17 And as Jesus was going up to
Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples apart privately and said to
them on the way, 18 “Look, we are going up to
Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be delivered up to the high
priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, 19 and
they will deliver him up to the Gentiles to mock and to flog and to
crucify, and on the third day he will be raised.”
Commentators routinely copy from one another the
statement that this is Jesus’ third prediction of his passion, but
Matthew has already recorded three such predictions (16:21; 17:12,
22–23; cf. 10:38); this is his fourth. An exception is Plummer, who
notes that this is the fourth and thinks that there may have been
others (p. 275). The repeated predictions show that Jesus had no
doubts about what awaited him in Jerusalem as the culmination of his
mission and the climax of the opposition of those who rejected him.
And his inclusion of the resurrection in this prediction shows his
firm conviction that the Father would ensure his ultimate triumph. On
this occasion there is greater detail regarding what will happen to
Jesus: he will be condemned by the Jewish leaders, he will be handed
over to the Gentiles, he will be mocked and flogged and crucified
(only Matthew records Jesus’ explicit prediction that his death
will be by crucifixion).
17. Matthew locates this prediction on the
journey to Jerusalem, but he gives no indication as to just where it
took place, nor of any happening that may have called it forth. He
simply says it took place as Jesus was going up to
Jerusalem. The whole band of disciples were, of course, going up
to the city, as were multitudes of pilgrims; but when Matthew says
simply that Jesus was going up, he puts emphasis on the leader. Mark
has a striking picture of Jesus striding ahead and of the disciples
following amazed and afraid. Matthew says nothing of this, but
clearly he envisaged unusual circumstances such that taking the
disciples apart was a significant action. Evidently others were
traveling along the way (there would be pilgrims going up to observe
the Passover in the capital city), but Jesus did not want his
prediction to become public property. He took the twelve disciples
apart privately. Matthew says explicitly that this happened on
the way (the others do not mention this). It was as they were
going to Jerusalem that this prediction was made.
18.“Look” (see on 1:20) is Matthew’s
way of drawing attention to what follows. Jesus reminds his followers
that their destination was Jerusalem. They were going up at
the time of one of the great festivals of the Jewish liturgical year,
and the expectation would be that they were facing a time of
celebration and rejoicing. But Jesus says that “the Son of man”
(his name for himself in the fulfilment of his messianic vocation)
“will be delivered up to the high priests and scribes.”
Both terms have particular meanings (see on 2:4), but the combination
(with no article before scribes so that the two are something
of a unity), together with the reference to a judicial condemnation,
shows that the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jews, is in mind.
Not only will Jesus appear before them, but these people, the
religious leaders of the nation, will condemn him to death,
where the verb points to the exercise of judicial power, not to a
lynching. Under Roman domination the Sanhedrin had no power to put
anyone to death, but that did not stop them sentencing people to this
punishment. They would then hand over to the Romans those they held
to be guilty, and these rulers of the nation would decide whether the
sentence would be carried out or not. Jesus is speaking here of the
part the Jewish authorities would play in bringing about his death.
19. He moves to the next stage in the drama. The
Jewish leaders will deliver him up (the same verb as in v. 18)
to the Gentiles. Jesus does not specify which Gentiles, but in
the circumstances of the time there could be no doubt but that he
meant the Romans. He goes on to specify three things these people
will do. They will mock, which fits the practices of the day
(there was no tradition that a prisoner should be treated kindly),
but it was not an invariable accompaniment of condemnation and it
speaks of another piece of bitterness in the sufferings Jesus would
undergo. Flogging was the normal prelude to crucifixion, though it
could, of course, be used as the proper and adequate punishment for
some offenses. Since it was a very brutal practice, it was no light
punishment in itself. But here it is the prelude to execution, as the
addition to crucify him31 shows. Jesus leaves no
doubt that he was facing the ultimate in rejection by his people and
in suffering at the hands of the Gentiles who ruled them. Matthew is
the only one of the Evangelists who tells us that Jesus specifically
prophesied that he would be crucified. This was a form of death
normally reserved for slaves, criminals, and other despised people (a
Roman citizen could not be crucified).
