He that committeth sin is worthy of death. This, though Christ did not personally do, his members, his body, which is his church did; and since he would undertake for them with God, and stand in their sins before the eyes of his justice, he must die the death by the law.
Sin and the curse cannot be severed. Sin must be followed with the curse of God. Sin therefore being removed from us to the back of Christ, thither goes also the curse; for if sin be found upon him, he is the person worthy to die—worthy by our sins.
Wherefore Paul here setteth forth Christ clothed with our sins, and so taking from us the guilt and punishment. What punishment, but the wrath and displeasure of God?—'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.'
In this word 'curse' are two things comprised,
1. The reality of sin; for there can be no curse where there is no sin, either of the person's own, or made to be his by his own consent or the imputation of Divine justice. And since sins are made to be Christ's by imputation, they are his, though not naturally, yet really, and consequently the wages due. He hath made him to be sin; he was made a curse for us.
2. This word 'curse' compriseth, therefore, the punishment of sin, that punishment properly due to sin from the hand of God's justice, which punishment standeth in three things—(1.) In charging sin upon the body and soul of the person concerned; and hence we read that both the body and soul of Christ 'were made an offering for sin' (Isa 53:10; Heb 10:10). (2.) The punishment standeth in God's inflicting of the just merits of sin upon him that standeth charged therewith, and that is death in its own nature and strength; to wit, death with the sting thereof—'The sting of death is sin.' This death did Christ die because he died for our sins. (3.) The sorrows and pains of this death, therefore, must be undergone by Jesus Christ.
Now there are divers sorrows in death—such sorrows as brutes are subject to; such sorrows as persons are subject to that stand in sin before God; such sorrows as those undergo who are swallowed up of the curse and wrath of God for ever.
Now so much of all kinds of sorrow as the imputation of our sin could justly bring from the hand of Divine justice, so much of it he had. He had death. He had the sting of death, which is sin. He was forsaken of God; but could not by any means have those sorrows which they have that are everlastingly swallowed up of them. 'It was not possible that he should be holden of it' (Acts 2:24).
For where sin is charged and borne, there must of necessity follow the wrath and curse of God. Now where the wrath and curse of God is, there must of necessity follow the effects, the natural effects—I say, the natural effects—to wit, the sense, the sorrowful sense of the displeasure of an infinite Majesty, and his chastisements for the sin that hath provoked him. There are effects natural, and effects accidental; those accidental are such as flow from our weakness, whilst we wrestle with the judgment of God—to wit, hellish fear, despair, rage, blasphemy, and the like; these were not incident to Jesus Christ, he being in his own person every way perfect. Neither did he always endure the natural effects; his merits relieved and delivered him. God loosed the pains of death, 'because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.'
Christ then was made a curse for us, for he did bear our sin; the punishment therefore from the revenging hand of God must needs fall upon him.