Preaching for Good Friday (1893)

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6 ESV). St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15: "I remind you, dear brothers, of the Gospel that I have proclaimed to you...that Christ died for our sins according to Scripture." This is a major component of the Gospel which is still proclaimed today, that Christ died for us, for our sins. We Christians are reminded of this especially today on the day of death of our Lord. If one has read and learned the history of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, knows exactly all the individual circumstances, then he does not know anything right about Christ if he did not realize that Christ served all of us with what He did, He has done everything for us. If one completely holds the history of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, is stirred and gripped by this great, solemn history, then he does not know Jesus the Crucified if he has not learned that Christ suffered for us, died for us. We must add to everything what Christ lived, did, suffered: For us! For me! Everything for us Christians is located in this "Christ for us". But what does "Christ died for us" mean? This does not only mean that Christ, when He suffered and died, has given us an example, stimulated and enticed us willingly to bear our suffering. No, Christ died for our sins. That is the main thing. Christ has redeemed us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil with His innocent, bitter suffering and death. We preach Christ the Crucified, i.e., we preach about the redemption that happened through Christ Jesus. On the other hand, this godly mystery about our salvation is accessible only to us, we can only rejoice and console ourselves rightly about the heart of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, if we have recognized in Christ our Guarantor and Substitute. Christ died for us, i.e., not limited to our benefit, but above all, in our stead. Christ rendered obedience in our stead. We are sinners. But because Christ died the death of the sinner in our stead, because of that and only because of that we are free, redeemed from our sins. Thus St. Paul writes Christ died for our sins "according to Scripture". And if we look into Scripture, in the writings of the apostles and prophets, then we find witnesses everywhere that Christ took our place in suffering and death. Even the selected words of Scripture declares more specifically what "Christ died for our sins" means. We thus confess according to the Scriptures, even on the basis of the selected text: Christ died for our sins. 1. He took the place of us sinners. 2. He has paid our penalty. 3. He has atoned for our guilt.

1. Christ took the place of us sinners. He is our substitute. It says in our text: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He - our. He stands in our place. The prophet here unites Himself with all men with the word "our". For what he says further: All we like sheep have gone astray, is indeed true of all men. Christ is the substitute of men. A wonderful swap and exchange! He takes our place and we have now moved to another place, placed in a different status. He, of Whom the prophet here speaks, is the Servant of the Lord Who ever recurs in the second part of his prophecy, is Christ Immanuel, of Whom he speaks in the first part of his prophecy, i.e., God in our flesh and blood. God has appeared in the flesh. God became man. The Son of God has taken on human nature and being. He had no need of this on His part. God becomes man to benefit of you people. The eternal Word was made flesh for our sake. And to us, to love men, He entered completely into it, into the situation of men. He became like any other man and came in the fashion of a man. What usually happens to people on earth has happened to Him. Yes, He has become equal to His brothers in all things. This also usually no doubt happens among men, that one is able to put one's self entirely in the place, as it were, in the soul of his fellow men, to adapt to His brethren. Love demands that everyone should look not only to his own, but to what is of the other. But it still remains true of every one in his position, in his vocation, and does not entirely occupy the position of the other. It is said about a king of antiquity, who had a heart for his people, that he once cast aside his royal garb and dressed in civil clothes and thus as a simple citizen walked around in his country and associated with his subjects in order to learn how it was among his subjects, what they lacked. But this man was therefore still not a citizen, but just a king, only a king, and knew and felt as a king, not as a subject, because he played this strange role. The Son of God was and remains true God, even as he walked in humility on the earth, but He became true man, was actually man among people, and has thought, felt, and experienced, as otherwise a man thinks, feels, and experiences. He is altogether in the same and took the place of men. He has not served Himself but has served us, only us, with His human life and work. It also appears otherwise well that a man is a guarantor for another, for a good friend. But then he just provides a special service for his friend only in a particular case. Otherwise he has his own business that he must also look after. Christ, as He walked on earth as man, had to look after and arrange not for Himself. That was His only vocation on earth, that He lived for us and served us. The business of men was His business. And all our things and affairs, all our duties and obligations, He has taken upon himself. And especially in the most important business, in the trade that men have with God, He has taken our place. He has managed our case before God, and could also carry this through to its good end. Our Guardian was hearing this at all times from God. For He Himself was God. Christ came in the likeness of men and has fulfilled the destiny of people on earth. He died in a human way, has given up the Spirit. He had precisely foreseen His death in His incarnation. But what should the death of the Son of God have for a meaning and purpose if it was not for us? Christ took our place especially in His suffering and death. Our text says it. The suffering and death of Christ is placed before our eyes, where it is done by the substitution of Christ. The Gospel testifies that Christ suffered and died as our guarantor, in our place. As the high council of the Jews met about the death of Jesus there arose, as the Evangelist John says,

