Objection First. Christ never was a sinner, God never supposed him to be a sinner, neither did our sins become really his; God never reputed him so to have been; therefore hate or punish him as a sinner he could not; for no false judgment can belong to the Lord.
Answer.—First. That Christ was not a sinner personally, by acts or doings of his own, is granted; and in this sense it is true that God did never suppose him to be a sinner, nor punished him as such a sinner, nor did he really, if by really you understand naturally, become our sin, nor did God ever repute him so. Second. But that Christ stood before God in our sins, and that God did not only suppose him so to stand, but set him in them, put them upon him, and counted them as his own, is so true that he cannot at present be a Christian that denies it—‘The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all’ (Isa 53:6; 1 Peter 2:22). Third. So, then, though God did not punish him for sin of his own committing, yet he punished him for sin of our committing—‘The just suffered for the unjust’ (1 Peter 3:18). Fourth. Therefore it is true, that though Christ did never really become sin of his own, he did really become our sin, did really become our curse for sin. If this be denied, it follows that he became our sin but feignedly, that he was made our curse, or a curse for us but in appearance, show, or in dissimulation; but no such action or work can proceed of the Lord. He did then really lay our sin and his curse upon him for our sin.
Objection Second. But if Christ indeed hath suffered for our sins, and endured for them that curse that of justice is due thereto, then hath he also endured for us the proper torments of hell, for they are the wages of our sins.
Answer. Many things might be said in answer to this objection; but briefly—First. What God chargeth upon the soul for sin is one thing, and what followeth upon that charge is another. Second. A difference in the person suffering may make a difference in the consequences that follow upon the charge. Let us then consider of both these things.
First. The charge is sin—God charge him with our sins. The person then stands guilty before the judgment of God. The consequences are—1. The person charged sustains or suffereth the wrath of God. 2. This wrath of God is expressed and inflicted on body and soul.
The consequences are—God forsaketh the person charged, and being left, if he cannot stand, he falleth under the power of guilt and horror of the same.
If the person utterly fall under this charge, as not being able to wrestle with and overcome this wrath of God, then despair, horror of hell, rage, blasphemy, darkness, and damnable anguish, immediately swallow him up, and he lieth for ever and ever in the pains of hell, a monument of eternal vengeance.
Now that Christ underwent the wrath of God it is evident, because he bare our curse; that God forsook him, he did with strong crying and tears acknowledge; and therefore that he was under the soul-afflicting sense of the loss of God’s favour, and under the sense of his displeasure, must needs flow from the premises.
[Second.] But now, because Christ Jesus the Lord was a person infinitely differing from all others that fall under the wrath of God, therefore those things that flow from damned sinners could not flow from him.
1. Despair would not rise in his heart, for his flesh did rest in hope; and said, even when he suffered, ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell’ (Acts 2:27).