the inexpressible exchange

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…” — Isaiah 53:3

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, [that he might bring us to God].”

Hugh Martin