the high priest Caiaphas, and said: It is better for us that one man should die for the people than that the whole nation should perish.1 But that Caiaphas prophesied, without his knowing and wanting it, he displays the true meaning of Christ's death. And the apostle writes: Thus one has died for all, therefore all died.2 Christ took the place of all men, of all sinners. We are sinners, evildoers. Christ is the Servant of the Lord, the Righteous One. He has done no one wrong, no deceit has been in His mouth. As the Son of the Virgin He was pure, holy, unblemished from His mother's womb. And the Righteous One now takes the place of the unrighteous ones. He takes the place of the evildoers, as it says at the end of Isaiah 53. Christ has fulfilled all human righteousness in our place as He walked on earth. He did not need it for Himself. He has accomplished for God and removed what we were guilty before God. And He has paid for and atoned for what we were responsible. The Righteous One has suffered for the Unrighteous ones. 3 How He led our cause before God with His passion and death is now described more specifically in our text. And we should surely take to heart such words of Scripture. This closely affects us all. What is said here of Christ is precisely our business. 2. He has paid our penalty. The penalty is on Him, that we might have peace. God's Word says so. The penalty, our penalty, the penalty that we deserve, is on Him. He has borne it, i.e., suffered and thereby atoned. And so we are free, loose from punishment. God cannot pay the penalty twice. Yes, Christ died for us. One died for all, in the One all have died. The prophet mentions the punishment that we have deserved. This is first of all sorrows and griefs. Griefs, sorrows, the thousand-fold evil and woe of this time is not a coincidental accident. This is punishment, consequence of sin. Sin has not brought happiness to men, as the serpent pretended to him, but misery and heartache. Men have tied this burden themselves behind their back with their sins. And behold, now one innocent Man is found on this earth, and even this innocent Man must suffer this. Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh went hungry, thirsty, grieved, cried, sighed. And He felt deeply the distresses of life. He spoke and lamented: Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere that He can lay His head. What does that mean? The prophet says: Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He has taken away our burden and taken it upon Himself. Throughout His life He has carried this burden, groaned under this strange burden. As He went through Judea and healed all the sick, many possessed, there has been fulfilled, as the evangelist St. Matthew observed, that which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He has taken upon himself our infirmities and he has borne our diseases.4 He has taken up the poor, the sick, the afflicted of His people, has helped them, even so that He intimately shared in their misery. When He once had helped a deaf-mute, He deeply sighed. The misery of this unhappy man was His misery. And in His last great suffering He was certainly full of griefs and sorrows. He has not rested until He had fully taken the extent of the suffering that we deserve. If you merely believe, my
1 2

John 11:50. 2 Corinthians 5:14. 3 1 Peter 3:18. 4 Matthew 8:17.

