Gerhard and Walther

During the third part of the day, He hung upon the cross, prayed for those who had crucified Him, promised Paradise to the converted convict, commended His mother to the care of John, was forsaken by God, and complained that He was forsaken by God, and was thirsty. Also, as He gave witness that everything had now been finished and commanded His spirit into the hands of the heavenly Father, at that time He died upon the tree of the cross as the Man who offered Himself there as the true atoning sacrifice.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis, II:87.

On Golgotha, we see sin in the greatest magnitude and with the most horrifying result. For what Christ suffered here, He did not suffer for the sake of His own sin. Instead, He suffered voluntarily for the sake of our sin. “Surely,” says the prophet Isaiah, “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.”—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 340.