But that is not the whole story. As he has done before,
Jesus goes on to predict his resurrection. This will take place on
the third day (for this expression see on 12:40; it was the third
day according to the Jewish method of counting, even if some modern
people have difficulty with the expression). Jesus does not say that
he will rise, but that he will be raised. As is the normal
(though not invariable) way of putting it, the resurrection is
attributed to the activity of the Father. He will set his seal on the
saving death of the Son of man by raising him from the dead.
The
Sufferings of Christ
(20:17–19)
21
And as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took
the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to
them. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man
will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will
condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock
and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised
up.” (20:17–19)
In this passage Jesus gives the third (see 16:21;
17:22–23) and last prediction of His impending suffering, death,
and resurrection. Both His words and the truths they convey are
simple, clear, and explicit. He was not speaking in a parable or in
figures of speech but in very ordinary, unambiguous terms. He was not
revealing a mystery or explaining deep theological truths. He was
simply stating what would soon become historical facts.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ form the
central events of biblical revelation in both the Old and New
Testaments. It is those two historical events, and certain others
surrounding them, that Jesus now again predicts to the Twelve as
being imminent.
Throughout history, some people have portrayed Jesus as
a well-meaning, loving, gentle, peaceful, but naive visionary who
somehow got caught in a hostile world and accidentally wound up being
crucified. Others have less generously pictured Him as a self-styled,
would-be conqueror who tried to pull off a coup of sorts and became a
victim of His own ambition.
But such views do not reflect at all the biblical
record. The suffering and death of Christ were no miscalculation or
accident. They were not the least surprising to Jesus. On the
contrary, He knew about them even before His murderers had thought of
their evil plans. The Messiah’s suffering and death were planned by
our holy God ages before they were plotted in the minds of evil men.
Jesus’ first recorded words were, “I must be about My Father’s
business” (Luke 2:49, KJV), and among His last words before His
death were, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Jesus knew why He was
on earth, including every detail of His life and ministry. And
because He had that divine foreknowledge, He must have endured many
sufferings a thousand times in His mind before they transpired in His
life.
Clearly the Lord wanted the disciples to understand what
He would soon face, as well as prepare them for what would also be a
time of severe suffering and danger for them. More than that, He
wanted them to understand that these things, evil as they were, were
nevertheless a part of God’s great redemptive plan and were the
very reason He had come to earth.
Jesus knew how difficult it was for the disciples to
comprehend what He was trying to tell them. They were so attuned to
the popular Jewish concepts of the glorious, conquering, reigning
Messiah that anything He taught to the contrary seemed to go by them.
To most Jews of that day, just as to most Jews of our own time, the
idea of a suffering and dying Messiah was unthinkable, an absolute
self-contradiction. Like their fellow Jews, the disciples were
looking for a lion, not a lamb.
So for the third time it is recorded that the Lord calls
them aside and seeks to impress on them the reality of what is about
to happen to Him. First He assures them that these events are a part
of God’s revealed plan. Then He gives detailed predictions of the
particular events, and finally an idea of the proportion and power of
the sufferings He would endure.
The Plan of His Suffering
And
as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve
disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; (20:17–18a)
Jesus had finished His Galilean ministry and had
crossed into Perea, on the other side of the Jordan River (19:1). As
Jewish travelers from Galilee often did in order to avoid going
through Samaria, Jesus traveled down the east side of the Jordan and
crossed over to Jericho (20:29). From there He would go up to
Jerusalem.
Jericho is near the northern end of the Dead Sea, which
is over 1,000 feet below sea level. Although Jerusalem is only
14 miles due west of the Dead Sea, it is at an elevation of 2,500
feet above sea level, making the trip up from Jericho quite
steep.
