The necessity of Christ's sufferings.
The Savior's sufferings, while he was on earth, were:
1. Numerous. They covered his whole life, and culminated in his "tasting death."
2. Various. He suffered in body and mind and heart, and at the hands of earth and hell and heaven. But his severest sorrows were spiritual—"the travail of his soul."
3. Unparalleled. His were the substitutionary sufferings of a perfectly holy human nature in most intimate identity with God.
4. Divinely inflicted. It is implied here that "it pleased the Lord to bruise him." The humiliation of Christ, so far from being incompatible with his headship, was indispensable in order thereto. He required to suffer—
I. THAT HE MIGHT VINDICATE THE GLORY OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER. The glory of God himself is the ultimate reason, as his will is the law, of all things. "It became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things;" i.e. the moral character of God rendered it needful that Jesus should taste death, if sinful man was to be saved. The necessity of the atonement did not arise only from the exigencies of God's moral government. It was not effected merely that its power might soften the sinner's heart into repentance. Rather, it was demanded by the perfections and character of God himself. The sufferings of Christ "became" God's justice, which could not connive at our guilt; his truth, which necessitated the infliction of the threatened punishment; his holiness, which could have no pleasure in the friendship of degraded sinners; his mercy, which yearned for our salvation. Not only so, but the sufferings of Christ, in rendering the salvation of sinners consistent with God's character, have at the same time been the means of gloriously illustrating the Divine attributes, of revealing them in their beautiful harmony (Psalms 85:10, Psalms 85:11), and thus of covering them with new splendor to the view of an admiring universe.
II. THAT HE MIGHT OBTAIN HIS OWN GLORY AS MEDIATOR. Christ;, "the Author of our salvation," was "made perfect through sufferings;" i.e. it was through his "obedience unto death" that he became fully qualified for his work as Savior, and was exalted to heaven for its accomplishment. He must needs suffer for the honor of God and for the good of man, before he could put on the lustrous robes of his mediatorial majesty. His glory is the recompense which his Father has given him for his sufferings. Only after making satisfaction on the cross for human sin could Jesus ascend to that immeasurable height of supreme authority upon which, as the God-Man, he now sits enthroned.
III, THAT HE MIGHT ACCOMPLISH THE GLORY OF GOD'S REDEEMED CHILDREN. It was the purpose of God to "bring many sons unto glory." He desired to raise our fallen humanity from the dust, and crown it anew "with glory and honor." But this could only be effected through Christ as the "Author of salvation." It is through him alone that a sinner, estranged from God, can be made spiritually a "son" of God, and exchange his career of guilt and enmity for that life of grace which shall at length be consummated in glory. The sufferings of Christ were necessary in order to the pacification of the human conscience, the restoration of man's sonship, and the recovery of his eternal inheritance. And. they shall be effectual for these ends. Christ, God's Servant, "shall justify many;" he shall bring to glory such multitudes of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and- tongues, as to entitle him to be called with fullest emphasis the Savior of men and the Redeemer of the world.