The Unknown Sufferings of Christ - Lancelot Andrewes

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Solparvus

Puritan Board Senior
An aspect of our redemption where it is wisest to stand back, and be in awe.

Psalm 22:13–15

I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint:
My heart is like wax;
It is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

“That hour [at his crucifixion] what his feelings were is dangerous to define: we know them not; we may be too bold to determine of them. To very good purpose it was that the ancient Fathers of the Greek church in their liturgy, after they had recounted all the particular pains, as they are set down in his passion, and by all and by everyone of them called for mercy, do, after all, shut up with this: [Greek omitted] By thine unknown sorrows and sufferings, felt by thee, but not distinctly known by us, have mercy upon us and save us. “

Lancelot Andrewes.

Taken from the Treasury of David
 
For the past year or so, and this may sound a little strange to you since I'm 68 years old and have been a Christian for 46 years, I have been praying that I could know more about Jesus' work and love for me. Sometimes I feel like I just don't get it as I should. And this is what has occurred to me deeply in my heart. The fact that my Lord died for each of my sins--each of them in particular and by name. Even the sins that I committed this morning. He suffered and died for them all. He could only do this because He eternal God and could take in all of the sins of all of His people throughout all time. This to me is light on what he must have suffered on the cross. I love him because he loved me and died for me.

I just heard a sermon by dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones titled, A Broken Heart, where he said that the significance of the water and blood coming from his pierced side could only be an indication that his heart literally burst and allowed the plasma to separate from the red cells thus yielding water and blood. If this is true, and medically they say that this is impossible, what suffering He must have endured.
 
For the past year or so, and this may sound a little strange to you since I'm 68 years old and have been a Christian for 46 years, I have been praying that I could know more about Jesus' work and love for me. Sometimes I feel like I just don't get it as I should. And this is what has occurred to me deeply in my heart. The fact that my Lord died for each of my sins--each of them in particular and by name. Even the sins that I committed this morning. He suffered and died for them all. He could only do this because He eternal God and could take in all of the sins of all of His people throughout all time. This to me is light on what he must have suffered on the cross. I love him because he loved me and died for me.

I just heard a sermon by dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones titled, A Broken Heart, where he said that the significance of the water and blood coming from his pierced side could only be an indication that his heart literally burst and allowed the plasma to separate from the red cells thus yielding water and blood. If this is true, and medically they say that this is impossible, what suffering He must have endured.

It resonates with me, not to know the work as I ought to. It's what has prompted this post, along with the sting of failure by a wrong method of trying to learn more of it.

I wish I grieved for my sin as I ought to, and valued his death as I ought to. A restless Pharisee lives in me. My repentance is real yet so spotted, and needs to be repented of. My faith is small, my mortification...

The past few mornings I have been looking at Psalm 22. Surely this Psalm could help me. But I made a mistake by trying to comprehend the suffering. Who would make it his business to comprehend the sufferings of the cross when the disciples were only permitted to pray from a distance?

Certain things Christ tells us about. Being forsaken by God. The rejection and abandonment of friends. The harassments of men and devils (whom I think are included in the bulls of Bashan). The burning thirst. Bones out of joint. The burning thirst. Isaiah 53, the soul sufferings.

But there comes a point where we dishonor the work by prying into it. No one but Christ knows the torments of hell in the soul in that moment. No one but Him knows the humiliation of losing all sense of a love so great as the Father's.

I learned this morning that our place is a stone's throw away, watching and praying, and receiving by faith the things we do know.

Stand in awe, weep, beat our chests, proclaim that this indeed is the Son of God.
 
Are any others willing to share a meditation on His sufferings? They are, after all, the reason we do not suffer as we ought.
 
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