GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #426
“IT PLEASED THE LORD
TO BRUISE HIM”
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
Contrary to popular,
heretical opinion, the Son of God did not die as the helpless victim of
circumstances because the Jews would not let him be their king! His death was
not a secondary plan God had on
reserve and adopted because the Jews rejected him. Their rejection of him was
part of the plan! That is what Romans chapter eleven is all about.
The Lord Jesus Christ died by the hand of God, according to the will of
God, to satisfy the justice of God, for the elect of God, to the glory of God.
Though he “knew no sin,” the Lord God was pleased
to bruise him in the place of sinners for sin. We recognize that our Redeemer
was crucified by the hands of wicked men; but he was delivered to their hands
by the will of God (Acts 2:23); and those wicked men did nothing but that which
God himself had purposed and “determined
before to be done” (Acts 4:27-28).
The death of Christ was no
accident, or after thought! The death of Christ was in the mind and heart of
God from everlasting (Rev. 13:8). The eye of faith looks beyond the malice of
the Jews, the weakness of Pilate, and the Roman cross, and traces the death of
Christ back to its original source, to the heart of God himself (Rom. 5:8; 1
John 4:9-10).
The Lord Jesus Christ died according to the purpose, decree, and will
of God (1
Pet. 1:18-21; Acts 13:28-29). We do not, we dare not impute to God the sin and
guilt of the crime. Wicked men did exactly what they wanted to do. God did not
force them to act as they did. Yet he did absolutely govern and control their
actions and used them to accomplish his own purpose of grace toward his elect.
Not a single action, circumstance, or pain involved in the Savior’s death came
to pass except by the decree of God.
This is a foundation truth of Holy Scripture. See that you hold it
firmly: God Almighty has written a book of sovereign and absolute
predestination (Rev. 5:1).
“Chained to His throne a
volume lies
With all the fates of men,
With every angel’s form and size
Drawn by the eternal pen.”
Nothing escapes the will, purpose, decree, and
power. of God. Everything that comes to pass in time was ordained by God in
eternity. You may be sure that God Almighty, who feeds the sparrows, clothes
the lilies, and numbers the hairs of our heads, left nothing to chance or
circumstance regarding the life and death of his dear Son.
The death of Christ is the
very core of predestination. It is the center and mainspring upon which God
fashioned all his other purposes. It is the foundation upon which the structure
of God’s decrees was built. Jesus Christ is “the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world” because “it pleased the LORD to bruise him.”
Long before there was a
sinner God provided a Savior. Before the sheep went astray God made his Son our
Shepherd. Before we fell in the first Adam we stood in the last Adam. Before
ever we broke God’s law Christ was our ransom. Before we became polluted Christ
was our cleansing Fountain. Long before we incurred the debt of sin Christ
stood as our Surety to pay our debt. Before we were cursed by the law Christ
was our Redeemer. Before ever we died Christ was our Resurrection and our Life!
AMEN.