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.
Wherefore by these four things we see how Christ became our Saviour—he took hold of our nature, was born under the law, was made to be sin, and the accursed of God for us. And observe it—all this, as I said before, was the handiwork of God. God made him flesh, made him under the law, God made him to be sin, and also a curse for us. The Lord bruised him, the Lord put him to grief, the Lord made his soul an offering for sin (Isa 53:10). Not for that he hated him, considering him in his own harmless, innocent, and blessed person, for he was daily his delight; but by an act of grace to us-ward, were our iniquities laid upon him, and he in our stead was bruised and chastised for them. God loved us, and made him a curse for us. He was made a curse for us, ‘that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through [faith in] Jesus Christ’ (Gal 3:14).
FURTHER DEMONSTRATION OF THIS TRUTH.
Before I pass this truth, I will present thee, courteous reader, with two or three demonstrations for its further confirmation.
First. That Christ did bear our sins and curse is clear, because he died, and that without a mediator.
He died—‘The wages of sin is death’ (Rom 6:23). Now if death be the wages of sin, and that be true that Christ did die and not sin, either the course of justice is perverted, or else he died for our sins; there was ‘no cause of death in him,’ yet he died (Acts 13:28). He did no evil, guile was not found in his mouth, yet he received the wages of sin (1 Peter 2:22). Sin, therefore, though not of his own, was found upon him, and laid to his charge, because ‘he died.’ ‘Christ died for our sins,’ Christ ‘gave himself for our sins’ (1 Cor 15:1-3; Gal 1:4).
He, then, that will conclude that Christ did not bear our sin, chargeth God foolishly, for delivering him up to death; for laying on him the wages, when in no sense he deserved the same. Yea, he overthroweth the whole gospel, for that hangeth on this hinge—‘Christ died for our sins.’
Object. But all that die do not bear the curse of God for sin.
Answ. But all that die without a mediator do. Angels died the cursed death because Christ took not hold of them; and they for whom Christ never prayeth, they die the cursed death, for they perish everlastingly in the unutterable torments of hell. Christ, too, died that death which is the proper wages of sin, for he had none to stand for him. ‘I looked,’ saith he, ‘and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me.—And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him’ (Isa 63:5, 54:16).
Christ then died, or endured the wages of sin, and that without an intercessor, without one between God and him; he grappled immediately with the eternal justice of God, who inflicted on him death, the wages of sin; there was no man to hold off the hand of God; justice had his full blow at him, and made him a curse for sin. He died for sin without a mediator, he died the cursed death.