THE PURPOSE OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST

The horrific suffering of Jesus Christ was no accident. Nor was it an unfortunate, premature ending of a life of great potential.

This suffering, this death was the purpose of his birth. It was set in the plan of God before the creation of the world ' it was the God-ordained goal in which all of Christ's life and all of the Holy Scriptures reach their climax and purpose.

Christ, the eternal Son of God, came to earth as a human being to do his Father's will and achieve his Father's purpose: he came to die the death which would take away the sins of the world.

His suffering and death was in God's mind when he said to the serpent in the Garden of Eden 'he will crush your head, and you will strike his heal'.

His suffering, his death, which would provide for the deliverance of all people from spiritual death, was in God's mind when he instructed the Hebrews in Egypt to paint the blood of a perfect lamb on their doorways on the night of the first Passover.

His suffering, his death, his blood, was the real meaning of every sacrifice for sin offered on the blood-stained altar in the Hebrew temple, and the real meaning of the blood sprinkled in the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement for the remission of sins.

All of these sacrifices took their meaning and power from the sacrificial death of Christ that was already a timeless reality in the mind and purpose of the eternal God.

His suffering and death, and its sin-bearing, guilt-annulling significance, were detailed by the prophet Isaiah 700 years previously:

Many ' were appalled at him ' his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness 'he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised ' he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed ' the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all

Scriptures: Revelation 13:8; John 12:27; Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; John 17:1-5; 1:29; Hebrews 10:7,9; Genesis 3:15; Exodus 12; Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9:11-10:18; Isaiah 52:14; 53:2-6.