Resurrection is a beautiful hope. But resurrection means something awful has happened.
From the beginning in Genesis 3, the shadow of death has been introduced to the story. The seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent will be struck and wounded.
Animals who had done nothing wrong are sacrificed to cover the shame and guilt of the ones who should be paying for their own sin. Here is a gospel hint that permeates the story. Death will be finally and ultimately destroyed by death, but not just any death, the death of the One who can do what all the previous sacrifices could never do. God will trample over death by death. He’ll defeat the curse with the curse.
Cain kills Abel.
Death has reigned from Adam to this point in the story.
God’s plan was that he himself would pay for the sin of man by his good grace and powerful sacrifice through the suffering of the Servant of humanity, the One through whom he created all things. Here is how Isaiah foresees John 18-19.
Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (CSB) 13 See, my servant will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. 14 Just as many were appalled at you—his appearance was so disfigured
that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being—15 so he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard. 1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the LORD has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. 10 Yet the LORD was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the LORD’s pleasure will be accomplished.
11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and ] was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.
God the Father will pay the penalty Adam and Eve incurred that awful day in the garden. All of history has been pointing to this, the day of days, the end of redemption, the Day of the Lord, the day that justice is executed. This day.
Jesus will be betrayed, accused, abused, crucified, murdered. Yet he’s innocent. The world will go dark for a time because the Light of the World will be extinguished.
God the Father will lay Mitchell Jolly’s sin…past…present…future on the Son of God along with your sins, and all sin, and that awful weight of rebellion will weigh him down, and the final blow will be the righteous and just vengeance of the Father in judgment for my sin and yours at Jesus’ expense all while he is innocent. God will kill the eternal Son in our place for our sin.
No other could pay that penalty but the innocent Son of God. That’s why Jesus had to come the way he came on the mission he came on. It was the plan from before the foundation of the world. What love!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Dead. Cold. Lifeless. Wrapped in a burial cloth. Place in a borrowed tomb. Dark.
Indeed Good Friday.
Theology in the Dirt 