The fact that Jesus took the twelve disciples aside
by themselves indicates they were traveling in the company of
others, probably a large crowd. Some of the group doubtlessly had
been following Jesus for some time (cf. v. 29), and others were part
of the thousands of Jews making the yearly Passover pilgrimage to
Jerusalem who found themselves in the company of this astounding
Teacher and Healer. But His public ministry was nearing an end, and
He devoted the great majority of His time to private instruction of
the disciples.
Behold was a common exclamation, a means of
calling special attention to something of importance. In this context
it also carried the idea of resolution and conviction. Even more than
on the earlier occasion that Luke describes, Jesus now “resolutely
set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). He did not plan to go
alone, but told the Twelve, “We are going up to Jerusalem.”
As already noted, they still had great difficulty
accepting the idea of a suffering and dying Messiah, and it was
common knowledge that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sought
to kill Him. Therefore the disciples “were amazed, and those who
followed were fearful” (Mark 10:32). They thought it not only
unnecessary but foolhardy for Jesus even to think of going to
Jerusalem.
The Greek word behind amazed is thambeō,
which refers to great astonishment or bewilderment, and sometimes
even carried the idea of immobility because of fright. It denoted
complete inability to correctly comprehend and react to an idea or
event. The disciples had witnessed nearly three years of Jesus’
divine, miraculous power and of heating His authoritative teaching.
They had left everything for Him and had put themselves completely
into His care. Now everything seemed hopeless and pointless, and they
could make no sense at all of what was happening.
The disciples were so disbelieving and confused that
they had perhaps given up, emotionally if not intellectually, on the
idea of an immediate inauguration of the kingdom. Yet they could not
imagine what the alternative might be. Jesus was doing nothing to
establish a political following and certainly was not raising up an
army. If He was powerless against the Jewish establishment, He was
totally insignificant as far as the Roman government was concerned.
To go to Jerusalem was certain death, and “Thomas therefore, who is
called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples. ‘Let us also go, that
we may die with Him”’ (John 11:16). The most positive attitude
they could muster was a heroic but hopeless resignation to go and die
with their Master.
Mark reports that Jesus was walking ahead of the
disciples and the crowd (Mark 10:32). It was as if He were a military
commander going into battle at the head of his troops, bravely
putting himself in the most dangerous and vulnerable position. But
Jesus had no troops and no weapons, only a small band of confused,
helpless disciples and a thrill-seeking multitude that would flee at
the first sign of danger.
Yet it was the divine plan that Jesus go to Jerusalem
in order that “all things which are written through the prophets
about the Son of Man will be accomplished” (Luke 18:31). Going to
Jerusalem was no accident, no quirk of fate. Jesus would not be
caught off guard and unexpectedly trapped there by His enemies. The
Lord not only knew of but foretold those events through His prophets.
Now He moved resolutely toward their fulfillment. They were, indeed,
the very culmination of the redemptive plan of God.
Through Moses, God had predicted that none of the
Messiah’s bones would be broken (Ex. 12:46). Through the psalmists,
He predicted that, on the cross, the Messiah would be pierced
(22:16), that lots would be cast for His garments (22:18), that He
would be given vinegar to drink (69:21), that He would cry out in
pain (22:1), that He would rise from the dead (16:10), and that He
would ascend into heaven (110:1). Zechariah predicted the Messiah’s
entering Jerusalem on a colt (Zech. 9:9), His betrayal for 30 pieces
of silver (11:12), His desertion by His friends (13:7), and His being
pierced (12:10).
The whole sweep and flow of the Old Testament in its
types and symbols demanded that the Messiah, the Lord’s Anointed,
die for the sins of a world that could never itself atone for those
sins. The death of Christ has been called the scarlet thread of
Scripture, the supreme truth around which all others are woven.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately became aware
of their nakedness, and to provide them clothing of skins, animals
had to be killed. From the beginning, guilt and shame had to be
covered by sacrifice. That was the first great principle of
redemption taught in Scripture. But those skins, like all the
countless sacrifices thereafter, were only symbolic. They could cover
man’s nakedness but not his sin.
