Chapter 117

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.

Second. A second thing that demonstrateth that Christ died the cursed death for sin; it is, the frame of spirit that he was in at the time that he was to be taken.

Never was poor mortal so beset with the apprehensions of approaching death, as was this Lord Jesus Christ; amazement beyond measure, sorrow that exceeded, seized upon his soul. ‘My soul,’ saith he, ‘is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.’ ‘And he began,’ saith Mark, ‘to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy’ (Matt 26:38; Mark 14:33).

Add to this, that Jesus Christ was better able to grapple with death, even better able to do it alone, than the whole world joined all together. 1. He was anointed with the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). 2. He had all grace perfect in him (John 1:16). 3. Never none so soaked in the bosom of his Father’s love as himself (Prov 8:23-30). 4. Never none so harmless and without sin as he was, and, consequently, never man had so good a conscience as he had (Heb 7:26). 5. Never none prepared such a stock of good works to bear him company at the hour of death as he. 6. Never none had greater assurance of being with the Father eternally in the heavens than he. And yet, behold, when he comes to die, how weak is he, how amazed at death, how heavy, how exceeding sorrowful! and, I say, no cause assigned but the approach of death.

Alas! how often is it seen that we poor sinners can laugh at destruction when it cometh; yea, and ‘rejoice exceedingly when we find the grave,’ looking upon death as a part of our portion; yea, as that which will be a means of our present relief and help (Job 3:22; 1 Cor 3:22). This Jesus Christ could not do, considered as dying for our sin, but the nearer death, the more heavy and oppressed with the thoughts of the revenging hand of God. Wherefore he falls into an agony, and sweats; not after the common rate as we do when death is severing body and soul—‘His sweat was as it were great drops [clodders] of blood falling down to the ground’ (Luke 22:44).

What, I say, should be the reason, but that death assaulted him with his sting? If Jesus Christ had been to die for his virtues only, doubtless he would have borne it lightly, and so he did as he died, bearing witness to the truth, ‘He endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb 12:2). How have the martyrs despised death, and, as it were, not been careful of that, having peace with God by Jesus Christ, scorning the most cruel torments that hell and men could devise and invent! but Jesus Christ could not do so, as he was a sacrifice for sin; he died for sin, he was made a curse for us. O my brethren, Christ died many deaths at once, he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Look how many thousands shall be saved—so many deaths did Jesus die; yet it was but once he died. He died thy death, and my death, and so many deaths as all our sins deserved who shall be saved from the wrath to come.

Now, to feign that these sorrows and this bloody agony, was not real, but in show only, what greater condemnation can be passed upon Jesus Christ, who loved to do all things in the most unfeigned simplicity? It was, therefore, because of sin, the sin that was put into the death he died, and the curse of God that was due to sin, that made death so bitter to Jesus Christ—‘It is Christ that died.’ The apostle speaks as if never any died but Christ, nor indeed did there, so wonderful a death as he (Rom 8:34). Death, considered simply as it is a deprivation of natural life, could not have these effects in a person, personally more righteous than an angel. Yea, even carnal, wicked men, not awakened in their conscience, how securely can they die! It must therefore also be concluded that the sorrows and agony of Jesus Christ came from a higher cause, even from the guilt of sin, and from the curse of God that was now approaching for that sin.

It cannot be attributed to the fear of men; their terror could not make him afraid; that was contrary to his doctrine, and did not become the dignity of his person; it was sin, sin, sin, and the curse due to sin.

Third. It is evident that Christ did bear and die the cursed death for sin, from the carriage and dispensations of God towards him.

1. From the carriage of God. God now becomes as an enemy to him. (1.) He forsakes him—‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Yea, the sense of the loss of God’s comfortable presence abode with him even till he gave up the ghost. (2.) He dealeth with him as with one that hath sinned, he chastiseth him, he bruiseth him, he striketh and smiteth him, and was pleased—that is, his justice was satisfied—in so doing. ‘It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief’ (Isa 53:10).

These things could not be, had he only considered him in his own personal standing. Where was the righteous forsaken? Without the consideration of sin, he doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men—that is, not out of pleasure, or without sufficient cause.

