February - the Free Presbyterian church of Scotland

The Full Price Paid 35
soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mk 14:34). His hour has come, the
time when He must pay the price He owes, when He must endure the full
force of God’s avenging justice coming out against Him, to the extent that
He will cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mk 15:34).
And so He asks “that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him” –
the hour of taking the cup of divine wrath, of paying to the uttermost farthing
the price that He had undertaken to pay. David Brown comments, “Thus have
we here no struggle between a reluctant and a compliant will, nor between
a human and a divine will; but simply between two views of one event:
between [on the one hand] penal sufferings and death considered in themselves
– in other words, being bruised, put to grief, made an offering for sin
– and [on the other] all this considered as the Father’s will”.
And so Christ goes on to submit to arrest. He must fulfil the eternal, divine
purpose; He must obey the voice of divine justice. He must endure the injustice
of what purported to be a trial before the chief priests and the council. He
must be brought before Pilate and Herod and experience further injustice.
He must endure smiting and scourging and mockery. He must experience the
unspeakable sufferings of crucifixion. But especially He must undergo
the most terrible of all His sufferings – what is particularly implied by the
command given in heaven: “Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and
against the man that is My fellow” (Zec 13:7) – the sufferings of the Good
Shepherd’s holy human soul as He bore the punishment of those whose
substitute He was.
He suffers until He can say, “It is finished”, and He breathes His spirit
into the hand of the Father. The full price has now indeed been paid and, in
testimony of this, He arises from the grave on the third day, for the Father
is well pleased with His Son’s whole work – in particular, His sufferings
unto death. He has satisfied divine justice; He has perfectly obeyed the call:
“Pay me that Thou owest”; He has paid the uttermost farthing.
Before His Ascension, Christ commissioned His disciples to go and preach
the gospel to all nations. Likewise preachers today are to declare to sinners,
wherever they live, the glorious message of a full and free salvation for all
who believe in Him. They are to assure everyone who will believe that they
will be forgiven all their sins, for Christ has paid the full price for the redemption
of sinners. Preachers are to insist that no one should try to pay any
part of the price themselves, through good works or in any other way. They
cannot even pay the first farthing, and to make the attempt is to insult the
One who paid the whole debt Himself. And with the same absolute certainty
as He used in speaking in Simon’s house in Bethany, He says to everyone
who trusts in Him today: “Thy sins are forgiven. . . . Go in peace.”