Not Physical Suffering Only

Let me remind you that it was not simply the physical suffering which our blessed Lord endured upon the cross that made expiation for iniquity. It was what He suffered in His holy, spotless soul, in His sinless being, when the judgment that our sins deserved fell on Him. For six awful hours He hung suspended upon that cross. God Himself seems to have divided the time into two halves. From the third to the sixth hour, that is, from nine o’clock in the morning until high noon, according to our way of reckoning, the sun was shining down upon that cross. But from the sixth to the ninth hour, that is, from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, a supernatural darkness enshrouded the entire scene.
In those first three hours there was no evidence of any special perturbation. He was suffering and agonizing, but He gave no evidence of the least self-pity. Not one word was uttered by those holy lips that indicated for a moment that He was suffering. He looked down at the foot of the cross and saw His mother and John, the beloved, standing near. He said to her, “Behold thy son,” and to John, “Behold thy mother.” John then took her, and led her away from that awful scene. He looked at the great throng gathered all about Him, and listened to their cries of hatred and blasphemy: “If thou be the Christ, save thyself; come down from the cross.” He lifted His heart to the Father and pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Then He heard the prayer of the dying malefactor by His side, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” That was faith. The thief could discern in that thorn-crowned Sufferer, earth’s coming glorious King. But Jesus said, as it were, “I will do better than that. You do not need to wait for me to come in my kingdom. ‘Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.’” All His words have to do with the blessing and happiness of others.
During those first three hours, while the sun was shining down upon that cross, He was suffering from the hand of man. But what Jesus endured at the hand of man would never put away one sin. Then suddenly, at high noon, the sun seemed to be blotted out of the heavens. Appalling darkness spread over all the scene. The early Christians used to say that Dionysius the Areopagite was addressing a class of students in Alexandria at that moment, when this supernatural darkness spread over the world, and he suddenly exclaimed, “Either a god is dying, or the universe is about to go into dissolution.”
Yes! He who is both God and man was dying. God was then entering into judgment with Him regarding our sins. In those three hours of darkness, darkness which no human eye could pierce, alone upon the cross, the judgment which our sins deserved was visited upon Him. Then His soul was made an offering for sin. Then “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him.” Then He could cry, as in the words of the Psalmist: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” Then it was that He was made to be sin for us. In some way that our finite minds cannot now understand, the pent-up wrath of the centuries fell upon Him, and He “sank in deep mire where there was no standing,” as He endured in His inmost being what you and I would have had to endure through all eternity, had it not been for His mighty sacrifice. Then His soul was made an offering for sin, and as the darkness was passing away, we hear the cry of anguish predicted in the twenty-second Psalm, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Do you know the answer? In order that you and I might have eternal life, He, the holy One, the sinless One, took our place in judgment that we might be forever delivered from condemnation. He went into darkness that light might ever shine upon us. He bore our heavy load of guilt that our sins might be removed as far as the east is from the west.