Christian: Surely he has taken upon himself and borne your disease, your plague, then you are free from the burden. The penalty is on Him, that we might have peace. The final penalty, the actual wages of sin is death. This is the punishment that comes upon us: death. For it is written: The soul that sins shall die. Our text tells not only about our sin, but also about our iniquity. We are all sinners, and are offenders, evildoers. Every sin is transgression of God's commandments, is blasphemy against God. We are all criminals before God. People describe our sins perhaps with easier names. They call them mistakes, weaknesses, infirmities. We are perhaps not criminals before people according to human law. But before God we are all offenders, criminals. We stand before God on par with murderers, thieves, robbers, fornicators, adulterers. And since we are criminals before God we have forfeited life and are worthy of death. We are not worthy that we live and behold the goodness of God here in the land of the living. Death, death in the fullest sense of the word, death and damnation, this is the punishment that we deserve. Behold, a Man Who was not a sinner, not a transgressor, like us and our children, now finds Himself on earth among sinners and transgressors. Christ, the Servant of the Lord, has solely acted prudently, has done nothing awkward. He has given to God what is God's, and to Caesar what is Caesar's. And behold, this Righteous One without spot and blemish is like a blasphemer to the spiritual court of the Jews and sentenced to death by the secular court. He is then prepared for death with whips, floggings, torture, and torment and then hung from a cross. He is wounded, pierced, they have pierced His hands and feet. The bitter torture of the cross has robbed Him of all His powers. He is poured out like water, is broken, crushed, was a worm and no man and thus died a miserable death. That was punishment as befits a wrongdoer, a criminal, and not just punishment on the part of men, but God's punishment. For it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.5 God has given up His servant into the hands of men. What does this mean? Whoever looks at the agony of Christ with natural eyes must think, "He was still a sinner, a prominent offender, and God has found His sins, has unmasked him, tied Him to the whipping post and put Him on display." Thus thought, thus judged those who saw Him hanging on the cross on Good Friday: "But we thought he was the one who would be stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." But no, He had no blame. God's Word says: But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. As our guarantor and substitute, in our stead He has suffered punishment, death, curse. This is outrageous among men. A guarantor perhaps redeems for his friends, for those he vouches, any repentance of guilt. But no secular court accepts guarantee and representation if a criminal has forfeited his life. No secular court kills the innocent and lets free the guilty, who deserves to die. God's thoughts are higher than human thoughts. Christ, the Son of God, has given His life to death for the offender, for the lost and condemned creature. Christ died for the wicked. God has assigned His servant with curse and damnation for our sake. The condemnation is on Him in order that we might have peace, so we are free. He bore the chastisement, endured, and has paid it in full. It was a severe punishment and damnation that lay on Him. But He has not succumbed under this burden. He died, but dying has already conquered death. For He is the mighty God.

Galatians 3:13.

The chastisement is on Him, so we have peace, so we are free. We have nothing more to do with the chastisement that is atoned and abolished. By his wounds we are healed. We were sick to death, but by the fatal wound that has struck Him, our guarantor, we are healed, we are cured. But is that true also with reality and experience? Do we not have daily chastisement in mind when Christ came and has borne the chastisement? Even these cling to Christ as their guarantor and substitute, even believers have in this life much nuisance and must eventually die. But what is written remains: The chastisement is on him, in order that we would be free. Sickness, pain, death is still there, but that is no more chastisement for us Christians. The bitter reproach, the poison is removed. You offend God, my Christian, if you ever still say: "God is now punishing me." If painful illness stoops down even on you, then know this is not punishment. If want, sorrow, worry bear down on you, then you should know this is not punishment. The chastisement is on Him. Sickness, pain, suffering was chastisement for Christ, His cross was a wood of curse, but your cross and suffering is no punishment, no curse, but a blessed cross, a proof of the love of your God. And when death draws near and horror fills you, then know this is no punishment. Death was chastisement for Christ, but for you death is no chastisement, not an evil, rather redemption from all evil. Sickness, pain, death, this is for us henceforth only the passage to a life where there is no more sorrow, crying, and pain, where death will be no more. Yes, my Christian, avert your gaze from what is before your eyes and look at Christ the Crucified, and give glory to Him, and say: "The chastisement is on Him, so I am cured." 3. And He has atoned for our guilt. Not only is the chastisement on Him, but also sin itself is on Him. The Lord cast all our sin on him. Thus we read in our text. Christ died for our sin in order that He would take away our sins. The greatest evil is not the punishment that follows the sin, but sin itself. What the trespass rankles and hurts the most is the awareness of his sin, his guilt, that he must say to himself: "I have transgressed, I have sinned, I am the guilty party." Sin is done quickly, a command of God is easily transgressed. But the matter is not thereby dismissed. We could not so quickly forget what we did contrary to the commandment and will of God. We must perhaps confess with David: My sin is always before me. Sin perhaps sleeps for a while, we succeed beforehand, we overrule sin. But sooner or later, at some occasion, sin is alive again and accuses our conscience, accuses us before God. God Himself, God's Word holds the sinner under sin. The Law of God speaks to the transgressor: "You are the man, you have sinned, you are the guilty party." And we must fall silent, yes, must admit this judgment of the Law is right. This is the greatest torment and pain on earth, the pain and fear of an evil conscience. But behold, now we hear in God's Word in the Gospel: The Lord cast all our sin on him. Or, as Isaiah later says in chapter 53: He shall bear their sins. He bore the sins of many.6 Behold the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world.7 Christ has taken away from us and took upon Himself the unbearable burden of our sins. Sins, guilt, is on Him. God Has made him to be sin who knew no sin.8 He knew no sin, He had an immaculate soul, a conscience without offense. But He has now
6 7

