Did It Please God to See Jesus Suffer?

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I sat down for breakfast with Graham Cooke the other morning. I was at the dining room table with my broccoli omelette; Graham was on YouTube. It was a ten-minute clip called “Uncommon Love,” probably an excerpt from a much longer sermon. I could listen to Graham Cooke all day, but this time, a few minutes in, I choked on something he said. I couldn’t swallow it. Perhaps in this case he didn’t choose his words carefully enough.

Pausing the video, and my meal, I grabbed the big concordance and a couple of Bibles. If I didn’t agree with what he said, I had better articulate exactly why not, and then put into words what might perhaps be a clearer way of expressing the matter.

Graham was painting a picture of how much God loves us:

Beloved, He has everything covered. He knows you—oh, does He know you! And He’s not embarrassed by you; He adores you. He is not offended by you, He is not disillusioned with you, He’s not angry at you.

Great so far. But then:

He’s never going to punish you, because he got angry with Jesus and He punished Jesus. [Here he quotes from Isaiah:] ‘It pleased the Father to bruise him.’ Why? So he would never have to do it to you.

I believe that God loves us with a fathomless love, but I cannot conceive of a God—nor can I trust One—Who got angry and punished His own beloved Son—on my behalf. It sounds sadistic and schizophrenic—and I think such a portrait would frighten away those who do not yet know Him or who haven’t yet grown to trust Him. But I do understand the biblical truth that is being referenced, and I’d like to try to present it more clearly, more accurately.

God is love. And what of “the wrath of God”? I once heard someone say that God’s wrath is poured out on anything or anyone who threatens the objects of His great love. And who are the objects of His love? We are. Not just we the believers, but we the people of this world. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16); “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

God hates sin because it hinders and enslaves and destroys us. His wrath is directed against it. If our lives are so controlled by sin that we are damaging other people, along with ourselves, then we might get seared and scorched by being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong life-view. But God’s heart is always looking to restore even the worst of us, if we will but yield to Him. “He is not willing that any should perish.”

God, the Living Word (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit had a plan all the way from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), that the Word would take on flesh (John 1:14) and offer Himself as a sacrifice for sins. “When Christ came into the world, he said to God, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer…. Then I said, “Look, I have come to do your will, O God—as is written about me in the Scriptures”’” (Heb. 10:5-7, NLT; Ps. 40:6-8). He offered Himself willingly to fulfil His part in the plan of the Godhead, not just to die for the sins of the world but to actually become that sin. “He became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Think of the worst thing you’ve ever done; then think of the vilest thing you’ve ever heard of being done. Add to that the ravages of every disease and infirmity. Think, too, of the deepest depression, the most grievous sorrow, paralyzing fear, and uncontrollable anger. Multiply all that, the darkest of thoughts and words and deeds and conditions, by however many people have ever lived on this earth or ever will: that grand total is what settled on Jesus as He hung on the Cross. That is what He became. He drank to the dregs the cup that had been given to Him, and the Father poured out His wrath against all of it, every single thing that ever threatened the peace and joy and righteousness of any human being—everything that is contrary God’s nature and design. The power of sin died there on the Cross with Jesus. Then He rose again from the dead.

Graham Cooke quotes above, “It pleased the Father to bruise Him.” This comes from Isaiah 53:10, the prophet proclaiming the events that would unfold at Calvary, about 700 years before they happened. Here is the whole verse, drawing from many different translations: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He was willing—it was His good plan—to crush Jesus and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is given as a guilt offering, an atonement for sin, He will have many spiritual offspring or descendants. He will enjoy a long life: He will continue to live—forever, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand—Adonai’s desire will be accomplished. God’s purpose will succeed. The will of the Lord will triumph through Jesus.”

In Isaiah 55:11, we are told that God’s Word will not return to Him empty but will accomplish that which He pleases; it will prosper in the thing He sent it to do. Think of that verse for a moment in this particular context: Jesus is the Word (see John 1:1-14). After He died and rose again, He did not return to the Father empty-handed: when He “ascended on high,” He “led captivity captive” (Ps. 68:18 KJV; Eph. 4:8) and brought “many children into glory” (Hebrews 2:10, NLT). The living Word accomplished what the Father sent Him to do.

It was the fulfillment of a plan, a holy mystery, devised before the world began, a plan that the enemy of our souls could not perceive or penetrate. The powers of darkness thought they would gain a tremendous victory in destroying Christ. They didn’t understand what God was doing; “had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (I Cor. 2:8, KJV).

The Father drew no pleasure from seeing His Son suffer on the Cross, but there was pleasure in the anticipation of its end result. Even Jesus Himself, in spite of His terrible suffering, “endured the Cross”—"for the joy that was set before Him” (Heb. 12:2, KJV). That joy was the triumph of seeing mankind reconciled to God.