What IS the issue?
Was that suffering "payment" for sin, when the Scriptures state that it is the "blood shed?"
From Isaiah 53:4ff:
'Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' What griefs and sorrows are these? In His life, Christ suffered all the pains and sorrows due to us from sin. He was due none of these things as the sinless Son of God, but as our substitute, he carried them even in His life.
'We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.' Why would 'we' (Jewish people) consider Christ to be smitten by God and afflicted? Because He was hanging on a wooden cross.
'Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree.' So, quite reasonably, the Jews thought that Christ was under the curse of God. And of course they were right in that.
'But He was wounded [or 'pierced']
for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.' Isaiah doesn't say that Christ was not stricken etc. by God, because He clearly was.
'It pleased the LORD to bruise Him......' What verse 5 tells us is
why He was smitten and afflicted; it was as substitute for His people.
'For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.' The punishment was penal. We deserved the punishment, but He received it.
And, was that suffering the "wrath of God" when the Scriptures do not indicate it as such?
Absolutely!
'God is angry with sinners every day.' 'The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' BUT
'He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.' 'God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us.' God's judicial wrath is transferred to the substitute, to Christ made sin. It is so clear, so obvious, I can't understand how you don't get it. If God has not transferred my sin to Christ, I must pay for it myself.
Such verses as "the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all" do not translate into the suffering being payment.
Why not?
'He was pierced for our transgressions.'
It is that gift God gave to the Son to carry. Such gift that none of earthly might could bear.
Where are Christ's sufferings described as a gift? In what respect are they a gift? God's grace is described as a gift in Romans 5:15, and so it is, but the gift is the transfer of our sins to Christ.
Much earlier, I shared that each wound, each bruise, each point of suffering was blood letting. Both that seen externally, and also that the internal damage that was historically significant when one was interrogated. That blood is what was the satisfaction.
I can't agree with this. The blood of the sacrifice spoke of its death. Otherwise Christ, having shed His blood could have been revived.
Where before, Christ escaped the vile hand of man, from the garden (symbol of Eden) He humbled Himself and allowed the viciousness. He allowed such that the blood be sprinkled from the garden, through the temple, to the magistrate, and even to be taken outside the gate. Such signifying the sin from Adam through all history is carried by the Christ.
That's very imaginative, and I don't have a problem with it except that there's far more evidence for P.S. than for that.
Do not think that such suffering is expressed as the wrath of God as a RESULT of the taking on of sin, for GOD (according to Isaiah) is the one laid the iniquity upon the Son.
Absolutely! God laid our sins upon Christ so that He might suffer the penalty for sin instead of us. Penal Substitution.
Why would God punish His Son for doing what He wanted Him to do, and in fact actually placing the iniquity upon the Son?
Because God must punish sin.
'The soul that sins shall die,' and Christ has borne our sins and suffered the penalty instead of us
Paul stated:
"...10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and
the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
11in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."
That same suffering Christ bore, Paul said he was not willing to escape, either, because it was a point of fellowship.
Absolutely!
The suffering of the Cross brought fellowship, it brought reconciliation, it brought healing, it brought peace. It did not bring vengeance.
"It PLEASED ...." not God poured out His wrath upon the Son.