And mark, everlasting punishment is not the proper wages of sin but under a supposition that the person suffering be not able to pay the debt—'Thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite' (Luke 12:59).
The difference, then, of the persons suffering may make a difference, though not in the nature of the punishment, yet in the duration and consequences of it.
Christ under the sentence was, as to his own personal acts only, altogether innocent; the damned only altogether sinners. Christ had in him even then the utmost perfection of all graces and virtues; but the damned, the perfection of sin and vileness. Christ's humanity had still union with his Godhead; the damned, union only with sin. Now, an innocent person, perfect in all graces, as really God as man, can better wrestle with the curse for sin than either sinful men or angels.
While they despair, Christ hopes. While they blaspheme, Christ submits. While they rage, Christ justifies God. While they sink under the burden of sin and wrath, Christ recovereth by virtue of his worthiness—'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.' He was God's Holy One, and his holiness prevailed.
So that it follows not, that because Christ did undergo the curse due to our sins, he therefore must have those accidental consequences which are found to accompany damned souls.
Objection Third. But the Scripture saith, that the wages of sin is everlasting punishment: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matt 25:41).
Answer. This objection is partly answered already in the answer to that foregoing. But further,
First. Consider, the wages of sin is death, and punishment under the wrath of God—till those that die the death for sin have paid the utmost farthing (Matt 5:26; Luke 12:58,59).
Second. So, then, the everlastingness of the punishment lieth here, if the person suffering be not able to make amends to justice for the sins for which he suffereth; else justice neither would nor could, because it is just, keep such still under punishment.
Third. The reason, then, why fallen angels and damned souls have an everlastingness of punishment allotted them is, because, by what they suffer, they cannot satisfy the justice of God.