Jesus is stripped and unmercifully scourged until His body is one mass of bloody wounds.Matt. 27:26
Christ substituted Himself voluntarily for us as a sacrificial victim without blemish in order to pay our debt, and, by the expiation and the satisfaction which He made for us, to restore the Divine life to us. This was the mission which Christ came to fulfill, the course which He had to run. "God has placed upon Him"—a man like unto ourselves, of the race of Adam, but entirely just and innocent and without sin—"the iniquity of us all."
Since Christ has become, so to speak, a sharer in our nature and taken upon Himself the debt of our sin, He has merited for us a share in His justice and holiness.
In the forceful words of St. Paul, God, "by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin-offering, has condemned sin in the flesh."
And with an impact still more stunning, the Apostle writes:
"For our sakes He (God) made Him (Christ) to be sin who knew nothing of sin."
How startling this expression is: "made Him to be sin"! The Apostle does not say "sinner," but—what is still more striking—"sin"! Let us never forget that "we have been redeemed at great price by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
Next Mystery...