Dear BPCWA worshipper, This Friday, we will commemorate Good Friday. It must be an important occasion for every Christian. At Christmas, we often remember His incarnation – that the Almighty God would take on human flesh to be born into this world. We know, teach, and defend the fact that Christ is 100% God and 100% man. A week ago, we had the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, where we read the familiar passage, “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” (1Co 11:24). In today’s pastoral, I want us to consider why Christ had to suffer physically.

Christ suffered vicariously. Every Lord’s Supper and on Good Friday, we meditate on how Christ suffered and bore the penalty of our sins. In all His sufferings, He bore our sins in our place. This is taught in Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” This is the meaning of vicarious sufferings for our atonement – going through all these sufferings on our behalf as our substitute. When we witness through the Word the sufferings of Christ, we must never view it from an impersonal third person perspective. It was not just the wickedness of men that were inflicting those wounds on Christ. It was not just a moral example of being willing to endure unfairness. It wasn’t just to show how virtuous and humble Christ was when He did not retaliate. Every bit of physical pain inflicted was a suffering that He had to experience and bear on our behalves because of our sins. As we live in our mortal flesh, we commit sins in our bodies. There are the lusts of the flesh that are always craving and crying out to be satisfied (Ga 5:16). Gal 5:19-21 gives a list of sins of the flesh.  Even after salvation, though “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41). The Apostle Paul himself struggled in the flesh against sin, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I (Rom 7:15). Sadly, we know from personal experience that we often succumb to the lusts that war in our members. Man has misused their bodies in all forms of sin against God’s laws. Then there is the prevalent sin of our times, fornication. “Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body” (1Co 6:18). We are, at times, appalled at the physical sins that man commits. As we look upon Christ’s suffering in agony on the cross, remember that He had to endure all sufferings for the payment of those sins of the flesh on man’s behalf. It is because Christ endured it all that we can sing “Jesus Paid It All” and we can preach the gospel of free grace offered to all. If any unbeliever thinks that it is “too easy” that the murderer should escape punishment in hell if he sincerely repents, believes, and trusts in Christ’s finished work, we must point out to them that it was certainly not easy. Christ paid the infinite price on our behalf so that you and I can now escape the penalties of our sin and not face the wrath of God for our sin. It was for what we deem “harmless” fleshly lusts and sinful thoughts that Christ “gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isa 50:6). When we ponder how great a physical suffering He vicariously bore on that cross, it must make us remember that those physical sins that we indulge in are not trifling. As Christ hung there in His suffering, it was we who deserved to be there. He took all our punishments in our place. Our debt is paid in full because of vicarious atonement. But let us not be just happy to know a bombastic theological term. Knowing what it means must stir in us both shock at the unspeakable sufferings of Christ purely for our sakes alone, as well as immense gratitude for what we owe to Him.

The redemption of our bodies. Christ’s work in His life and death paid the penalty for our sins. We need not fear death. Yet at the same time, we must remember that after death, we will not spend eternity flitting around as spirits to the four corners of the earth. Christ’s work includes not just a payment, but a redemption. We who have the Holy Spirit today “groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Ro 8:23). In paying the price to free us from our bondage, Christ bought and procured us – including our bodies. With this knowledge, when Paul says, “that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Php 1:20), it is because he understands that his body has been purchased to magnify God. Perhaps the believers in times past were no different from many of us today, knowing this fact theologically, but failing to fully understand what it meant to them personally regarding the purchased body that belongs to God. Hence, almost with incredulity, God asks, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Co 6:19-20). No Christian can claim Christ’s payment of the penalty for their sins without allowing Christ to claim the use of our bodies to live henceforth bodily for His glory. The world may deem some misdemeanours “petty crimes” but Christians who have seen Christ’s sufferings on our behalf cannot think that we can continue in “petty” sins. No sin is petty. In God’s gracious mercies, Christ has paid for all our sins. We need not, like some false religions vainly teach, afflict our bodies or cause them to suffer in order to pay for part or all of our sins. Instead, God’s will is undoubtedly clear – use this body now to glorify Him. We are stewards now of this body we walk around in, because He owns it, not us. 

Today, God expects you to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Ro 12:1). The vows we made on Rededication Sunday were not something we initiated because it was a “good to have”. They reflect what God expects of every Christian because He wants us to use our bodies as holy witnesses and for His service. Presenting such a body to God each day is not optional. This begins with living godly lives. It now requires us to use this body consciously in an acceptable way, i.e. well pleasing to Him. When we choose what pleases us but is contrary to what is well pleasing to God, we are yielding to the lusts that Christ suffered, and His body was broken for. We are also using the body that belongs to God to defy Him. Glorifying God with our bodies must be a conscious choice the Christian makes. Where we take this body, how we treat this body, what we put on this body, anything we do with this body must glorify God. May this be the resolve of our hearts as we approach this Good Friday and Easter season. Christ’s body was broken to redeem us. Let us present this body as instruments of righteousness for His holy use alone.

Ro 6:12-13   Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor