves out on the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary. No one ever suffered like the Lord Jesus. He, the Son of God, who had been in the bosom of the Father for all eternity, was not only abandoned by the Father but also became the object of the Father’s loathing and wrath. All the sin of the world was distilled into that cup He drank.

How could Jesus suffer an eternity of hell on the cross? The reason is this: He, being infinite, suffered in a finite period what we, being finite, would suffer in an infinite period. The eternities were compressed upon Jesus. The sins of the world were distilled upon Jesus. We cannot begin to imagine the emotional suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder He lay there prostrate on the ground with red blood and black dirt on His face, saying, “Father, if there be some other way, please! Let this cup pass from Me.” But the silence from Heaven said, “There is no other way.” So, the dear Savior said, “Then not My will, but Thine be done.”

• What does it tell you of Jesus’s love for you that He denied His own will to rescue you?

• Where is God calling you to follow His will instead of your own?

Consider where God is calling you to follow His will over your own and act in accordance with that conviction today.