The second great principle of redemption that God
revealed is that He Himself will provide the necessary sacrifice for
man. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son through
whom the divine promise could be fulfilled. Abraham was able to raise
the knife and be willing to plunge it into Isaac’s heart because of
his sure belief that God could raise his son from the dead (Heb.
11:19). When the Lord stayed Abraham’s hand and provided a ram to
take Isaac’s place on the altar, Abraham named that place of
sacrifice, “The Lord Will Provide” (Gen. 22:14).
The third great principle of redemption God revealed was
that acceptable sacrifice had to be unblemished. When the death angel
was about to pass over Egypt, striking dead all the first-born, God
provided for the Israelites to be protected by smearing the blood of
an unblemished lamb on their doorposts and lintels (Ex. 12:5–7).
During the wilderness wanderings, God revealed to Moses
the fourth great principle of sacrifice: that it is the central act
of acceptable worship. In the details of the intricate sacrificial
system, God showed Israel that sacrifice would be inherent in every
act of true worship, because it opened the way to God.
But in the requirements and rituals of the Old
Testament, those principles were only pictured. No sacrifice offered
by man could cover sin, provide a substitute for himself, be morally
and spiritually unblemished, or become an acceptable act of worship
to God. Only God Himself could present such a sacrifice, and it is
that divine sacrifice to whom all the other sacrifices pointed. And
when that perfect sacrifice was made, the others no longer had
significance. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the Temple
was torn in two and the validity of the sacrificial system ended.
Less than forty years later, with the total destruction of the Temple
in a.d. 70, even the possibility of other Old Testament sacrifices
ended.
The disciples knew they were going to Jerusalem to
celebrate the Passover with Jesus, but they did not know that Jesus
was Himself God’s ultimate and only true Passover Lamb. They were
still thinking lion, but He was thinking Lamb. They were thinking
kingdom, but He was thinking sacrifice. They were thinking glory, but
He was thinking suffering and death.
The disciples did not fully understand what the Old
Testament taught about the Messiah, and they did not understand what
Jesus Himself repeatedly told them about Himself. Even after the
resurrection He rebuked two of the disciples for their lack of
comprehension of what Scripture had long before revealed. “O
foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets
have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these
things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25–26). A short
while later He told the eleven and some other believers gathered with
them in Jerusalem, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should
suffer and rise again from the dead the third day” (v. 46).
Paul had to remind the Corinthian Christians of the
central truth he had taught them many times before: that “Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was
buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3–4). Many years later, Peter reminded the
believers to whom he wrote that “As to this salvation, the prophets
who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful
search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of
Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of
Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Pet. 1:10–11).
Jesus’ suffering and death were always in God’s
plan. When Jesus was only a few weeks old and was brought by His
parents to the Temple to be presented to the Lord, the godly Simeon
told Mary, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise
of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed-and a sword will
pierce even your own soul” (Luke 2:34–35). John the Baptist
announced Jesus’ ministry by declaring, “Behold, the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and every Jew
who heard that message knew John was speaking of a sacrificed lamb.
In his great vision on the Island of Patmos, the apostle John saw “a
Lamb standing, as if slain,” and heard a great host of angels
“saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain’
” (Rev. 5:6, 12).
Jesus was going to Jerusalem because that is where He
was to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world, in perfect
accordance with God’s revealed plan.
The Predictions Of His Suffering
and
the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes,
and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the
Gentiles (20:18–19)
By His own divine omniscience, Jesus knew how many
husbands the woman at Sychar had, although He had never met or heard
of her before (John 4:16–18). He told the disciples exactly what
they would find when He sent them into Jerusalem to find a colt
(Matt. 21:2). He forecast the destruction of Jerusalem nearly forty
years before it would occur (Matt. 24:1–2). Now Jesus omnisciently
adds additional details of His suffering and death to the many
prophecies of the Old Testament.
