The significance of the suffering of God incarnate is not simply the resolution of a philosophical and theological puzzle. It has bearing on our own sufferings. That God the Son becomes “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3) and that “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (v. 4, emphasis added) means God is “acquainted” with the worst we can go through, He is with us in our anguish, and He helps us through it. Indeed, although the horrors of what we might experience won’t go away, suffering can bring us into a deeper dependence and a more intimate relationship
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