15. By His Suffering of the Cross the Lord Did Not Take Away Sins, but Bore Them

Some people in the church believe that by His suffering of the cross the Lord took away sins and made satisfaction to the Father, and so redeemed mankind.

Some believe, too, that He transferred to Himself the sins of people who have faith in Him, bore them, and cast them into the depths of the sea, that is, into hell.

They confirm these beliefs of theirs by John’s saying in regard to Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29) Also by this declaration in Isaiah:

...He has borne our diseases and carried our sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His wound we are healed.... Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.... ...He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people they were stricken, that He might deliver the wicked to their tomb and the rich to their deaths....

...By the labor of His soul He shall see [and] be satisfied. By His knowledge He shall justify many, by His bearing their iniquities.... ...He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

Both passages have as their subject the Lord’s temptations or trials and His suffering. His taking away sins and diseases and Jehovah’s laying on Him the iniquities of us all have the same meaning as His bearing our sorrows and iniquities.

[2] First, therefore, we must say what bearing our iniquities means, and then what it means to take them away.

To bear iniquities means nothing else than to endure severe temptations or trials, and to allow the Jews to treat Him as they treated the Word. He allowed them to treat Him in the same way because He embodied the Word. For the church which existed at that time among the Jews was completely destroyed, having been destroyed by their perverting everything in the Word, to the point that there was no truth left. Consequently neither did they acknowledge the Lord. This is what is meant and symbolized by everything having to do with the Lord’s suffering.

The prophets were treated similarly, because they represented the Lord in relation to the Word and so to the church, and the Lord was the prophet.

[3] That the Lord was the prophet can be seen from the following passages:

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” (Matthew 13:57, cf. Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24)

Jesus said:

...it is not right that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.” (Luke 13:33)

People called Jesus the prophet from Nazareth (Matthew 21:11, cf. John 7:40-41). Fear seized them all, and they praised God, saying that a great prophet had risen up among them (Luke 7:16). [And we are told] that a prophet would be raised up from among the people’s brethren, whose words the people were to obey (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).

[4] That the prophets were treated similarly is clear from the passages that follow now:

The prophet Isaiah was commanded to represent the state of the church by removing the sackcloth from his loins, taking his sandals off his feet, and going naked and barefoot for three years, as a sign and a wonder (Isaiah 20:2-3).

The prophet Jeremiah was commanded to represent the state of the church by purchasing a sash and putting it around his waist, by not drawing it through water, and by hiding it in a hole in a rock by the Euphrates, which after some days he found to be ruined (Jeremiah 13:1-7).

The same prophet also represented the state of the church by not taking himself a wife in the place where he was, by not entering the house of mourning, by not going off to lament, and by not going into the house of feasting (Jeremiah 16:2, 5, 8).

[5] The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by passing a barber’s razor over his head and beard; by then dividing the hair, burning a third in the midst of the city, striking a third with a sword, and scattering a third in the wind; by binding a small number of them in the edges of his garment; and by finally throwing them in the midst of a fire and burning them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

The same prophet was commanded to represent the state of the church by making containers for departure, by departing to another place in the eyes of the children of Israel, by bringing out the containers by day and digging through a wall at evening and going out through it, and by covering his face so as not to see the ground, so that he was thus a sign to the house of Israel. And by the prophet’s saying, “Behold, I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them.” (Ezekiel 12:3-7, 11)

[6] The prophet Hosea was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking himself a harlot as a wife. He also did take one, and she bore him three children, one of whom he called Jezreel, the second Not-To-Be-Pitied, and the third Not-My-People. (Hosea 1:2-9)

The same prophet was commanded again to go and love a woman who was loved by a companion and who was an adulteress, whom he obtained for himself for fifteen pieces of silver (Hosea 3:1-2).

[7] The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking a brick and carving “Jerusalem” on it; by then laying siege to it, and putting a wall and mound against it; by setting an iron pan between himself and the city; by lying on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, and then on his right for forty days; by taking wheat, barley, lentils, millet and spelt and making of them bread for himself, which he then ate; and by drinking water by measure. Also by his being commanded to make for himself a barley cake mixed with a stool of human excrement. And because he prayed for it, he was commanded to make it with cow dung. (Ezekiel 4:1-15)

The prophets also represented other things besides, like Zedekiah and the horns of iron he made for himself (1 Kings 22:11). And another prophet by his being struck and wounded, and putting ash on his eyes (1 Kings 20:35, 37-38).

[8] The prophets in general represented the Word in its outermost sense, namely the sense of the letter, by a hair shirt (Zechariah 13:4). Elijah therefore wore such a shirt, and he was girded about the loins with a leather girdle (2 Kings 1:8). John the Baptist was clothed similarly, having a garment of camel hair and a leather girdle about his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4).

It is apparent from this that the prophets represented the state of the church and the Word. For whoever represents one, also represents the other, since the church is founded on the Word, and is a church in accordance with its reception of the Word in its life and faith.

Consequently wherever prophets in either Testament are mentioned, they symbolize the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word. Moreover, the Lord, as the greatest prophet, symbolizes the church itself and the Word itself.