[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. 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 the sin of his own committing, he punished him for the 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 to answer this objection, but briefly—First. What God charged upon the soul for sin is one thing, and what followed upon that charge is another. Second. A difference in the person's suffering may make a difference in the consequences that follow upon the charge. Let us then consider both these things.
First, the charge is sin—God charges him with our sins. The person then stands guilty before God's judgment. The consequences are: 1. The person charged sustains or suffers God's wrath. 2. This wrath of God is expressed and inflicted on the body and soul.
The consequences are that God forsakes the person charged, and being left, if he cannot stand, he falls under the power of guilt and horror of the same.
Suppose the person utterly falls under this charge, as not being able to wrestle with and overcome this wrath of God. In that case, despair, horror of hell, rage, blasphemy, darkness, and damnable anguish immediately swallow him up, and he lieth forever 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 bares 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 favor, 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 accompanying 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 cannot pay the debt—'Thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite' (Luke 12:59).
The difference, then, of the person suffering may make a difference, though not like 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. An innocent person, perfect in all graces, as really God as man, can better wrestle with the curse for sin than 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 recovered 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 are 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 the previous. But further,
First, consider that the wages of sin are 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 lies here if the person suffering cannot make amends to justice for the sins for which he suffers; otherwise, 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 to them is because, by what they suffer, they cannot satisfy the justice of God.
Fourth. The conclusion then is that though the rebukes of God for sin by death and punishment after are the rebukes of eternal vengeance, 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 forever a sufferer there: Christ did the first, the damned do the second.
Sixth. Therefore, his rising from the dead on the third day did not invalidate his sufferings but showed his merit's power. And here I would ask, 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?
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