John 19:17-27
He that can read a passage like this without a deep sense of man’s debt to Christ, must have a very cold, or a very thoughtless heart. Great must be the love of the Lord Jesus to sinners, when He could voluntarily endure such sufferings for their salvation. Great must be the sinfulness of sin, when such an amount of vicarious suffering was needed in order to provide redemption.
We should observe, first, in this passage, how our Lord had to bear His cross when He went forth from the city to Golgotha.
We need not doubt that there was a deep meaning in all this circumstance. For one thing, it was part of that depth of humiliation to which our Lord submitted as our substitute. One portion of the punishment imposed on the vilest criminals, was that they should carry their own cross when they went to execution; and this portion was laid upon our Lord. In the fullest sense He was reckoned a sinner, and counted a curse for our sakes.–For another thing, it was a fulfilment of the great type of the sin-offering of the Mosaic law. It is written, that “the bullock for the sin-offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp.” (Lev. 16:27) Little did the blinded Jews imagine, when they madly hounded on the Romans to crucify Jesus outside the gates, that they were unconsciously perfecting the mightiest sin-offering that was ever seen. It is written, “Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” (Heb. 13:12)