GOD speaks plainly of wrath, indignation, vengeance, because of sin. What was the wrath due to sin which Christ bore when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree? It is not a speculative question of what might be, but of what saves you! Do you believe that what Christ bore, when He made His soul an offering for sin, was merely the amount of a certain temporary suffering? — that this was what sin amounted to in the presence of God? And that this, too, was what God’s wrath amounted to? Do not be led astray by any abuse of the blessed truth, that it was Christ’s Divine nature that gave infinite value to His work. It did so, blessed be God. But He “bore our SINS in His own body on the tree.”
“And it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.”
“He was wounded for our transgressions.”
“The chastisement of our peace was upon Him.”
“With His stripes we are healed.”
Now, was what He bore for us, for you, a mere amount of temporary punishment? or the holy wrath of God, the awfulness of God’s forsaking Him while He was alive, His soul being made thus an offering for sin? That wrath which shuts out from His presence, while the soul can know what it is, — is not this what we have deserved?
It is not merely torment, and thus ceasing to exist; though Christ, as a Divine person, gave infinite value to His work.
Some mightier creature might well have borne temporal punishments due; but the wrath and judgment implied in eternal punishment, a Divine person alone could bear, and bear away.
J. N. D.