HOW does the doctrine of the non-eternity of punishment dishonor the Person and work of Christ?
1. Because it lessens the magnitude of the guilt of sin. Sin in Scripture is likened to a debt; and if we want to know the indebtedness of a person whose liabilities have all been met, we have but to ask what was paid to liquidate them. God’s Christ is heaven’s liquidation of the sinner’s debt; and if God’s claim be less than infinite, that which met the claim must be equally so. Christ’s payment does not exceed God’s claim. If less would have sufficed, less would have been demanded, and less have been paid. Man has no conception of what sin is. The cross of Christ alone reveals it. An infinite sacrifice tells us that sin is infinite, and we have no other measure by which to estimate it.
2. Because it lessens the cost of the atonement. The atonement measures the sin, even as the mercy-seat, or propitiatory, was exactly of the same dimensions as the ark that contained the symbols of the holiness of God. Sin is the violation of that holiness, and the propitiation made by Christ meets its claims, and no more.
3. Because it lessens the punishment of sin. Of the punishment our Lord solemnly speaks when He tells us of one who was cast into God’s prison: “Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing” (Matt. 5:25, 2625Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 26Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. (Matthew 5:25‑26)). In these words that fell from the loving lips of Him who was to be the mighty Sacrifice, and who knew what payment of sin’s demerits really meant, there is a divine severity that makes them awfully searching and terrible.
It deserves notice here that in the Hebrew Bible the same word is used for the sin, the punishment of sin, and the atonement for sin, or the sin-offering. In the following passages the identity of the sin and the punishment will be seen by comparing the text and the marginal readings: —Genesis 4:1515And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. (Genesis 4:15); Lamentations 4:6, 226For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. (Lamentations 4:6)
22The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. (Lamentations 4:22); Zechariah 14:1919This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:19). And whenever sin-offering occurs, it is always in Hebrew simply “sin.” Let us ponder over these identities in the mind of God, and we shall have no doubt that the doctrine in question dishonors the Person and work of Christ.
Man rebels against God’s estimate of sin, does not take God’s estimate of the sin-offering, and therefore cannot accept God’s estimate of the punishment demanded. All three are raised or lowered together. Hence the vital importance of God’s truth in this matter in these days, when sin is a trifle, atonement a fiction, and hell a falsehood! God keep His saints walking in the old paths!
SEL.