"He suffered"

At the centre of the Nicene Creed is our confession that the Son of God was crucified for us, “he suffered, died, and was buried.”

The Son of God suffered. We dare not let crucifixion become abstracted or reduced to a doctrinal concept or religious symbol. We cannot avoid the scandal and the suffering of the cross.

Crucifixion was designed to inflict maximum suffering, both physical and psychological. It was designed to degrade and dehumanize. And it was not unique to the Romans but widely practiced in the ancient world among Persians, Indians, Assyrians, Scythians, Greeks, North Africans, Celts, Britons, and Germanic peoples. It was a universal expression of human depravity and barbarity.

The Son of God suffered crucifixion. He knew he would suffer and suffered willingly. Consider what we read in Hebrews 10:5-7 (citing Psalm 40:4-6):

when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’.”

The Son of God says, “A body have you prepared for me.” He was incarnate. He became man. And he says, “I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”

There are many passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that announce the will of God for the Messiah, including suffering in his body. For example, the Messiah hears and accepts his call to suffer in Isaiah 50:5-6:

The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backwards.
I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.

When Peter declares, “You are the Christ!” Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things” (Mark 8:30-31). He heard and obeyed the call to suffer. He was not rebellious. He did not hide his face. He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8).

He suffered for us and for our sins: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet 3:18). The severity of his suffering reveals the severity of our sins. His suffering was ugly, vile, and abhorrent, because our sin is abhorrent, vile, and ugly.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood,
sealed my pardon with his blood:
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!