If the penalty for our sins is eternity in Hell, how did Jesus' death pay our penalty if He did not spend eternity in Hell?

Ques.—The Scriptures say that “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him (Christ); and with His stripes we are healed.” He must then have suffered the full and entire penalty of our sins, or our salvation would not be a righteous one. But Christ was under the wrath of God upon the cross for a few hours, whilst the unrepentant are to be in “everlasting punishment.” Justice must be in this, somehow, for God is just; but I would be thankful to understand it.

Ans.—If you were set with a bucket at the task of emptying the ocean, how long do you think it would take you? We hear you say: “Oh, I could never do that, for I have no place to hold the water; it would go back as fast as I took it out.” True; now let God take up the task; how long will it take Him “who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand” to do it? The difference in the person makes all the difference in the work. No mere man could ever suffer the full measure of what sin deserves at the hand of God, for no mere creature can fathom the heinousness of sin nor the holiness of God. Christ, being both God and Man in His Person, could fathom both, suffer accordingly the full penalty of sin in a moment of time, and thus empty the cup of divine wrath to the last drop. A man in hell-fire for eternity cannot do this any more than an ounce forever offered can ever make it a pound.

This is one reason why the true Christian can no more yield up the deity of Christ than His humanity. Apart from either there is no salvation, because there can be no true atonement.

In view of all this, how low is the view that our Lord's sufferings were abated penalty, as some would have it — something less than what the sinner will have to endure. Scripture is perfectly plain, that our Lord bore the full penalty of sin — the wrath, the forsaking of God in the "outer darkness" (God having withdrawn in forsaking judgment) and death. If it be asked, Was the cross the same as the eternal lake of fire? and if not, did the Lord bear the exact penalty which the sinner must bear? We answer, The essence of the judgment is in the wrath and the forsaking of God. It does not change the sinner's heart who, spurning God's grace, would rather be anywhere than in the light of His infinite holiness. The doom is eternal, because the sinner's character remains unchanged, it remains fixed — a great gulf fixed (Luke 16:26), and "he that is unjust, let him be unjust still" (Rev. 22:11), with no desire for God or heaven. But how was it with our Lord? His heart remained as just, as pure, as true, when He was forsaken upon the cross as when He took counsel with the Father before the worlds were made, or when He was displayed in the unsullied light of the "holy mount" (2 Peter 1:18). His sole object there was the Father's will, His one motive to glorify Him, to manifest His love in righteousness. The smiting, the forsaking, the darkness, made no change whatever in that spotless, holy One — praise His name forever!

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 then ceasing to exist; though Christ, as a divine Person, gave infinite value to His work.

Some mightier creature might well have borne temporal punishment due; but the wrath and judgment implied in eternal punishment a divine eternal Person alone could bear.

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 then ceasing to exist; though Christ, as a divine Person, gave infinite value to His work.

12 Some mightier creature might well have borne temporal punishment due; but the wrath and judgment implied in eternal punishment a divine eternal Person alone could bear.

The wrath He bore could not be "eternal" — granted. He was saved out of death, heard for His piety (Heb. 5: 7, Gk.) God's holy One could not even as to the body see corruption (Acts 2:27). Doom is eternal for the sinner only because he is eternally a sinner. The wrath borne for the saved sinner could not be that.

As to the second case, the eternity of the penalty is no necessary element in it, except where the sins or the sinful condition eternally abide: and that is the case wherever the atonement provided has no effect. It is a common mistake to argue against the eternity of the penalty from the time during which the Lord endured it, or upon the same ground for a modification of the penalty as He endured it. Indeed, some will have no penalty at all in His case, but a substitute for it; while others say an equivalent or one modified in some way. The Scriptures cannot be made to agree with any of these thoughts. Christ honored the God of judgment by taking the very judgment lying upon man: He was made a curse for us; He was made sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. But let us go now with the solemn history before us.

Not eternal wrath could there be upon a "holy one;" nor was it necessary for atonement that there should be an exact calculation of what suffering the sins of men would involve for them! Its value was otherwise; it was in the vindication of eternal righteousness in the very penalty necessitated by sin, — not arbitrarily inflicted, but necessitated. "Thou art holy" (Ps. 22:3), proclaimed by the perfect Substitute in the very place of penalty, is satisfaction — the infinite satisfaction — for human sin.

With our blessed Lord, "in whom was no sin," there was absolutely nothing but the outward infliction of wrath. God withdraws Himself from Him, pouring out upon Him the indignation and wrath which sin deserves. It finds Him, and leaves Him, with a heart as absolutely true to God and all that is holy and good as when He was basking in the sunlight of the glories of the transfiguration. Indeed, His place and circumstances had nothing whatever to do with His state, which was unchangeably the same — a heart filled with delight in the will of God, no matter what that will might be. Therefore, the infliction of the penalty was absolute; but, abiding perfect through it all, no divine necessity existed for the continuance of the penalty. "Once for all" it had been put upon Him, and that settled forever all the claims of divine justice.

Two things need a brief notice here. First, that (as should be obvious, but to some is not,) the hanging upon the tree is not itself the curse, but only marks the one upon whom the curse falls. The curse itself is no external thing, but a deep reality in the soul of him that bears it. This was the wrath upon sin which Christ bare for us, the forsaking of God, which, had it not been borne, assuredly no blessing could have been for any.

Secondly, therefore, it was not for Jews alone, or those under law, that the curse of the law was borne. The words of the apostle are surely plain here: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, … that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Clearly he says that blessing could not have been for Gentiles had Christ not borne the curse of the law, and this is, as simple as possible, as soon as we see what essentially the curse is.

Dr. S. will allow me to put this in my own way, without meaning to pledge all my brethren to acceptance of it. I do not believe in what he calls "the old and exploded commercial theory — so much suffering by Christ equals so much suffering by the sinners saved by Christ." (p. 59.) I believe that Christ paid the penalty of sin, not an "equivalent" penalty merely, as even those who believe in a true "satisfaction" are mostly content to say. No, it was the PENALTY ITSELF upon men — death and judgment, the full wrath of God. True, He could not be holden of it. The Holy One of God could not remain under that which for the glory of God He had taken. He was "heard for His piety," "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father." But though necessarily and in righteousness delivered from it, He went into it, bore sin in its dread penalty, vindicated God's holiness as against it by submitting to its real due, glorified Him fully so.