The Creator Has Suffered

The Creator Has Suffered

Can we even fully imagine the God of Creation? Is not our perspective fully reliant upon His own revelation to us? Of course. But if His ways are higher than ours, how much more His being? His power is beyond human imagination, to say nothing of human comprehension. Look in the sky and see the stars and know that their Creator knows them all by name, as it were. His power is not in His labor or by divine sweat, but just a spoken word brings nothing into the visible universe. He is. Jesus reveals Himself as “I AM”. Since there are no human words or thoughts that can ascend into the heavens and completely understand our August Creator, we gladly remain at the mercy and grace of Scripture. And within those sacred words we have more treasure than the entire human race can ever consume.

And what of His knowledge? For instance how can our bodies resurrect on that glorious day if the coffin only holds dust? And what about those faithful saints who were burned at the stake? Only ashes remain and they were blown to the four corners of the earth. And many believers were eaten by lions and other wild animals. How can God bring those bodies together again? Well, perhaps he will create new bodies on resurrection day, even before we ascend into heaven.

But if our Father requires the same atoms that were our makeup at our death, have no fear. The Creator knows all too well where all those atoms are, and like a Great Shepherd God He can track every single atomic particle like a shepherd watches over his sheep. To say there is nothing too hard for our Father is to measure His power and knowledge. But since they are infinite, no measurement is either necessary or even applicable.

The Lord knows how many molecules you just breathed into your lungs. He knows every thought in the heart and mind of every single living person. And even though He has granted you a free will, He still knows your beginning and your end. Such a glorious mystery! The Lord God cannot be fully embraced by any human mind. He must be embraced by faith. And the Lord Jesus must be acknowledged as God in the flesh. Without that acknowledgement no one can be saved. But it goes much deeper than that.

In fact, the essence and character and personhood of our Great God are the complete collection of all He is and all He can do. But if you gather all His attributes, and gather the entire created universe, and if you place them as evidence of the majesty of this Mighty God, it would have to bow to one mysterious and colossal event. God suffered and died upon two Roman planks. All of us can understand wood and nails and blood and even the act of crucifixion. Yes, we can understand the particulars. And if we are satisfied with that we have missed everything.

The Creator God came as a man and suffered and died. Again, we can understand the literary meaning of that sentence. An unregenerate man can understand as well. But hidden and encapsulated within that sentence is a profound and unfathomable truth. An eternal mystery. The pinnacle of all mysteries. For in that sentence is the eternal hope for all mankind. God suffered. God bled. God died. Step away from your inflated view of your mental capacities. Gaze upon that Roman cross and allow the Spirit to lead you into a realm that soars above all the ecclesiastical jargon and the neatly packaged doctrinal statements.

Gaze with your heart as well as your mind’s eye. Your eyes see a man, but your eyes lie. You see a face, a beard, arms and legs, and you see blood. But that is as far as your own mind can take you. This man is more than a man. In fact, this man created all men. What? How can this thing be? Please save you bewilderment since your journey has only just begun. Your amazement will be stretched to the point of breaking.

The all powerful, all knowing Creator is impaled to a Roman cross and slowly and painfully expires. How can we know the sufferings of God in the flesh? Who can identify with that kind of suffering? And even while He endures unsearchable sufferings, he is mocked with the truth. “If you are the Son of God come down” are the taunts of ignorant and cruel men. But still He embraces His sufferings, still He continues to writhe, still He bleeds. This is God Himself submitting Himself to such pain and torture and shame. And if you dare ask the obvious question as to why, be prepared for an answer which may disturb your soul. The “why” is you. Yes, this horrific mystery with all its gore is because of you. Smell the seat, smell the blood, and smell the stench of death. Does that aroma disgust you? Does His brutalized face turn your stomach? Do the puncture wounds on His hands and feet and side repel you?

Have you ever seen an automobile accident where there was much blood and ripped flesh and even death? People gawk at such a scene and shake their heads just thankful it was not them. But this is scene where the blood and ripped flesh and the death adorn the Son of the Living God. But even though this was not you, it should have been you. It could have been you. But instead the Creator suffered and died at the hands of His very own creation. The paradox is mind boggling.

It all seems like a fairy tale or a religious fable, but it will one day be revealed as the event that changed eternity. It took place here on earth, but the redemptive effects would reverberate throughout eternity. Moses was instructed to make the tabernacle and all its furnishings according to that which abides in heaven. And on the Day of Atonement one goat would be let loose in the wilderness while the blood of the other would be sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. And the Lord would be appeased by that sacrifice until next year.

When God died, He resurrected on the third day and ascended into heaven. Can you even imagine what awaited Him in heaven? Even the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Spirit got a small but magnificent glimpse.

Ps.24:9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

His blood was sprinkled in heaven upon the eternal Mercy Seat, and all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ would be washed and forgiven. This was not just a link in the redemptive chain. This was redemption itself. This act, witnessed by astounded angelic hosts, shook creation and with an eternal shout defeated death. And sinners like me yet unborn were ushered into a prophetic redemption that would one day in March of 1975 realize that incredible miracle of love. Yes, enemies of God like myself, living only for myself and careless about the things of God, would hear the good news and by the power of the Holy Spirit I would be changed forever.

And we dare not assign redemption through the cross as some sterilized doctrine to be learned and recited as if we were learning arithmetic problems. God suffered. God suffered in depths alien to our minds. And God suffered for us. How could we ever treat such sacrifice with indifference or as only a doctrinal weapon against false teachers and heretics? How can our hearts not break open within us when we gaze upon that wondrous cross? We must not just invite Christ’s sufferings inside our doctrinal statements, but we must invite them inside our beings as life istelf.

Phil.3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Please remove your spiritual shoes for you tread on holy ground. By His Spirit we can know the fellowship of His sufferings?? But it was He who endured, He who was smitten, and He who suffered. And through that death we have life. And yet God has allowed us to fellowship in those sufferings? This fellowship in not just some common distresses that afflict all men. It isn’t just a hard day, or a flat tire, or even persecution at the hands of family members. No, it goes far deeper than anything known here on earth.

To fellowship in His sufferings will require a hunger and a thirst. It will necessitate a seeking that costs us many hours of prayer and even fasting. If we indeed wish to fellowship in those scarlet wounds, we cannot be deceived into thinking it will come through a devotion that is a small part of our western lifestyles. This sacred fellowship visits a very few who are willing to make the sacrificial pilgrimage that leads through Pilate, through the scourging, through the streets of Jerusalem, and all the way to Golgotha. And this journey of faith awaits those who cannot live without it.

God suffered for us.

Do you feel it?

Does it impact your soul?

Have you fellowshipped within its glory?

If not, why not?