Jesus Christ, then, since he is under this withdrawing, chastising, bruising, and afflicting displeasure of God, he is all that time under sin, under our sins, and therefore thus accursed of God, his God.

2. Not only the carriage of God, but his dispensations, his visible dispensations, plainly declare that he stood before God in our sins. Vengeance suffered him not to live. Wherefore God delivered him up—‘He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all’ (Rom 8:32). (1.) He delivered him into the hands of men (Mark 9:31). (2.) He was delivered into the hands of sinners (Luke 24:7). (3.) He was delivered unto death (Rom 4:25). (4.) Yea, so delivered up as that they both had him to put him to death, and God left him for that purpose in their hands; yea, was so far off from delivering him, that he gave way to all things that had a tendency to take his life from the earth.

Now many men do what they will with him, he was delivered to their will—Judas may sell him; Peter may deny him; all his disciples forsake him; the enemy apprehends him, binds him, they have him away like a thief to Caiaphas the high-priest, in whose house he is mocked, spit upon, his beard is twitched from his cheeks; now they buffet him and scornfully bow the knee before him; yea, ‘his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men’ (Isa 52:14).

Now he is sent to the governor, defaced with blows and blood; who delivereth him into the hand of his soldiers; they whip him, crown him with thorns, and stick the points of the thorns fast in his temples by a blow with a staff in their hand; now he is made a spectacle to the people, and then sent away to Herod, who, with his men of war, set him at nought, no God appearing for his help.

In fine, they at last condemn him to death, even to the death of the cross, where they hang him up by wounds made through his hands and his feet, between the earth and the heavens, where he hanged for the space of six hours—to wit, from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon. No God yet appears for his help; while he hangs there some rail at him, others wag their heads, others tauntingly say, ‘He saved others, himself he cannot save’; some divide his raiment, casting lots for his garments before his face; others mockingly bid him come down from the cross, and when he desireth succour, they give him vinegar to drink. No God yet appears for his help.

Now the earth quakes, the rocks are rent, the sun becomes black, and Jesus still cries out that he was forsaken of God; and presently boweth his head and dies (Matt 26, 27; Mark 14, 15; Luke 22, 23; John 18, 19).

And for all this there is no cause assigned from God but sin—‘He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isa 53:5).

The sum then is, that Jesus Christ the Lord, by taking part of our flesh, became a public person, not doing or dying in a private capacity, but in the room and stead of sinners, whose sin deserved death and the curse of God; all which Jesus Christ bare in his own body upon the tree. I conclude, then, that my sin is already crucified and accursed in the death and curse Christ underwent.

[Objections to this doctrine.]

I come now to some objections.

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).

2. The everlastingness of the punishment, therefore, nor the terrors that accompany such, could not fasten upon him; for he knew at last that God would justify him, or approve of his works that they were meritorious.

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.

Fourth. The conclusion then is, though the rebukes of God for sin by death, and punishment after, be the rebukes of eternal vengeance, yet the eternity of that punishment is for want of merit. Could the damned merit their own deliverance, justice would let them go.

Fifth. It is one thing, therefore, to suffer for sin by the stroke of eternal justice, and another thing to abide for ever a sufferer there: Christ did the first, the damned do the second.

Sixth. His rising, therefore, from the dead the third day doth nothing invalidate his sufferings, but rather showeth the power of his merit. And here I would ask a question, Had Christ Jesus been more the object of faith, if weakness and endless infirmity had kept him under the curse, than by rising again from the dead; want of merit causing the one, sufficiency thereof causing the other?

Seventh. If men will not believe that Christ hath removed the curse because he is risen again, they would much more strongly have doubted it had he been still in the grave. But, O amazing darkness! to make that an argument that his sufferings wanted merit, which to God himself is sufficient proof that he hath purged our sins for ever—‘For this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God’ (Heb 10:12).

Objection Fourth. But the Scripture saith, Christ is our example, and that in his very death (1 Peter 2:21).

Answer. Christ in his sufferings and death is both sacrifice and example.

First. A sacrifice—‘Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.’ And again, ‘He gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour.’ And thus he made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness (1 Cor 5:7; Eph 5:1,2; Dan 9:24).

