Reformation 500 WEEK 15: Heidelberg Catechism,
QUESTION 37-39
Question 37: What do you understand by the word suffered? That
all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of His life, He bore,
in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race; in
order that by His suffering, as the only atoning sacrifice, He might redeem our
body and soul from everlasting damnation, and obtain for us the grace of God,
righteousness, and eternal life.
Questions 37-44 explain the biblical basis of article 4 of
the Apostles Creed: “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and
buried; He descended into hell.” We begin with the word “suffered.” From the
moment of His birth to the hour of His death, Jesus Christ suffered all the miseries
and weaknesses of our humanity, except for sin (Heb. 4:15). He hungered,
thirsted, was fatigued, and afflicted with sadness and grief. “He is despised
and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).
His most bitter anguish of soul was on the cross, where He suffered the wrath
of God against the sin of the whole human race. It was this that caused Him to
cry out, “My God, My God, why have Your forsaken Me” (Matt. 27:46). “Christ
suffered… according to the human nature only, both in body and soul; for the
divine nature is immutable, impassible [incapable of suffering or feeling pain], immortal, and life itself, and
so cannot die” (Ursinus, 215). Christ suffered and was forsaken in His humanity
in the place of humanity, so all who believe in Him will never be forsaken.
Question 38: Why did He suffer under Pontius
Pilate as judge? That He, being
innocent, might be condemned by the temporal judge, and thereby deliver us from
the severe judgment of God, to which we were exposed.
Jesus Christ suffered the grossest injustice under Pontius
Pilate, because Pilate officially declared Him innocent (“I find no fault with
this man”), but then condemned Him to die by crucifixion! This was God’s plan
(John 19:11), so that it might be perfectly clear that Jesus Christ was
condemned to die – not for his own sins, but for the sins of all who would
believe in Him. The innocent was declared guilty so that the guilty might
be declared innocent, as it says in 1 Peter 3:18: “Christ has suffered once for
sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”
Question 39: Is there anything more in His having
been crucified than if He had suffered some other death? Yes, for thereby I am assured that He took upon Himself the curse which
lay upon me, because the death of the cross was accursed of God.
It was necessary for Jesus Christ to die by crucifixion
(being nailed to a cross made of two pieces of wood), because it was an Old
Testament curse for a criminal’s dead body to be hung on a tree; as a warning
to others that “he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deut. 21:23). If Jesus
had died in some other way, then “His death would not have been counted as accursed
of God, a punishment for sin on behalf of you and me” (Jones, Study
Helps, 87). “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having
become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a
tree)” (Gal. 3:13). Christ's accursed death on the cross saved us from
God's eternal curse upon sin!
NOTE: These Posts were written and designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .
Link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert: Reformation 500 HC QAs 35-36
For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 15
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