"Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." (Matthew 27:41-43)
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood—
Sealed my pardon with His blood:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Through the sham of a trial, they mocked Him and shamed Him. "They spit in his face, and buffeted him" (Matthew 26:67). They "platted a crown of thorns, |and| put it upon his head" along with a kingly robe and "they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews" (27:29). Then they "scourged Jesus, |and| delivered him to be crucified" (27:26). Finally, they stripped Him of His garments, hung Him naked on the cross, "and sitting down they watched him there" (27:36). "They that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads" (27:39).
Surely such treatment would be reserved for only the worst sinners, but Pilate called Him "this just person" (v. 24), not deserving of imprisonment or execution. Yet "they all condemned him to be guilty of death" (Mark 14:64).
He wasn't guilty, but I am, as are all of us. "For all have sinned" and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 3:23; 6:23). He chose to stand condemned where we belong, for God "hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
We have thus been granted full pardon, "sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30).
Hallelujah, what a Savior! JDM
