Such Was The Inexpressible Exchange
Reflect on these words, which paint a vivid picture of what was happening in the incarnation of our King and Savior, Jesus:
For, while he is eternally in the bosom of the Father;
as for us, each of us was as one cut off from him;
cast out from his presence, wrapped up in his own curse.Even thus poor did Immanuel become for us;
thus cursed did the Blessed One submit to be.For into our place, though it was ominously distinguished as the dwelling-place of the curse, Jesus, in his love, consented to come; and his Father's wrath became then his portion.
Then he became "acquainted with grief." The Blessed One became "a man of sorrows." Anxieties, cares, hunger, thirst, wounds, stripes, agony, bloodshed, a cursed death, accrued unto him. His Father, far from helping him; concealing his love for him; hiding his countenance; appearing against him, armed with an offended judge's indignation; forsaking him to the malignity of men and the onset of principalities and powers of darkness; drawing against him the sword of justice; calling on the sword to awake and smite and slay him — such was the inexpressible exchange which Jesus made when he took our curse upon him to bear it.
"He indeed suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."
