They that hate Me without a cause, while He is innocent of any wrong-doing, are more than the hairs of Mine head, having increased at such a rate that they outnumber the hairs which are commonly considered beyond numbering; they that would destroy Me, desiring to cut Him off from the land of the living, being Mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty, they make use of falsehood and deceit in trying to gain their object. Then I restored that which I took not away, literally, "What not I robbed, then I restored," that is, the Messiah not only alleges His personal innocence and sinlessness with great emphasis, but also states that He is being held to pay, to give compensation for, something which He did not rob, of which He did not despoil those seeking redress. The entire paragraph pictures the climax of Christ's sufferings. Both in Gethsemane and on Calvary the anguish of soul with which He was battling was of a nature exceeding all human experience and understanding. All His calling at that time availed Him nothing; He was obliged to drink the cup of God's wrath to the very dregs. His enemies, operating with the meanest falsehoods, set upon Him without reason, to take His life. But the supreme secret is found in the fact that He was called upon to replace, by means of this suffering, what He had not robbed. He bore the punishment of the sins of mankind; the guilt of transgressions as committed by countless human beings was charged to His account. It was a vicarious suffering which Jesus Christ endured, a vicarious satisfaction which He was called upon to render. God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, 2 Corinthians 5:21. It is as the Substitute of mankind that the Messiah now laments.

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