"Despised And Rejected"

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for May 5
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"Despised And Rejected"

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised,
and we esteemed him not. Isa. 53:3.

How few have any conception of the anguish which rent the heart of the
Son of God during His thirty years of life upon earth. The path from the
manger to Calvary was shadowed by sorrow and grief. He was the Man of
Sorrows, and endured such heartache as no human language can portray. He
could have said in truth, "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like
unto my sorrow" (Lam. 1:12). His suffering was the deepest anguish of
the soul; and what man could have sympathy with the soul anguish of the
Son of the infinite God? Hating sin with a perfect hatred, He yet
gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world, as He trod the path to
Calvary, suffering the penalty of the transgressor. Guiltless, He bore
the punishment of the guilty; innocent, yet offering Himself to bear the
penalty of the transgression of the law of God. The punishment of the
sins of every soul was borne by the Son of the infinite God. The guilt
of every sin pressed its weight upon the divine soul of the world's
Redeemer. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. In assuming the nature of man, He placed
Himself where He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our
iniquities, that by His stripes we might be healed.

In His humanity Christ was tried with as much greater temptation, with
as much more persevering energy than man is tried by the evil one, as
His nature was greater than man's. This is a deep mysterious truth, that
Christ is bound to humanity by the most sensitive sympathies. The evil
works, the evil thoughts, the evil words of every son and daughter of
Adam press upon His divine soul. The sins of men called for retribution
upon Himself, for He had become man's substitute, and took upon Him the
sins of the world. He bore the sins of every sinner, for all
transgressions were imputed unto Him. . . . "How shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3).


>From Devotional: Our Father Cares, pp. 119, 120.