The Bible attributes the death of Christ to God’s absolute sovereign will. The Lord Jesus was not only put to death, but to the worst of deaths, even the death of the cross. It was violent, painful, shameful, cursed, slow, and unalleviated by anything other than total dependence upon His Father.
WHY DID THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SUFFER SO IN HIS BODY?
He came to save a people from their sin according to God’s eternal purpose and will, (Matthew 1:21). In His mercy, God chose out of all of the fallen sinful world, a people that He has determined will share His glory forever. The Lord prayed for these in the garden of His suffering saying, “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them.” (John 17:9).
The Lord Jesus Christ suffered as if He was the sinner. God is a just God and will not simply overlook sin. He must punish it fully. The sins of His people He punished in the death of His Son. The Father had to deal with His Son and punish every sin, of every one of His people, just as if it were them. His travail was not just physical but spiritual. The Just One bearing the sin of the unjust, in order that He might bring them to God. He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” so that those He has redeemed would never have to cry it or experience that separation.
If we want an idea of just how holy God is, look how He dealt with His Son as sin-bearer. He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for everyone that He has purposed to save. Do you think that after submitting His Son to such a painful death, that He is going to lose one for whom He died? God forbid. The prophet Isaiah wrote of the success of the Savior, hundreds of years before the fact when He said, “the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” “He shall see His seed and be satisfied.” If any of us is to enjoy eternal life, and blessing forever, young or old, it will only be because Christ took our place, in his body, suffering their curse and paying the full price for our sin.