March 20 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 19:17–20

Devotional

Christ, the Substitute, leaves Jerusalem’s city gates to die for the sins of man. Jesus loves Jerusalem, He weeps over Jerusalem, and now He is cast out of Jerusalem. This in itself is a bitter suffering for Jesus. Yet the depth of suffering lies in this, that He leaves the city as One cast out by God. Jerusalem is the city with the Temple, the dwelling place of God, the holy city of God.

Christ is excommunicated from Jerusalem. He is excommunicated from communion with God. He leaves this city as a cursed One with the cross pressed on His shoulder as a sign of the curse. In agony, Jesus, our Substitute, is cast not only from Jerusalem, but also from God. He is made to be sin, and God, in His holiness, must banish the Son.

Ultimately, Jesus knows He must be cast from the city. He willingly chooses this path. The soldiers do not need to force His exit. If He takes any other way, He will not be the Substitute. The Substitute goes forth. Behind Him looms the city of God and before Him the hill of the accursed death. The gates of heaven are closed to Him and now the gate of hell opens for Him. He must leave the city of God. Jesus, the second Adam, goes the way of the first Adam. When the first Adam sinned, he too left the gates of Paradise with the curse of God resting upon his shoulders. For Adam’s sin defiled the holiness of God.

Jesus goes forth as the Substitute. Though He is the Substitute, His going forth must become our going forth. We must come to the realization that the lost city of God lies behind us, and the curse lies before us. The Substitute will never become desirable to us unless we become an unholy one, a castaway, a cursed one before God and the people. As a castaway, we see the angel standing in the gate of the city of Paradise with a flaming sword barring the way to communion with God again. Sin breaks communion with God and, therefore, a closed gate is behind us and an open guilt lies before us. It is the righteous judgment of God.

Recognize your sinfulness and your broken fellowship with God. Do not go forth into outer darkness. For those who are outside of God’s communion, there is yet hope in the going forth of Christ. Your tears, sighs, and knocking will never open the gate. This cannot take away your sin. Yet here there is a more excellent way: the Lamb of God, who takes away sin and carries it away. Where sin is gone, communication is restored. Then the gate of the city of God opens again. This is only possible by the power of the Substitute who went forth. All you can do is close. Every opening comes from Him. This is why He went out of the gate, to let those who are outside enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, the eternal City.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.