As God leads us through conversion, He challenges our understanding of Him, and accepting these challenges sharpens our vision of His character. This principle highlights the importance of searching the Scriptures, which testify of the Father and the Son. However, some truths in Scripture are difficult to accept, particularly the harsh reality of Jesus Christ's affliction during His sacrifice. Without embracing this aspect, we miss a significant part of what He accomplished. In Isaiah 53:4-6, it is prophesied that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, being stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. By His stripes, we are healed, as the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. This suffering was more than death; it included great physical and emotional pain, grief, sorrow, and shame, showing that sin causes far more than just a death penalty. His disfigurement and agony were unparalleled, as sin distorts and corrupts the image in which we were created. Further, Isaiah 53:11-12 declares that He shall bear our iniquities, justifying many through His knowledge, pouring out His soul unto death, and being numbered with the transgressors. I Peter 2:24 confirms that He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, enduring extreme suffering, shame, reproach, anguish, piercing, crushing, and bruising during those hours. This bearing of sin was not abstract but a real, recorded fulfillment, allowing us to live for righteousness through His stripes, which bring both physical and spiritual healing. Moreover, II Corinthians 5:21 reveals that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Galatians 3:13 states that Christ became a curse for us, redeeming us from the curse of the law by hanging on the tree. Hebrews 13:12 notes that He suffered outside the gate, mirroring the azazel goat of Leviticus 16, which bore the iniquities into the wilderness. Unlike immediate death, His sacrifice involved prolonged suffering as He bore our sins, feeling every moment of torment. Finally, Matthew 27:45-46 describes the darkness over the land during His final hours on the cross, where He cried out, asking why God had forsaken Him. This moment underscores the terrible role He fulfilled—becoming sin and a curse, bearing all chastening in His body—so that we might be reconciled to God and not overwhelmed by the consequences of our sins.

In Jesus Christ's final hours as a human being, His affliction was profound and multifaceted. Our sins were laid upon Him, and He paid the penalty for them, fulfilling the legal aspect of sacrifice according to the law, the prophecies, and the will of Almighty God. Yet, this legal fulfillment was only part of His great sacrifice. During His torture and crucifixion, He likely did not dwell on the individual acts of human sin, but rather on deeper matters. Jesus knew the precise timing of His suffering, understanding that it must occur during the Passover Day in the year we refer to as AD 31, and that He must be dead and entombed as that day closed. Aware of His impending arrest and separation from His beloved Father, He sought close communication with His heavenly Parent in Gethsemane, praying earnestly as His final moments of human freedom waned. Despite His earlier welcome into Jerusalem, He was despised and rejected, regarded as contemptible by the world, a rejection that extended across generations. Jesus also knew the spiritual weakness of His closest friends, foreseeing that they would stumble, forsake Him, and scatter. He was aware of Judas' betrayal already in progress, which troubled His spirit after the Passover dinner. Upon arriving at Gethsemane, He was suddenly overwhelmed by intense sorrow and profound distress, a depth of agony surpassing any human experience before or since. His sorrow was so great that, had it deepened further, He might have died there, but He was determined to endure, knowing the set time for His death had not yet come and that He must bear the sins of the world for several more hours. In agony, He prayed more earnestly, His sweat becoming like great drops of blood falling to the ground. This sudden sorrow stemmed not merely from the rejection by mankind, the betrayal and forsaking by His friends, or the fear of physical torture and death, but more significantly from being cut off from the land of the living and, most painfully, from communication with His perfect, loving, and eternal Father. In His final moments, He cried out in delirium, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" expressing the anguish of feeling deserted and left behind in His suffering.