July 21

Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones. — Zech 13:7 BSB

If we truly want to see, feel, and understand the terrible sinfulness of sin, it is not by looking at the lightnings and hearing the thunders from Sinai’s fiery summit. Instead, it is by witnessing the agony, the bloody sweat, and hearing the groans and cries of the suffering Son of God, who was made sin for us, in the garden and on the cross. To gaze upon the One we have pierced will bring our hearts and eyes to godly sorrow for sin, causing us to mourn deeply for our crucified and wounded Savior. To see, through the eyes of faith, the beloved Son of God bound, scourged, mocked, spat upon, and as the final act of cruel hatred, crucified between two thieves—this believing sight of Christ’s sufferings will break even the hardest heart, moving it to deep contrition and repentance.

But when we understand, through the eyes of faith, that this visible suffering was only the beginning of his agony, that the true depth of his pain was in his soul—enduring unbearable distress and agony from the hand of God, the consuming fire, as divine justice and righteous wrath were poured out against sin—then we can begin to grasp what Christ endured as the sin offering for us.

For all the sins of his people were placed upon him, and the wrath of God, which was rightfully ours, fell upon him. He endured separation from God, feeling the terrible weight of divine displeasure, all because of sin—that abominable thing which his holy soul utterly despises. Is this not the very essence of hell itself? This was the hell that our suffering Redeemer experienced when “the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).