Why the Saviour suffered

“Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things” (Lk 24:26)

The wedding dowry that John Bunyan’s wife brought to him consisted of two books. They were of greater value to him than thousands of gold and silver.

One of them was Lewis Bayly’s Practice of Pietie. In it there is a colloquy in I which the Lord Jesus shows to the Soul the meaning of His suffering on the cross. We give it in the quaint language of the period.

Soul: Lord, why wouldest Thou be taken, when Thou mightest have escaped Thine enimies?

Christ: That thy spiritual enimies should not take thee, and cast thee into the prison of utter darkness.

Soul: Lord, wherefore wouldest Thou be bound ?

Christ: That I might lose the cordes of thine iniquities.

Soul: Lord, wherefore wouldest Thou be lift up upon a cross?

Christ: That I might lift thee up with Me to heaven.

Soul: Lord, wherefore were Thy hands and feete nailed to the cross?

Christ: To enlarge thy hands to do the works of righteousness, and to set thy feet at liberty to walk in the ways of peace.

Soul: Lord, why wouldest Thou have Thine arms nailed abroad ?

Christ: That I might embrace thee more lovingly.

Soul: Lord, wherefore was Thy side opened with a speare?

Christ: That thou mightest have a way to come nearer to My heart.

Unknown