Maybe you say, ‘Okay, but I find it hard to believe.’ Don’t find it hard to believe, not because of some great intellectual problem. All such problems can be explained when you are ready to hear. The problem is really quite different. Deep down you don’t want to believe. You are saying, ‘I will have to give up sin, and be changed’, and you don’t want that; your heart won’t believe. But this is life and death. If you find it hard to believe, ask God for help. Remember that Christ suffered and died for all. He has come and died for every word, every hostile act. You must come to him, repent, trust in him alone. There are three steps in you must take. First, you must genuinely repent and ask him to forgive you. Secondly, you must give him your life and let him rule you, own you, make me a true Christian. Thirdly, you must trust in him alone.
The voluntary nature of Christ’s suffering – how many things he declined! Why did he decline every opportunity to avoid suffering? Because he was determined to obey his Father’s command and lay down his life for his sheep. What did he decline?
Christ declined the help of Pilate (John 19:9-11). Pilate was worried, troubled; he knew a great injustice was about to be done. Already he had done much. He had had Jesus scourged, and then brought him out for the people to behold the spectacle. In other words he was saying, ‘Haven’t we done enough?’ But no, it wasn’t enough. He hopes Christ will give him some help. Perhaps he will not go all the way in saying he is the Son of God. But Christ would not bend or twist.
In Gethsemane he prays, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me’ (Matthew 26:39). He prays this not so much for his sake as for ours. His prayer is that if there was any possibility, let it be so. The human part of him shrank from it – that he would bare an eternal punishment for many. There appears to have been this theoretical possibility. But he declines to take the possible alternative, because he knows it is not possible without abandoning his commission to redeem an elect people.
Then later in Gethsemane, when the multitude comes to arrest him, Peter drew his sword to prevent it. The disciples felt they must fight him off. But no, says Christ, what do I need with twelve swords, wielded by twelve disciples? I can have twelve legions of angels [six thousand] to defend me if I were to ask the Father. From what we know of the power of angels, one would have been enough, and he could have done it, but that would have been to turn aside from the purpose for which he had come into the world.
He declined to use his own mighty power. Couldn’t he who had power to heal, power over nature, have held back those who came to arrest him? He had done this. He had driven hardened people out of the temple; they were compelled to leave. On another occasion they attempted to push him over a cliff; he didn’t fight back, but simply walked through them. Why did he declined to use it? Firstly, because it was essential for him to suffer. If he had not gone and died, there would have been no help for any of us. If he had not gone through with it, in all probability the world would have ended right then. Why does God allow the world to go on with such a godless race? The answer given in the Bible is that God hasn’t yet finished with the process of calling people to salvation. But this is only possible through Christ and through the completion of his work on earth. Otherwise God would bring in the Day of Judgement immediately. If he had called the angels or used his power, it would have all ended. There is no other way God can deal with sin. He must punish sin. He is holy and just. The only way he can is by taking the punishment himself: substitutionary atonement.
Secondly, because he pitied us also. Because his mighty compassion which he felt for us compelled him to continue. Although his human and divine nature shrank from going to the cross – yes, even his divine nature, not from the pain, but from wearing the guilt of human sin. His human nature also shrank from bearing what no other human being has ever suffered. Imagine all eternity sin on him. Yet still he was willing to go, because of his love. He could see the faces of the millions for whom he died. He loved us and saw what he could make of us.
Thirdly, he had promised to go through with it. Hence Matthew 26:54. ‘How then…’. He had promised us and promised the Father and the Spirit. He had said, ‘I will go.’ He promised right through the Old Testament, and he would not go back on his promise to save all who come to him.