The gospels tell the what of the crucifixion while the epistles help us to understand the why. One of the most subtly graphic passages in the epistles is Paul’s declaration to the Corinthians (5:21),

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This doesn’t mean that God made Jesus sinful, it means that on the cross the Father treated Jesus the way sinners deserve. Jesus sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane was a mere foretaste of the coming rejection. One commentator wrote, “Jesus came to be with the Father for an interlude before His betrayal, but found hell rather than heaven opened before Him…”[1]

On the cross, Jesus endured the FULL WEIGHT of the sins of humanity. Think about it, every past, present, and future sin of every person who would ever live was beginning to smother the soul of Jesus. Someone has said that the physical suffering that Jesus endured was like a flea bite compared to the emotional and spiritual suffering of bearing our sin.

What we encounter in the gospels is that Jesus didn’t exude the peace of God on the cross. If we look closely, we see that he actually lost His peace while He was dying on the cross. He cried out in agony saying, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”  and then a few minutes later, in His final moment, “And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last” (Mark 15:34, 37).

To paraphrase what happened as He passed from life to death, we must acknowledge that Jesus died screaming. It was torturous, excruciating, and violent, fueled by unfathomable pain.

Here’s what may help us to better understand what happened on Good Friday, Jesus relinquished all of His peace so we could receive and enjoy eternal peace. The essence of the gospel is that God, out of unfathomable pain and immeasurable love became one of us and accomplished for us what we could not accomplish on our own. The Christian life is not about what we could do or should do to earn God’s favor and acceptance, it’s about what God accomplished for us. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).

[1] Bill Lane. The Gospel According to Mark. Eerdmans, 1974: 573.