The Complaint of the Suffering Surety

In the Garden of Eden, Adam stood as the jewel of God’s Creation, formed out of the dust of the earth, adorned with God’s image, and having a chaste soul. Although he did not wear any clothing, nevertheless, Adam was not naked, for he was adorned with the glory of God. His heart and thoughts were continually occupied with God. His life was holy, and he meditated on God’s law, day and night. He delighted himself in the Lord. Although his feet did tread upon the earth, still his heart was by God and with God, for his walk was in the heavens. But alas! Man did not think it good to keep God in remembrance and broke the bond between God and heaven. Adam no longer desired the fellowship with God but gave himself over to the Prince of Darkness. He despised God’s image, chose hell above heaven, reproach and contempt above honor and glory. Oh, in what a terrible abyss did Adam cast not only himself but also all his posterity, for they were represented in him as the head of the Covenant of Works. All mankind fell with him.

Now God opens the eyes of all those that were ordained to salvation, that they may behold their wretched and miserable state. They all learn something of this, for it is essential to know their misery out of the law of God. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God. In the further discovery of their guilt, sin, and lost condition, they come to acknowledge:

Against Thee only have I sinned, done evil in Thy sight,

Behold, in evil I was formed, and I was born in sin.

Still, we know all this only in part. In the depths of Christ’s humiliation and in His suffering, the depth of our fall is revealed, and the terrible nature and character of sin is exposed, all because of God’s severe justice and holiness. That which Christ suffered is a clear design of what we have deserved because of original and actual guilt. God cannot and will not renounce His justice, and for this reason all our iniquities were laid upon the Surety. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and for this reason Christ complained, “But I am a worm, and no man.”

A worm has its habitation in the earth, and Christ had to leave the heaven of heavens, His residence, and His throne, to take on our flesh and blood, and tarry upon this cursed earth for a period of time. He came from heaven to this earth to elevate miserable earthworms, whose habitation is in the dust, to raise them up out of the dust and make them heirs and citizens of heaven. Upon the basis of His perfect righteousness, Christ came to pay their debt, to atone for their iniquity, to lift the needy out of the dunghill, and to set them with the princes, even with the princes of His people. Worms are despised creatures. They crawl over the ground, are defenseless, and no one pays much attention to them. They are constantly in danger of being crushed underfoot, and when this occurs, you see them writhe and shrink.

Now compare this with the life of Christ upon this earth. He was dishonored and ignored from the manger to the cross. He was treated with nothing but contempt, reproach, and being trodden underfoot, from the beginning to the end. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ crawled as a worm in the dust. There the powers of hell were loosed upon Him, but also God’s justice and wrath burned furiously against Him. All the guilt and sin of the elect oppressed Him so that His sweat became as great drops of blood that fell upon the earth.

It was His will to become as a worm, that He might bow under God’s justice and atone for the rebellion and pride of the elect. He was willing to become as a worm, so the despised worms that were worthy to be crushed might be elevated to kings and priests of God and the Father. Christ became as a worm that His people might be acquitted before the tribunal of God and through the operation of the Holy Spirit be able to sing of the ways of the Lord; one day the praises of God will be their eternal employment. He became as a worm that He might deliver His people from the dust to which they are so attached that they may consider the things above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Here in this time-state they not only know themselves as worms but also learn to creep as a worm, accepting and embracing the righteous judgment of God so that the promise of the covenant may be fulfilled in them: “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:14).

Christ became as a worm to deliver earthworms from the guilt and pollution of sin that He might present them to the Father as a chaste virgin, having neither spot nor wrinkle.

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