Alan Dale Gross
Active Member
Con't from: https://www.baptistboard.com/threads/jesus-christ’s-penal-work-arthur-w-pink-1886-1952.131553/
When we read, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal 3:13). “The cross was accursed, not only in the opinion of men,
but by the decree of the Divine Law. Therefore when Christ was lifted up upon it, He rendered Himself obnoxious to the curse.”59
"The very mode of death that God appointed for His Son reveals to us the penal nature of it. The Cross on reveals to us the penal nature of it. was no mere “accident,” as though it made no difference what form His death took. Fundamental reasons rendered it expedient and necessary that the Surety should die a death that was accursed of God; hence, the frequent reference in the New Testament to the “cross” and the “tree” (cf. John 12:32-33).
"At Calvary, God’s terrible curse on sin was publicly displayed, of which the cross was not the cause but the symbol (cf. Joh 3:14). Under the Mosaic Law (to which the Apostle refers in Gal 3:13), hanging on a tree was a death reserved for great criminals.
"Hence, the force of the word tree in 1 Peter 2:24. Christ hanging upon the tree was the public testimony to God’s curse on Him. “The cause of the curse was not the hanging on the tree, but the sin with which He was charged.
"That mode of punishment exhibited that He was the object of God’s holy displeasure, not indeed because He was suspended on the tree, but because He was the sin-bearer. The punishment of the offenses for which that ignominious60 penalty
was allotted was then inflicted. Divine wisdom appointed that He Who bore the sin of the world should be exposed as a curse, for the Divine displeasure was there most awfully displayed.”61
"As to why this means and method of death was selected by God out of all others possible—poisoning, stoning, beheading, etc.—Genesis 3 supplies the answer: “As the fatal sin which diffused the curse over the human race was connected with the forbidden ‘tree,’ God wisely ordered that the last Adam should expiate sin by being suspended on a tree; and He appointed in the Law (Deu 21:22-23) such a symbol of the curse as reminded all men of the origin of the Divine curse on the world. He would not have the curse removed in any other way.”62
"Among the Romans, death by crucifixion was the deepest possible humiliation. It was the most degrading of punishments, inflicted only on slaves and the lowest of the people. If freemen were at any time subjected to crucifixion for great crimes, such as robbery, high treason, or sedition, the sentence could not be executed until they were put into the catalogue of slaves, and that by the utmost humiliation. Their liberty was taken from them by servile stripes63 and scourging, as was done to Christ.
"Thus, the curse of God’s Law was executed upon the Head and Substitute of His people. To “preach Christ crucified” (1Co 1:23) is to proclaim and expound His being “made a curse for us.” Because Christ was “made sin” and “made a curse” for His people, the wrath of God’s holiness flamed against Him and the sword of His justice pierced Him. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd” (Zec 13:7; cf. Mat 26:31).
"God inflicted punishment on Christ as if He had been the personal offender. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin” (Isa 53:10). As all the sufferings of men, whether inflicted immediately 64 by God or mediately65 by Satan or men (Jer 2:15–17), arise from the demerits of sin. So all the sufferings of Christ—from man, Satan, God—arose from the demerits of His peoples’ sins imputed to their Substitute.
The punishment that God meted out to Christ was the very same punishment that was due His people. That Jesus was accursed of God is seen from His hanging on the tree. That He received sin’s wages was evidenced by God’s forsaking Him. That He was numbered with transgressors was exhibited by His dying between two thieves.
"True, He did not suffer eternally, for the eternity of our punishment was only a circumstance arising from our incapacity to suffer the whole weight of God’s wrath in a brief season, and therefore the brevity of duration of Christ’s sufferings is no valid objection against the identity of penalty that He received.
"Moreover, the infinite dignity of His Person more than compensated the Law. “To the enlightened eye, there is found on the cross another inscription besides that which Pilate ordered to be written there: THE VICTIM OF GUILT. THE WAGES OF SIN.”66
The death of Christ on the cross, it was a bitter death, a sorrowful death, a bloody death. The bitter thoughts of His sufferings put Him into a most dreadful agony: “Being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luk 22:44)…
"The things that our Savior strove against were not only the terror of death, as other men are wont to do—for then many Christians and martyrs might have seemed more constant and courageous than He—but with the terrible justice of God, pouring out His high anger and indignation upon Him on the account of all the sins of His chosen that were laid upon Him, than which nothing could be more dreadful (Isa 53:4-6).
"Christ was in a vehement conflict in His soul, through the deepest sense of His Father’s wrath against sinners, for whom He now stood as a Surety and Redeemer. And for a close of this particular, let me say that God’s justice that we have provoked, being fully satisfied by the inestimable merit of Christ’s passion, is the surest and highest ground of consolation that we have in this world.— Thomas Brooks
59 John Calvin (1509-1564), Institutes of the Christian Religion, II, xvi, 6.
60 ignominious – marked by shame or disgrace.
61 George Smeaton (1814-1889), The Doctrine of the Atonement as Taught by the Apostles (Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 14.
62 Smeaton, Atonement, 15.
63 servile stripes – marks and wounds on the back of a slave from a whip.
64 immediately – directly, without the help of someone or something.
65 mediately – indirectly, by the use of means.
