FLOGGED

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. John 19:1

When we consider all the accounts of our Lord’s crucifixion, especially of His trials before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor was reluctant to put the Lord Jesus to death, desiring to flog Him and release Him (Luke 23:15-16). And thus, along with beatings with fists and rods the Lord had already suffered during His three Jewish trials, and the beatings and ridicule He had already received at the hands of the Romans and in Herod’s palace, including having His beard completely plucked savagely from His face (Isa 50:6), Pilate had Jesus flogged with a Roman scourge, also known as a cat-of-nine-tails. Hung by His tied hands to a high beam in the rafters of a dimly lit room, the Lord was stretched taught so that this leather whip with nine tongs laced with sharp bone, metal, and pottery could purchase deep into His flesh. Jesus was flogged until He was unrecognizable as a human being: “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isa 52:14). Now, while His physical sufferings didn’t pay the penalty for our sins per se, they were part and parcel of the payment price. How so? When almighty God poured out His holy wrath upon the Lord Jesus for sins you and I committed against a just and holy God, the Lord Jesus was at His weakest point physically; yet, having refused the anesthetizing wine mixed with gall at first (Matt 27:34), He was fully aware of every torment inflicted upon Him physically, emotionally, and spiritually. “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5) was fulfilled because Jesus received God’s unbridled wrath when He was taken as low as a human being could go without expiring, and still being conscious and fully aware. To add our works to His sufferings and death to secure salvation is the folly of evil. Trusting in Christ’s finished work upon the cross is life-transforming salvation indeed!

“Lifted up was He to die;
‘It is finished,’ was His cry.
Now in heav’n, exalted high!
Hallelujah! What a Savior!”
by Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)

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Today's M'Cheyne Reading Schedule: 3/29 - Ex 40; John 19; Prov 16; Phil 3

If you don’t have one, get a free PDF copy of Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s “Daily Bread” Bible Reading Calendar by Clicking Here.

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