Can you imagine and comprehend the death of Christ? Can you imagine the agony he felt?

Question

Seventh-day Adventist Christians among many other Christians strongly believe that Christ died for the sins of the world. Paul describes the experience of Christ in these words, "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
-----Philippians 2:6-8
Can you grasp it? Imagine!

Ellen White(Author) commented:

" The spotless son of God hung upon the Cross. His flesh, lacerated with stripes. Those hands, so often reached out in blessing, nailed to wooden bars. Those feet, so tireless on ministries of love, spiked to a tree. That royal head, pierced by the crown of thorns. Those quivering lips shaped in a cry of woe. And all that he endured; the blood drops that flowed...
--Desire of ages pg. 755

Answer 1

I believe the physical pain was intense but that was nothing compared to the spiritual pain and mental pain he suffered. You have to remember he had the sins of the world on him. Not to mention the anguish of being separated from his Father which he had never felt before until that time. It was so unbearable that that is when he commanded his spirit into his Fathers hands. He would rather die than be seperated from God. Is that not how we should be also? I am afraid too many off us are far from that. It is my prayer that more people will walk so close with God that they would rather die than be seperated from Him

Answer 2

When I was born again, it was something that was completely unexpected, and at a time when I had told God to get out of my life, and was suffering the consequences of such foolishness. I felt immediately before the Spirit came into my heart that I was in the lowest pit, the most miserable and depressed and all of God's creatures.
Then in an instant the burden was lifted, the darkness departed, and I was filled with light and life and love and peace and hope. I really did not even know such a thing was possible.
So many changes happened at that instant.
One part of my experience I still remember.
The burden I felt lifted off of me was a terrible crushing, suffocating weight, more than it seemed anyone could bear. Yet I remember the Holy Spirit communicate to me at that time that my burden was nothing compared to what Jesus bore when He died for the sins of the world. The analogy the Spirit gave me was this: the weight I was burdened with, that which seemed so unbearable to me, was in fact, a grain of sand. The weight Jesus bore when He died on the cross was a hundred pound bag of sand compared to what I bore.
How many grains of sand are in a hundred pound bag of sand? I suppose someone could calculate it. All I know is that what Jesus suffered for the sins of Mankind are beyond what any other human being could ever fathom.

Answer 3

For a long time..I couldn't embrace the details of the agony and suffering of his death. It was just too horrifying, to gruesome...too crucial. But, actually, the vivid imagery is beneficial for gathering to yourself a better understanding of what he not only went through, but more or less accomplished as he died on the cross.

What I can't comprehend...is the fact that he chose to do that for me...but very well didn't have to. What's hard to comprehend...in essence, is his love for me. His love for all of us apparently.

There is beauty in his dying for us ONLY (and ONLY) in that he OVERCAME, that we might also overcome with him.
And He conquered death, that we might have life.
And in His death, there is redemption for the whole world.
And every time I stop and think about what Christ did...I am so grateful and it fills me with so much thankfulness and hope. Great Love and appreciation for him. For what he did.
This is why I love him. Because He first loved me.

Amen Gilbert. Great Question.

Answer 4

So if I've understood what Paul said correctly, Jesus wasn't upset that he wasn't equal with God. Although being in the form of God, thought it NOT shameful to abase himself and take on the form of an ordinary man who is deemed nothing but a servant of God.
Doing this he submitted to death on the cross.
And in his sacrifice, as the son of his father and as a man, took on mans sins and in "dying" absolved them with his forgiveness.
Thats how I read it anyway.

Answer 5

The site below gives a description of the physical pain that Jesus went through. I believe that He suffered more mental anguish than physical pain....as severe has the physical was.
He did NOT want to be seperated from His Father....which is what He cried out...."My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God the Father had NOT forsaken Him and was right there....but Jesus knew that the sin He carried for us was something that DOES seperate us from God. He had to have faith...like we have to....that God WILL save us and give us eternal life....if we choose Him. The fate of the whole world was on His shoulders. The sins of the whole world pressed down on His heart. His heart was broken for us.
How much do we thank Him for that?