Jesus referred to Himself or was referred to by the
gospel writers some eighty times as the Son of Man, an Old
Testament title that connoted the Messiah’s divinity but emphasized
His incarnation and humiliation. As the divine/human Son of Man,
Jesus declared that He would be delivered to the chief priests and
scribes.
The Lord made no mention of the one by whom. He would be
delivered, although He knew it would be Judas. That is why some
translators have chosen to render the verb as “betrayed,” instead
of the more literal delivered or “handed over.”
The Jewish priesthood was composed of several ranks and
levels. The Levites were the lowest level and numbered in the many
thousands. They did not perform priestly functions as such but were
responsible for serving the priests. The ordinary priests served in
various capacities in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. By New
Testament times a group had developed called the chief priests,
who were the hereditary aristocracy of the priesthood. The highest
position within that group was that of the high priest, an office
handed down from father to son.
Next in importance among the Jewish religious leaders
were the scribes, who gained their positions not by heredity
but by learning. They were authorities on the Old Testament,
especially the Mosaic law, as well as on the thousands of rabbinical
traditions they had developed over the past several hundred years
since the return from Babylon. Scribes were often called
lawyers, rabbis, or doctors and, as is abundantly evident from the
gospels, were closely associated with the Pharisees.
The chief priests and scribes therefore
respectively comprised the hereditary and the intellectual
aristocracy of Judaism. That elite group of religious leaders came to
vehemently hate and oppose Jesus because He threatened their
hypocritical and ungodly system of power. And as the executive body
of the high Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, they would soon condemn
Him to death.
Because Rome did not allow subject nations to impose the
death penalty, the Jewish religious leaders could condemn
Jesus to death but could not execute Him without Roman
approval. It was therefore necessary for them to deliver Him to
the pagan Roman Gentiles in order to carry out their
murderous scheme. And because they could not convince Pilate, the
Roman governor, that Jesus’ religious offenses deserved the death
penalty, they resorted to blackmail. “If you release this Man,”
they told the governor, “you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who
makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar” (John 19:12).
The Proportion and Power of His
Suffering
to
mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be
raised up. (20:19b)
The first phrase describes what might be called the
proportion of Jesus’ suffering, the degree of agony to which He was
unjustly but willingly condemned.
While Jesus was being held by the Gentile Roman
authorities, they proceeded to mock and scourge Him, as the
custom was with prisoners who were not Roman citizens, even if they
had not been convicted of a crime. First Pilate had Jesus scourged
with leather whips in which sharp pieces of bone and metal were
embedded. Then his soldiers “took Jesus into the Praetorium and
gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. And they stripped Him,
and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after weaving a crown of thorns,
they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they
kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the
Jews!’ And they spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat
Him on the head” (Matt. 27:26–30). Only after that painful
humiliation did they take Him away and crucify Him.
It is significant that, when referring to Christ’s
sufferings before and during His crucifixion, the New Testament
always uses the plural (see 2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10; Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet.
1:11; 4:13). His pain was not one dimensional, but involved
sufferings of many sorts.
The physical pain of crucifixion was excruciating, which
was the reason why it was Rome’s preferred means of execution for
enemies of the state. But by itself it was not always fatal, and
there are numerous historical records of men surviving it. When they
wanted death to be certain, the victim was scourged beforehand. The
great loss of blood, as well as frequent exposure of internal organs,
not only greatly increased suffering but assured death.
Jesus’ physical sufferings cannot be minimized. He
felt every sting of the reed and every cut of the lash. He felt the
agony of His bruised and lacerated muscles trying to carry the heavy
cross out of the city and up to Golgotha. He felt the surges of pain
as the nails were driven through His hands and feet and He was
hoisted to an upright position so that the entire weight of his body
rested on those nails. He suffered great thirst, which was yet
exceeded by the suffocating pull of His body against His lungs.
