what remaineth but that the charge was real or feigned? If real, then
he hath either perished under them, or carried them away from before
God; if they were charged but feignedly, then did he but feignedly die
for them, then shall we have but feigned benefit by his death, and but
a feigned salvation at last—not to say how this cursed doctrine
chargeth God and Christ with hypocrisy, the one in saying, He made
Christ to be sin; the other in saying that he bare our sin; when, in
deed and in truth, our guilt and burden never was really upon him.
Quest. But might not Christ die for our sins but he needs must bear
their guilt or burden?
Answ. He that can sever sin and guilt, sin and the burden, each from
other, laying sin and no guilt, sin and no burden on the person that
dieth for sin, must do it only in his own imaginative head. No
scripture, nor reason, nor sense, understandeth or feeleth sin when
charged without its guilt and burden.
And here we must distinguish between sin charged and sin forgiven. Sin
forgiven may be seen without guilt or burden, though I think not
without shame in this world; but sin charged, and that by the justice
of God—for so it was upon Christ—this cannot be but guilt and the
burden, as inseparable companions, must unavoidably lie on that person.
Poor sinner, be advised to take heed of such deluded preachers who,
with their tongues smoother than oil, would rob thee of that excellent
doctrine, ‘God hath made him to be sin for us’; for such, as I said, do
not only present thee with a feigned deliverance and forgiveness, with
a feigned heaven and happiness, but charge God and the Lord Jesus as
mere impostors, who, while they tell us that Christ was made of God to
be sin for us, affirm that it was not so really, suggesting this
sophistical reason, ‘No wrong judgment comes from the Lord.’ I say
again, this wicked doctrine is the next way to turn the gospel in thy
thoughts to no more than a cunningly-devised fable (2 Peter 1:16), and
to make Jesus Christ, in his dying for our sins, as brutish as the
paschal lamb in Moses’ law.
Wherefore, distressed sinner, when thou findest it recorded in the Word
of truth that Christ died for our sins, and that God hath made him to
be sin for us, then do thou consider of sin as it is a transgression
against the law of God, and that as such it procureth the judgment of
God, torments and afflicts the mind with guilt, and bindeth over the
soul to answer it. Sever not sin and guilt asunder, lest thou be an
hypocrite like these wicked men, and rob Christ of his true sufferings.
Besides, to see sin upon Christ, but not its guilt; to see sin upon
Christ, but not the legal punishment, what is this but to conclude that
either there is no guilt and punishment in sin, or that Christ bare our
sin, but we the punishment? for the punishment must be borne, because
the sentence is gone out from the mouth of God against sin.
Do thou therefore, as I have said, consider of sin as a transgression
of the law (1 John 3:4), and a provoker of the justice of God; which
done, turn thine eye to the cross, and behold those sins, in the guilt
and punishment of them, sticking in the flesh of Christ. ‘God condemned
sin in the flesh’ of Christ (Rom 8:3). He ‘bare our sins in his own
body on the tree’ (1 Peter 2:24).
I would only give thee this caution—Not sin in the nature of sin—sin
was not so in the flesh of Christ; but sin in the natural punishment of
it—to wit, guilt, and the chastising hand of justice. ‘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).
Look, then, upon Christ crucified to be as the sin of the world, as if
he only had broken the law; which done, behold him perfectly innocent
in himself, and so conclude that for the transgression of God’s people
he was stricken; that when the Lord made him to be sin, he made him to
be sin for us.[5]
HE WAS MADE A CURSE FOR US.
FOURTH. As he was made flesh under the law, and also sin, SO HE WAS
MADE A CURSE FOR US—‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us; as it is written, Cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree.’ This sentence is taken out of Moses, being passed
there upon them that for sin are worthy of death—‘And if a man have
committed a sin worthy of death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body
shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in anywise
bury him that day, for he that is hanged is accursed of God’ (Deut
21:22,23). By this sentence Paul concludeth that Jesus Christ was
justly hanged, because sin worthy of death was upon him; sin, not of
his own, but ours. Since, then, he took our sins, he must be cursed of
God; for sin is sin wherever it lies, and justice is justice wherever
it finds it; wherefore since Jesus Christ will bear our sin, he must be
‘numbered with the transgressors,’ and counted worthy to die the death.
He that committeth sin is worthy of death. This, though Christ did not
personally do, his members, his body, which is his church did; and
since he would undertake for them with God, and stand in their sins
before the eyes of his justice, he must die the death by the law.
Sin and the curse cannot be severed. Sin must be followed with the
curse of God. Sin therefore being removed from us to the back of
Christ, thither goes also the curse; for if sin be found upon him, he
is the person worthy to die—worthy by our sins.
Wherefore Paul here setteth forth Christ clothed with our sins, and so
taking from us the guilt and punishment. What punishment, but the wrath
and displeasure of God?—‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us.’
In this word ‘curse’ are two things comprised,
1. The reality of sin; for there can be no curse where there is no sin,
either of the person’s own, or made to be his by his own consent or the
imputation of Divine justice. And since sins are made to be Christ’s by
imputation, they are his, though not naturally, yet really, and
consequently the wages due. He hath made him to be sin; he was made a
curse for us.
2. This word ‘curse’ compriseth, therefore, the punishment of sin, that
punishment properly due to sin from the hand of God’s justice, which
punishment standeth in three things—(1.) In charging sin upon the body
and soul of the person concerned; and hence we read that both the body
and soul of Christ ‘were made an offering for sin’ (Isa 53:10; Heb
10:10). (2.) The punishment standeth in God’s inflicting of the just
merits of sin upon him that standeth charged therewith, and that is
death in its own nature and strength; to wit, death with the sting
thereof—‘The sting of death is sin.’ This death did Christ die because
he died for our sins. (3.) The sorrows and pains of this death,
therefore, must be undergone by Jesus Christ.
Now there are divers sorrows in death—such sorrows as brutes are
subject to; such sorrows as persons are subject to that stand in sin
before God; such sorrows as those undergo who are swallowed up of the
curse and wrath of God for ever.
Now so much of all kinds of sorrow as the imputation of our sin could
justly bring from the hand of Divine justice, so much of it he had. He
had death. He had the sting of death, which is sin. He was forsaken of
God; but could not by any means have those sorrows which they have that
are everlastingly swallowed up of them. ‘It was not possible that he
should be holden of it’ (Acts 2:24).
For where sin is charged and borne, there must of necessity follow the
wrath and curse of God. Now where the wrath and curse of God is, there
must of necessity follow the effects, the natural effects—I say, the
natural effects—to wit, the sense, the sorrowful sense of the
displeasure of an infinite Majesty, and his chastisements for the sin
that hath provoked him. There are effects natural, and effects
accidental; those accidental are such as flow from our weakness, whilst
we wrestle with the judgment of God—to wit, hellish fear, despair,
rage, blasphemy, and the like; these were not incident to Jesus Christ,
he being in his own person every way perfect. Neither did he always
endure the natural effects; his merits relieved and delivered him. God
loosed the pains of death, ‘because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it.’
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.
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.