You hear people attacking the doctrine of penal substitution in the death of Jesus Christ. There is one quite well-known minister, who caused a great stir in print, talking about God the Father as a cosmic child abuser, because he supposedly punished the Son. This man is supposed to be an evangelical, a Bible believer, and yet he uses these kind of terms of the Father – cosmic child abuser. Well, even this verse casts light on this. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ with anger, intense, righteous indignation, at human sin, rebellion, and pride, also being ‘grieved for the hardness of their hearts.’ When Christ was on Calvary he was not a child – a father abusing a child! He was the God-Man, who came to be our substitute. It isn’t just the Father who is angry against the sin. Here you have an instance of Christ’s anger; he is filled with righteous indignation at human hardness of heart. When Christ before the foundation of the world said in effect to the Father, ‘I will go and be a substitute, a representative for lost men and women. I will go and take the eternal punishment due to them. Punish me instead of them’, it wasn’t just the Father’s righteous wrath and indignation that was poured out upon Christ, it was his own also. If you picture it in this way, what the Father did in punishing Christ, was not only his punishment but the punishment of Christ and the Holy Spirit also. This is the central doctrine of the gospel: that we have a Saviour, a representative, who went to Calvary’s cross to take his own anger towards us, let alone that of the Father and the Spirit. One holy, righteous, just God in three Persons. If there is no substitutionary atonement, sin cannot be forgiven, it has not been dealt with.
Is there such a thing as Christian hardness of heart? Unfortunately there is. Of course, it is not in the same league as that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Christians are those have been melted and convicted of sin and they have come to Christ, but sometimes, in some measure, your heart can reacquire hardness and blindness. How can you tell? Well sometimes you suddenly notice a believer's attendance is shaken. You can’t see if they are skipping private devotions, but what you do see is they are no longer at one of the services on Sunday, or they’ve stopped coming weeknight and hearing the word. They were so keen and so regular: what has happened? Of course there is some possibility that there may be some real problem preventing it that they cannot help, but it may be they just haven't got the heart anymore. They think, ‘I don’t need to be there. I am quite well instructed. I know the doctrines. I am a mature Christian. I can get by without that.’ With coldness of heart there always comes a measure of spiritual pride and self-confidence. But then what about those the friends of that person? Have they come alongside and encouraged him or remonstrated with him? Maybe they haven't, and that is a fault on their part. Maybe we have the means of helping someone because we are their special friends, but we say nothing. We play the coward; we leave them alone; we don't exhort one another.
‘Stretch forth thine hand.’ That was the very thing he couldn't do. Christ asked him to do something that it was impossible for him to do. His hand did not operate. He was handicapped. What a cynical thing to say! But as he willed to do it, wanted to do it, attempted to do it, he found he could do it. In that there's a tremendous lesson. It is what we call ‘the obedience of faith’. Christ says, ‘Repent of your sin; trust in me, and what I've done on Calvary's cross. Yield your life to me’ and as you obey you will receive the strength to do it. You are born-again; you are converted. There has already been regeneration within you that is invisible, but now, as you obey the command to repentance and to yield, it issues in your conversion. The man must have thought to himself, ‘This is what I have been unable to do for years.’ But then he reflected, ‘But this is Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, who is telling me to do this. If he commands me to do it, he will give me the power to do it. He has healed countless others. If the word comes from him, I can do it.’ As he obeyed, new strength and vitality flowed into his hand.
Are you a seeker and you're having a struggle coming to Christ? You have repented of your sin and you have prayed to him for salvation, but nothing seems to happen? Your trust in him begins to fade. Like this man with the withered hand you must say, ‘Yes, but who is it who invites me to come to him? It is the Son of God; it is the man of mighty compassion, who suffered and died for sinners, who has saved millions, who has such power.’ Can't you trust him, and give him your life? Truly repent of your sin, make no excuses. Don't plead that you’ve got any good works. They’re nothing by comparison with your need and your sin. Just give him your life. Trust what he did on Calvary to pay the price of salvation for you, and give him all your life. You can't do it, but as you give yourself to him, you’ll find he has changed you. Suddenly you are filled with love for him. Suddenly when you pray to him, you feel your prayers are real, and you are heard. You have assurance that you are now his, and you are forgiven.