Isaiah 53:11-12. John 1:29. 8 2 Corinthians 5:21.

taken our sin and transgression on His soul and His conscience. He, He alone now bears the responsibility. And so because He has been in anxiety and judgment, as the prophet later writes. God went with Him into judgment for what we have done wrong, has demanded of Him what we have sinned. He stands in God's judgment as a poor sinner and wrongdoer. There He became fearful toward Him. There His heart left Him. When He was in bitterness, trembling, and apprehension in Gethsemane, He offered strong crying and tears, shed bloody sweat, as He cried on the cross: My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? - there it has been felt by Him, as it is felt by a poor sinner who is able to know nothing against the amount and severity of his sins. The Lord cast all our sin on him. God has done it. God has made Him who knew no sin, sin for us. And what God does has power and validity. And so our sins are in reality no longer our sins, but His sins. He is the sinner and wrongdoer. Christ Himself appears in Psalm 40, as it were, with an admission of guilt before God and says: My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head.9 God Himself speaks to David about the Son of David, about the Messiah with the words: When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men.10 Thus says God, thus says the Scriptures about Christ, that He sins, that He commits iniquity. He sins in our place. We have sinned. But He takes the guilt, the responsibility upon Himself. Such a thing is impossible with men. If a guarantor has made fraudulent bankruptcy for his friend who has made some frivolous debt, and pays the penalty, then nevertheless he is the one, before the eyes of the world, who cheated and henceforth yet as the real sinner and wrongdoer who retains the guilt and shame. It is different in this deal of which we speak. Christ, our Guarantor, takes not only our chastisement, but also guilt and shame on Himself. We speak not only about the torment of Christ, but also about the humiliation of Christ. The suffering Christ says: Reproaches have broken my heart.11 We have sinned, but He has the disadvantage of it, yes, He even has the guilt of it and the shame of it. He has borne the guilt and has atoned for it. The blood of Christ, the Son of God, counts more than the sins of the world. This is the depth of divine mercy. And we cry out, "O depth of love, to me revealing / The sea where my sins disappear!"12 The prophet calls in our text our sin with the name: the iniquity of us all. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way. All of us have turned away from God to some shepherd. He has made us, and not we ourselves. We are sheep of His Hand. But we have forgotten God. We went our own way, we are running after vain things, items, joys, pleasures of this world. This is sin, this is guilt. This has bitterly grieved and annoyed some people in his old age that he despises God, God's Word so many years and cast to the winds, that he has served vanity for so many years of his life, vain treasures, vain pleasures of this world. What then does he want? He could not make up for it, he could not purify his heart and conscience from the stain of sin. Yes, this is the iniquity of us all. Have not we all already occasionally roughly beaten the conscience that we take it so easy with God, with prayer and worship, that we have been so ungrateful, that we made so much wasted effort, worry, and anxiety with vain, perishable things of this life? Behold, the Lord now has laid all our sin on Him.
9

Psalm 40:12 (v. 13 in German). 2 Samuel 7:14. 11 Psalm 69:20. 12 TLH 385:4.
10

Here is God's Lamb Who bears the sin of the world. We sin when we henceforth make much trouble, anxiety, and restlessness with our sins. God has laid our sins on Christ. This is the right place for our sins. They should lay there. Sin and guilt are extinguished in Him, in His blood. Now we know how we can stand before God's judgment. If our sins would offend us, if God again enters into judgment with us and says to us: What have you done? Give an account of your stewardship! we must surely confess: "I have sinned and disobeyed." But this is not our last word. We talk further with God and say: "My Father, look on Christ, Who has done enough for me. This is my Guarantor and Advocate. Demand from Him what you have to seek from me. He may fight out the matter. Yes, I know nothing more about my sins. My sins are His sins. He is the sinner and transgressor. He has sinned. I was not at fault. I am pure and righteous before God through Christ's blood. Chastisement, sin, guilt, everything lies on Him." Take this comfort to hear, my Christian, so that you can stand before God in time and eternity. Yes, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.