Answer 6

"He Chose the Nails" by Max Lucado is an excellent book that describes the crucifixion. I know what you mean, and no, I can't begin to imagine. I think something that is often overlooked is that Christ also descended into hell. What he went through on earth is more torture than I can imagine, but what about going to hell?!! And not only that is overlooked, but also that he broke free of hell! Not even hell could hold him! And I doubt satan was standing there with a mint when he left saying "Thank you for visiting hell." I'm sure satan tried everything he could to keep Christ there. What kind of awesome power does our God have!!!!

David V: When Christ said "Why hast thou forsaken me" is at the point that he was completely separated from God, taking on all of mankind's sin. Including yours. No one on earth has any idea what it feels like to have God completely out of their lives. He's in your life, whether you acknowledge him or not.

Answer 7

I have no doubt that people who were killed in that way suffered incredibly. However, there is no evidence for a historical Jesus. In fact, the evidence suggests that Jesus is simply a fictional character, like Zeus, Mithras, Apollo, etc.

* * *
Did a historical Jesus exist?
http://www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
[Excerpt]

ALL CLAIMS OF JESUS DERIVE FROM HEARSAY ACCOUNTS

No one has the slightest physical evidence to support a historical Jesus; no artifacts, dwelling, works of carpentry, or self-written manuscripts. All claims about Jesus derive from writings of other people. There occurs no contemporary Roman record that shows Pontius Pilate executing a man named Jesus. Devastating to historians, there occurs not a single contemporary writing that mentions Jesus. All documents about Jesus got written well after the life of the alleged Jesus from either: unknown authors, people who had never met an earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Although one can argue that many of these writings come from fraud or interpolations, I will use the information and dates to show that even if these sources did not come from interpolations, they could still not serve as reliable evidence for a historical Jesus, simply because all sources derive from hearsay accounts.

Hearsay means information derived from other people rather than on a witness' own knowledge.

Courts of law do not generally allow hearsay as testimony, and nor does honest modern scholarship. Hearsay provides no proof or good evidence, and therefore, we should dismiss it.

* * *
The Myth of the Historical Jesus
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html

Pagan origins of Jesus:
http://www.medmalexperts.com/POCM/index.html
http://geocities.com/christprise/
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html
http://www.rationalresponders.com/a_silence_that_screams_no_contemporary_historical_accounts_for_jesus
http://www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pcc/pcc09.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa3.htm
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/lecture.html
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/virgin.html
http://www.harrington-sites.com/motif.htm
http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa052902a.htm

Answer 8

This Western fetishization of Christ's suffering during the crucifixion has always puzzled me. Yes, it was certainly unpleasant, but it was merely a necessary stage, NOT THE WHOLE POINT. The suffering was permitted because WE suffer. It was permitted in order to conquer suffering. The point was not the suffering, not the guilt-inducing rubbish of forcing ourselves (or even worse, luridly delighting in) to wallow in this aspect of the Passion. The point was to act as the necessary prelude to the RESURRECTION!

Everything before was just a prelude. It is the Resurrection that really matters.

Answer 9

This indeed was agony in it's most poignant form. However, I believe, Jesus experienced greater anguish as He 'absorbed' all the sins for all mankind, the night before, in the garden. He felt all the fear, sorrow, pain, loss, grief, rage guilt, shame, hatred, rejection, etc., that every sinner and victim of sin has ever gone through from the beginning of time till the end of it. Though His flesh wounds were deep, Nothing aches like the deeply wounded soul. I believe His heart hurt more than His body, because of His great love for us.

Answer 10

Yes. What of it?

Certainly it was no worse than the horrors inflicted upon innocent people by the Christian church during the Inquisition.

Likewise no worse than the torments endured by many pagan/heathen martyrs who refused to convert from the folk faith of their forefathers and were cruelly slain.

* * *

"Raud the Strong, a Norseman who refused baptism and had a metal tube forced down his throat, all the way down to his stomach, and a snake fed into the tube. The tube was then heated with a torch, forcing the snake to crawl down into his belly and kill Raud from the inside. Raud was, to use a Germanic term instead of a Latin term, a heathen. He refused to give up the spiritual paths that his father and grandfather and ancestors from long ago had walked. He refused to give up the Gods of his people."