66 Brown, First Peter, Vol. 2, 143.
When we read, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal 3:13). “The cross was accursed, not only in the opinion of men,
but by the decree of the Divine Law. Therefore when Christ was lifted up upon it, He rendered Himself obnoxious to the curse.”59
"The very mode of death that God appointed for His Son reveals to us the penal nature of it. The Cross on reveals to us the penal nature of it. was no mere “accident,” as though it made no difference what form His death took. Fundamental reasons rendered it expedient and necessary that the Surety should die a death that was accursed of God; hence, the frequent reference in the New Testament to the “cross” and the “tree” (cf. John 12:32-33).
"At Calvary, God’s terrible curse on sin was publicly displayed, of which the cross was not the cause but the symbol (cf. Joh 3:14). Under the Mosaic Law (to which the Apostle refers in Gal 3:13), hanging on a tree was a death reserved for great criminals.
"Hence, the force of the word tree in 1 Peter 2:24. Christ hanging upon the tree was the public testimony to God’s curse on Him. “The cause of the curse was not the hanging on the tree, but the sin with which He was charged.
"That mode of punishment exhibited that He was the object of God’s holy displeasure, not indeed because He was suspended on the tree, but because He was the sin-bearer. The punishment of the offenses for which that ignominious60 penalty
was allotted was then inflicted. Divine wisdom appointed that He Who bore the sin of the world should be exposed as a curse, for the Divine displeasure was there most awfully displayed.”61
"As to why this means and method of death was selected by God out of all others possible—poisoning, stoning, beheading, etc.—Genesis 3 supplies the answer: “As the fatal sin which diffused the curse over the human race was connected with the forbidden ‘tree,’ God wisely ordered that the last Adam should expiate sin by being suspended on a tree; and He appointed in the Law (Deu 21:22-23) such a symbol of the curse as reminded all men of the origin of the Divine curse on the world. He would not have the curse removed in any other way.”62
"Among the Romans, death by crucifixion was the deepest possible humiliation. It was the most degrading of punishments, inflicted only on slaves and the lowest of the people. If freemen were at any time subjected to crucifixion for great crimes, such as robbery, high treason, or sedition, the sentence could not be executed until they were put into the catalogue of slaves, and that by the utmost humiliation. Their liberty was taken from them by servile stripes63 and scourging, as was done to Christ.
"Thus, the curse of God’s Law was executed upon the Head and Substitute of His people. To “preach Christ crucified” (1Co 1:23) is to proclaim and expound His being “made a curse for us.” Because Christ was “made sin” and “made a curse” for His people, the wrath of God’s holiness flamed against Him and the sword of His justice pierced Him. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd” (Zec 13:7; cf. Mat 26:31).
"God inflicted punishment on Christ as if He had been the personal offender. “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin” (Isa 53:10). As all the sufferings of men, whether inflicted immediately 64 by God or mediately65 by Satan or men (Jer 2:15–17), arise from the demerits of sin. So all the sufferings of Christ—from man, Satan, God—arose from the demerits of His peoples’ sins imputed to their Substitute.
The punishment that God meted out to Christ was the very same punishment that was due His people. That Jesus was accursed of God is seen from His hanging on the tree. That He received sin’s wages was evidenced by God’s forsaking Him. That He was numbered with transgressors was exhibited by His dying between two thieves.
"True, He did not suffer eternally, for the eternity of our punishment was only a circumstance arising from our incapacity to suffer the whole weight of God’s wrath in a brief season, and therefore the brevity of duration of Christ’s sufferings is no valid objection against the identity of penalty that He received.
"Moreover, the infinite dignity of His Person more than compensated the Law. “To the enlightened eye, there is found on the cross another inscription besides that which Pilate ordered to be written there: THE VICTIM OF GUILT. THE WAGES OF SIN.”66
The death of Christ on the cross, it was a bitter death, a sorrowful death, a bloody death. The bitter thoughts of His sufferings put Him into a most dreadful agony: “Being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luk 22:44)…
"The things that our Savior strove against were not only the terror of death, as other men are wont to do—for then many Christians and martyrs might have seemed more constant and courageous than He—but with the terrible justice of God, pouring out His high anger and indignation upon Him on the account of all the sins of His chosen that were laid upon Him, than which nothing could be more dreadful (Isa 53:4-6).
"Christ was in a vehement conflict in His soul, through the deepest sense of His Father’s wrath against sinners, for whom He now stood as a Surety and Redeemer. And for a close of this particular, let me say that God’s justice that we have provoked, being fully satisfied by the inestimable merit of Christ’s passion, is the surest and highest ground of consolation that we have in this world.— Thomas Brooks
59 John Calvin (1509-1564), Institutes of the Christian Religion, II, xvi, 6.
60 ignominious – marked by shame or disgrace.
61 George Smeaton (1814-1889), The Doctrine of the Atonement as Taught by the Apostles (Carlisle, Penn.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 14.
62 Smeaton, Atonement, 15.
63 servile stripes – marks and wounds on the back of a slave from a whip.
64 immediately – directly, without the help of someone or something.
65 mediately – indirectly, by the use of means.
66 Brown, First Peter, Vol. 2, 143.
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