"These religious leaders, gathered in fiendish glee around Christ....they spat in his face, a symbol of defiance among the Jews. They struck him repeatedly with their fists, among the Jews a token of utter contempt. His face was soon bruised and swollen by the rain of heavy blows. 'His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind' (Isaiah 52.14). This does not mean that he appears to be more disfigured than other men, but that his disfigurement was so great that he no longer appeared as a man."
"Now the bulls and lions and dogs mentioned in the twenty-second Psalm close in on him, snarling and snapping in uncontrolled fury. O my soul, what a sight is this! As with tear-dimmed eyes we look on this terrible scene--do we?--we behold with wordless wonder the matchless love and infinite condescension of the one who came to seek and to save the lost."
"Many hands were raised against him, both human and demonic, but Christ knew that there was one hand above all others that smote him. And as he bore our sins that hand did not spare him. 'It was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief...' (Isaiah53.10)."
"In every case He suffered for us, never for Himself'; and he adds, 'Not one throb of pain did He feel, not one pang of sorrow did He experience, not one sigh of anguish did He heave, not one tear of grief did He shed for Himself. If not one of His sufferings was personal, it follows that they were all substitutionary."
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