But the greatest sufferings He endured were not physical
but emotional and spiritual, just as Isaiah had vividly predicted.
He has no stately form or
majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should
be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide
their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our
griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves
esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was
pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our
iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by
His scourging we are healed. … The Lord has caused the iniquity of
us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He
did not open His mouth. … He was cut off out of the land of the
living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was
due. (Isa. 53:2–8)
As the prophet makes clear, Jesus’ sufferings went
much deeper than the physical. The Messiah would endure inner
sufferings far more devastating than the pain in His body He had to
suffer as a sinless Man for the offenses of sinful men who despised
and rejected Him. He was, indeed, stricken even by His own heavenly
Father in order that He could bear the penalty that fallen man
deserved but could not survive. “The Lord was pleased to crush Him,
putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering.
… He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the
transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded
for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:10, 12).
Jesus suffered the pain of disloyalty It was one of His
own disciples, one of the specially chosen Twelve, who betrayed Him
to the chief priests. He could declare with the psalmist, “Even my
close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his
heel against me” (Ps. 41:9). One whom He had called, taught, and
loved had turned against Him and delivered Him into the hands of His
enemies. The anguish of betrayal must have cut deeply into Jesus’
heart many times before the night when the wicked deed was actually
committed. He not only was betrayed by a friend but with a kiss.
There can be little human suffering more overwhelming than that
caused by someone close and dear who violates the intimacy and trust
of friendship even to the point of treachery.
Jesus also suffered the pain of rejection. He was turned
over to the chief priests and scribes, who, in the name of all
Israel, God’s own chosen people, rejected His messiahship and
treated Him instead as a criminal worthy of death. He was the Stone
the builders rejected. The Redeemer of Israel “came to His own, and
those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). His
disciples fled from Him, ashamed even to be called His friends, much
less His servants. He had to endure the rejection even of His own
Father, who could not look upon the sin borne in the body of the Son.
Jesus suffered the pain of humiliation. He was mocked by
the leaders of His own people and then mocked by the Gentiles to whom
they sent Him. Those pagans humiliated Him with a mock crown, a mock
scepter, a mock robe of royalty, and mock obeisance. They scorned
Him, spat on His face, and nailed Him naked to a cross for the world
to behold.
Jesus suffered the pain of unjust guilt. The guilt He
took upon Himself and for which He suffered and died was not His own.
It was for the sins of others that He paid the penalty. All the guilt
of all the people who had ever lived and who would ever live was
placed on Him. It was perhaps the prospect of bearing that guilt and
shame that caused the sin-despising Christ to sweat great drops of
blood as He prayed that last night in Gethsemane.
Jesus suffered the pain of injury As already noted,
Roman scourging was done with a whip tipped with sharp bits of bone
and metal that tore deep gashes into the flesh and even into the
organs and bones of the victim. The customary ordeal consisted of
forty lashes, administered with such intensity that it often required
a second man to finish the beating. Because of the extreme shock and
profuse bleeding, victims frequently died before the full number of
lashes could be applied.
Finally, Jesus suffered the pain of death itself.
Physiologically, it may have been from suffocation that He died. But
the most painful suffering that killed Him was the cumulative grief
He had to endure as penalty for the sins of mankind. To save the lost
whom He loved with infinite love, He had to become for them the sin
He hated with infinite hatred. God “made Him who knew no sin to be
sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
But contrary to what both His friends and His enemies
thought, Jesus’ death was not the end. The Father would never allow
His “Holy One to undergo decay” (Ps. 16:10). Therefore, on the
third day Jesus would be raised up, never to face
suffering or death again. He died to conquer sin and its penalty,
which is death. He died that those who believe in Him would never
have to di
