Justice Deprived
Justice Deprived
Read: Acts 8:26-40
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Acts 8:33
IN WORD The Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah 53, and the prophecy was confusing to him. Who was this sheep led to the slaughter? Who would undergo such treatment without opening his mouth? Who could possibly have his life taken in such degrading fashion and still be so highly honored in the prophetic Word? The Ethiopian had ears to hear; now he needed someone with a mouth to speak.
God sent Philip, who explained the Good News about Jesus. We may have a hard time understanding what it was like to hear such strange truths for the first time. Some flesh-and-blood Person was cruelly executed because that was what we deserved. That’s hard to swallow unless the Holy Spirit has done some groundwork in the hearer’s heart. And He had; the Ethiopian embraced the Good News right away.
It’s so sad, this Good News. A righteous Savior was deprived of justice so that a wicked world might be spared from it. The Judge could have rightfully vindicated Jesus with glorious blessing while condemning us with well-deserved wrath. But this God switched justice around on His own Son. Jesus absorbed the shock of wrath so that the world wouldn’t have to. All in all, justice was done; wrath was poured out on mankind. But the ones who deserved it were forgiven while the only One who didn’t—the only One ever—felt it all.
IN DEED We won’t ever get to the bottom of that mystery. It’s too deep. We understand what we need to know about it, but God hasn’t told us everything that went on behind the scenes in that transaction. All we know is that if we accept it, we are blessed by it. We have to accept it at face value like a child would accept an extravagant gift—without ever really understanding its cost.
But that shouldn’t stop us from meditating on the mysterious sacrifice of the Lamb who didn’t open His mouth. It’s amazing. What a Savior.
Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, when God the mighty Maker died for man, the creature’s sin.
—ISAAC WATTS
From the book
