Among Transgressors

“He was numbered with the transgressors; he bare the sin of many, and he made intercession for the transgressors.” It is for transgressors all the way through. Bring in a company of righteous people who think they have no sin and they cannot appreciate the text, in fact it can have no meaning to them. I. We shall begin then, by taking the first sentence. To the sinner, troubled and alarmed on account of guilt, there will be much comfort in the thought that CHRIST IS ENROLLED AMONG SINNERS. “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

In what sense are we to understand this? “He was numbered with the transgressors.” He was numbered with them, first, in the census of the Roman empire. There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and the espoused wife of Joseph, being great with child, must travel to Bethlehem that Christ may be born there, and that He may be numbered with the transgressing people who, for their sins, were subject to the Roman yoke.

Years rolled on, and that child who had been early numbered with transgressors and had received the seal of transgression in the circumcision, which represents the putting away of the flesh—that child, having come to manhood, goes forth into the world, and is numbered with transgressors in the scroll of fame.

Ask public rumor, “What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth?” and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. “This _____” they sometimes said, and our translators have inserted the word “fellow” because in the original there is an ellipsis—the evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ Jesus. Fame, with her lying tongue, said He was a drunken man, and a winebibber, because He would not yield to the asceticism of the age. He would not, since He came to be a man among men, do other than eat and drink as other men did. He came not to set an example of asceticism but of temperance. He came both eating and drinking, and they said at once, “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber.”

They called Him mad. His warm enthusiasm, His stern and unflinching rebukes of wickedness in high places brought upon Him the accusation that He had a devil. “Thou hast a devil and art mad,” they said. They called Him the Master of the house Beelzebub! Even the drunkards made Him their song, and the vilest thought Him viler than themselves, for He was, by current rumor, numbered with the transgressors.

But to make the matter still more forcible, “he was numbered with transgressors in the courts of law.” The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, “Thou blasphemest,” and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The civil courts also asserted the same. Pilate may wash his hands in water and say, “I find no fault in him,” but still, driven by the infernal clamors of an angry people, he is compelled to write, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews,” and he gives Him up to die as a malefactor who has rebelled against the sovereign law of the land.

Herod too, the Jewish tetrarch, confirms the sentence, and so, with two pens at once, Jesus Christ is written down by the civil leaders among transgressors.

Then, the whole Jewish people numbered Him with transgressors, nay, they reprobated Him as a more abominable transgressor than a thief and a murderer who had excited sedition. Barabbas is put in competition with Christ, and they say, “Not this man, but Barabbas.” See, brethren, His being numbered with transgressors is no fiction. Lo, He bears the transgressor’s scourging! He is tied to the whipping post, His back is marred and scarred, the ploughers make deep furrows, and the blood flows in streams. He is numbered with transgressors, for He bears the felon’s cross, He comes into the street bowed down with the weight of His own gibbet, which He must carry upon His raw and bleeding shoulders. He goes along to the place of doom. He comes to Calvary—the place of a skull—and there, hoisted upon the cross, hanging in mid-air, as if earth rejected Him and heaven refused Him shelter, He dies the ignominious death of the cross, and is thus numbered with transgressors.

But will there be none to enter a protest? Will no eye pity? Will no man declare His innocence? None, they are all silent! Silent, did I say? ’Tis worse! All earth holds up its hands for His death, it is carried unanimously. Jew and Gentile, bond and free, they are all there. They thrust out the tongue, they hoot, they laugh, they cry, “Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” His name is written in the calendar of crime by the whole universe, for He is despised and rejected of men, of all men is He accounted to be the off-scouring of all things, and is put to grief.

But will not heaven interfere? O God, upon Thy throne, wilt Thou let the innocent suffer? He is fast nailed to the tree, and cries in agony, “I thirst.” Will You permit this man to be numbered with transgressors? Is it rightly done? It is, heaven confirms it. He has no sin of His own, but He has the sin of His people upon His shoulders.

And God, the Eternal Judge, shows that He too considers Him to be in the roll of transgressors, for He veils His face, and the Eternal Father betakes Him to His hiding place, and Christ can neither see a smile nor a glance of His Father’s face, till He shrieks in agony so unutterable, that the words cannot express the meaning of the Redeemer’s soul, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

The only answer from heaven being, “I must forsake transgressors, Thou art numbered with them, and therefore, I must forsake Thee.” But surely the doom will not be fulfilled? Certainly, He will be taken down ere He dies? Death is the curse for sin, it cannot come on any but transgressors. It is impossible for the innocent to die, as impossible as for immortality to be annihilated. Surely, then, the Lord will deliver His Son at the last moment, and having tried Him in the furnace, He will bring Him out? Nay, not so, He must become obedient to death, even the death of the cross.

He dies without a protest on the part of earth, or heaven, or hell, He that was numbered with the transgressors, having worn the transgressor’s crown of thorns, lies in the transgressor’s grave. “He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.”

It is a marvellous thing, brethren, a marvellous thing! Who ever heard of an angel being numbered with devils? Who ever heard of Gabriel being numbered with fiends? But this is more marvellous than that would be. Here is the Son of God numbered, not with the sons of men (that were a gracious act) but numbered with transgressors; numbered, not with the faithful who struggle after purity; numbered, not with those who repel temptation and resist sin; numbered, not with those who earn unto themselves a good degree and much boldness in the faith—that were a marvellous condescension, but here it is written, “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

I must pause here a moment, and get you to think this matter over a little. It is a strange and a wonderful thing, and ought not to be passed by in silence.