“I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”
Isaiah 50:6
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.” This grace of which John Newton wrote in 1772 and of which we sing is at the heart of our faith. Newton explained:
“The humiliation of Messiah was voluntary and … extreme… . If He could have relinquished our cause and left us to the deserved consequence of our sins in the trying hour when His enemies seized Him, legions of angels, had they been wanted, would have appeared for His rescue. But if He was determined to save others, then His own sufferings were unavoidable… . He knew that no blood but His own could make atonement for sin; … that if He did not thus suffer, sinners must inevitably perish. And therefore (such was His love), He cheerfully and voluntarily offered His back to those who beat Him and His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard.
“Two designs of vast importance filled His mind. The completion of them was that joy set before Him, for the sake of which He made Himself of no reputation [and] endured the cross. … These were the glory of God and the salvation of sinners.”
“The humiliation of Messiah was voluntary and … extreme… . If He could have relinquished our cause and left us to the deserved consequence of our sins in the trying hour when His enemies seized Him, legions of angels, had they been wanted, would have appeared for His rescue. But if He was determined to save others, then His own sufferings were unavoidable… . He knew that no blood but His own could make atonement for sin; … that if He did not thus suffer, sinners must inevitably perish. And therefore (such was His love), He cheerfully and voluntarily offered His back to those who beat Him and His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard.
“Two designs of vast importance filled His mind. The completion of them was that joy set before Him, for the sake of which He made Himself of no reputation [and] endured the cross. … These were the glory of God and the salvation of sinners.”
Scripture Focus
Isaiah 50
Insight
“The help of men and angels join’d/ Could never reach my case;/ Nor can I hope relief to find,/ But in Thy boundless grace.” (Rice Haggard, 1818)
Bible In A Year
- Ecclesiastes 3-4
- Psalm 64
- John 4
