In some traditions, today is called “Spy Wednesday,” to mark the moment when treacherous Judas betrayed the Savior for 30 pieces of silver. There have been many attempts to rehabilitate Judas’s reputation by portraying him as a well-intentioned follower of Christ, whose expectations for the Messianic kingdom simply didn’t line up with the Messiah’s. Some suggest that, by turning Jesus over to the authorities, Judas was trying to catalyze Jesus into overthrowing Rome and establishing a political Messianic kingdom. But such rehabilitation efforts fail badly. Judas was little more than a greedy little man who thirsted for a taste of Messianic kingdom power, who regularly pilfered from the disciple’s treasury, and who then chose chump change over the Savior, betraying the Son of God with a kiss.

But Judas is not the main thing. In my understanding, while he was responsible for actions that in one sense precipitated the greatest events in history, Judas was but a footnote in that history, little more than a pawn in the Savior’s hand; one who played a pivotal betraying role in the sequence that led to the Messiah’s redeeming work on the cross. The wicked hands of many—including Judas—willfully and culpably betrayed the Christ to his death. But what those wicked hands did simultaneously played into the plan and hand of God which was for the Son to die voluntarily as an atonement for our sin (Mark 14:21; Luke 22:22; 24:25–26; Acts 2:23; 4:27–28; Heb. 10:8–10; 1 Pet. 1:18–20). 

The Main Thing

According to Isaiah, Judas’s betrayal, and the subsequent rulers’ brutal mugging and illegal scourging of our Lord so grotesquely bruised, pierced, gashed, and bloodied him that people hid their faces from him. He had no majesty or beauty about him. And as he walked the path to the Cross, a path through human betrayal, torture, and eventual murder, he was too hideously disfigured by the barbarities of man to be looked upon (Isa. 52:14; 53:2–3).

Such mistreatment at human hands is significant, to be sure. But the main thing is not what people did to Jesus, but what the Son submitted to for the people. Isaiah 53 is not so much about what people did to the Son of God as about what the Son voluntarily allowed the Father to do to him. When I read Isaiah 53:1–10, I see that by a free, sinner-loving choice, Jesus offered to be “smitten”, “afflicted”, “pierced”, “chastised”, “wounded”, “crushed”; yes, even “made a sin-bearing offering” sacrificed for our guilt. All of this at the hand of God his Father (see also Heb. 10:4–10; Phil. 2:5-7).

The language of substitution is everywhere in Isaiah 53:1–10 and is a cover-to-cover motif in Scripture. Jesus offered himself for our guilt, atoning for our sin-cursed souls, by taking upon himself the chastisement due to our iniquity. By his wounds we are healed, and at Golgotha, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

God’s forgiveness is not a mere passing over of our guilt by divine whim; it is pardon through propitiation (i.e., an appeasement of holy divine wrath). Jesus took our place, which means that we get peace because he (voluntarily) got punishment. I have rarely, if ever, seen this better expressed than in John Stott’s concise gospel summary:

“The concept of substitution…lies at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ).

That is the main thing. Not theological abstractions. Not political affiliations. Not even the very long list of secondary and tertiary matters of faith and conscience the Bible reveals. The main thing, and that which distinguishes Christianity from all other faiths, is that God incarnate bore our guilt in his own body through his blood-bought atonement on the Cross.

We are welcomed home to God because Jesus was exiled by God. He was forsaken that we might be forgiven. Our peace was not cheaply gained. Sin was not winked at so we could be absolved; its penalty was fully paid so that we could be fully forgiven. Biblically speaking, pardon does not imply the absence of wrath, it requires the appeasement of wrath. God’s plan for our salvation didn’t suspend justice, it satisfied it. God punished first and pardoned second—making grace free for us, but never free or cheap for him.

A Needed Reminder

According to Paul, Christ dying for our sins (and being raised) is that “of first importance;” the main thing for us to remember and to pass on to others (1 Cor. 15:1–4). And we desperately need to be reminded of that today. As important as each of these may be, what matters most is not good health or athletic endeavor, or art and beauty, or party politics, or human rights, or the advancement of noble causes, or liberty and justice for all, or secondary Bible doctrines, or even whether or not I believe my Stage IV cancer will be healed. Such hopes and pursuits are secondary at best. And many such pursuits are simply futile.

What matters most—both in my faith and in my witness—is that I know that because of God’s great dying love, the pardon of sinners is accomplished, and has been secured. It is knowing that I have been, and always will be, forgiven. Jesus made it happen for me. This is the main thing that is the Fountain of Grace from which everything else flows.