Second. He was also in his sufferings exemplary, and that in several particulars—(1.) In his meek deportment while he was apprehended (Isa 53:7). (2.) In doing them good that sought his life (Luke 22:50,51). (3.) In his praying for his enemies when they were in their outrage (Luke 23:34). (4.) ‘When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously’ (1 Peter 2:23).

In these respects, I say, he was exemplary, and brought honour to his profession by his good behaviour; and O how beautiful would Christianity be in the eyes of men, if the disciples of our Lord would more imitate him therein!

But what? because Christ is our pattern, is he not our passover? or, because we should in these things follow his steps, died he not for our sins? Thus to conclude would not only argue thee very erroneous, but such a conclusion would overthrow the gospel, it being none other but a great sleight of Satan to shut out the whole by a part, and to make us blasphemers while we plead for holiness.

Look, then, upon the death of Christ under a double consideration—1. As he suffered from the hand of God. 2. As he suffered from the hand of men. Now, as he suffered by God’s hand, so he suffered for sin; but as he suffered from men, so he suffered for righteousness’ sake.

Observe, then, that as he suffered for sin, so no man took away his life; but as he suffered for righteousness, so they slew him by wicked hands. What is it then? Christ must needs have suffered, and the wisdom of God had so ordained that ‘those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled’ (Acts 3:18). Thus, therefore, we ought to distinguish of the causes and ends of the death of Christ.

Again; as Christ suffered for sin, so he would neither be taken at man’s pleasure, nor die at man’s time. 1. Not at man’s pleasure; and hence it was that they so often sought his life in vain, ‘for his hour was not yet come’—to wit, the hour in which he was to be made a sacrifice for our sin (John 13, 17:1,2, 18:1,2). 2. Not at their time; but, contrary to all expectation, when the due time was come, ‘he bowed his head and gave up the ghost’ (John 19:30).

And for this last work, he had power given him of God—that is, power to die when he would. ‘I have power,’ said he, ‘to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.’ This power never man had before. This made the centurion wonder, and made Pontius Pilate marvel; and indeed well they might, for it was as great a miracle as any he wrought in his life; it demonstrated him to be the Son of God (Mark 15:38,39). The centurion, knowing that according to nature he might have lived longer, concluded therefore that his dying at that instant was not but miraculously. And when he ‘saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.’

And the reason why he had power to die was, that he might offer his offering willingly, and at the season. 1. Willingly—‘If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord’ (Lev 1:3). 2. He must offer it at the season—‘Thou shalt keep this ordinance,’ the passover, ‘in his season’ (Exo 13:10).

Now, both these offerings having immediate respect to the offering of the body of Christ for sin—for he came in the room of all burnt sacrifices—the passover also was a type of him (Heb 10:3-6; 1 Cor 5:7,8). Therefore, he being now the priest as well as sacrifice, must have power and will to offer his sacrifice with acceptation; and this the Scripture testifieth he did, where it saith, ‘In due time Christ died for the ungodly’ (Rom 5:6). In due time, that is, at the time appointed, at the acceptable time.

Thou must, therefore, unless thou art willing to be deceived, look upon the sufferings of Christ under a double consideration, and distinguish between his sufferings as our example and his suffering for our sins. And know, that as he suffered as our example, so he suffered only for righteousness’ sake from the hands of wicked men; but as he suffered for our sins, so he suffered, as being by God imputed wicked, the punishment that was due to sin, even the dreadful curse of God. Not that Christ died two deaths, one after another; but he died at the same time upon a double account—for his righteousness’ sake from men, for our sins from the hand of God. And, as I said before, had he only suffered for righteousness’ sake, death had not so amazed him, nor had he been so exceeding heavy in the thoughts of it; that had never put him into an agony, nor made him sweat as it were great drops of blood. Besides, when men suffer only for righteousness’ sake, God doth not use to hide his face from them, to forsake them, and make them accursed; ‘but Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.’

Objection Fifth. But if indeed Christ hath paid the full price for us by his death, in suffering the punishment that we should have done, wherefore is the Scripture so silent as not to declare that by his death he hath made satisfaction?