If Sin’s Penalty Is Eternal, Why Isn’t Jesus Still Suffering?

00:00:00.000 | Welcome back on this new week as we pick up with our third consecutive apologetics question

00:00:08.280 | on the person and work of Christ.

00:00:11.400 | Started last week when we asked, "Even if the Christian faith is untrue, if the cross

00:00:15.520 | and resurrection didn't happen, aren't Christians still happier than non-Christians

00:00:20.980 | in this life?"

00:00:21.980 | That was ABJ 1977, followed by a look at six reasons why Jesus had to leave earth after

00:00:28.000 | Easter.

00:00:29.000 | Imagine life on earth if Christ was still here with us.

00:00:32.280 | Well, he's not.

00:00:33.280 | Why not?

00:00:34.280 | That was last time in ABJ 1978.

00:00:36.560 | That takes us to today.

00:00:38.880 | If the consequences of our sin against the Holy God require eternal judgment, why did

00:00:44.840 | Christ suffer for no more than 33 years?

00:00:49.960 | Shouldn't his sufferings also be eternal, if that's what we deserve?

00:00:54.720 | Here are two emails.

00:00:55.720 | Pastor John, hello to you.

00:00:56.720 | My name is Glenn from San Jose.

00:00:58.200 | Thank you for your ministry.

00:00:59.700 | As with many people, ABJ has been a part of my regular routine and has blessed me and

00:01:03.560 | allows me to bless others in return.

00:01:05.600 | That's awesome to hear.

00:01:07.160 | I have a question for you about Jesus that I cannot answer for myself.

00:01:11.520 | Namely, why did Jesus not spend eternity in hell if this was the awesome and holy price

00:01:18.500 | to be paid for sin?

00:01:20.720 | Does the Bible tell us why?

00:01:22.720 | And this is basically the same question from a listener named Floris.

00:01:25.640 | Pastor John, can you explain why Jesus' payment for our sins was not eternal as it was for

00:01:32.040 | sinners?

00:01:33.880 | This is an excellent question because it pushes us to take seriously the worth of the death

00:01:42.000 | of Jesus, and we need to do that.

00:01:44.800 | We don't ponder too often the greatness of the achievement of Christ in paying the debt

00:01:52.600 | for millions upon millions of hell-deserving sinners, like the thief on the cross, who

00:02:00.960 | before he was crucified had never done one single work of faith in his life, or like

00:02:08.240 | you and me, who may have known Jesus all our lives and have fallen short so many thousands

00:02:16.200 | of times we couldn't even begin to count them.

00:02:20.240 | Our worship and our love for Christ ought to burn brightly when we contemplate that

00:02:28.680 | one man, one God-man, could endure enough in 33 years to provide a sufficient satisfaction

00:02:41.560 | in the justice of God for eternal salvation for so many wicked people.

00:02:49.520 | This is why we will sing the song of the Lamb, the crucified Lamb, forever, not just the

00:02:57.880 | song of the risen King.

00:03:00.560 | The song of the slaughtered Lamb will be sung forever and ever.

00:03:05.800 | It was a staggering achievement on the cross.

00:03:10.240 | So the question is, how is it possible?

00:03:13.960 | Jesus taught us that sinners like us deserve eternal punishment, Matthew 25, 46.

00:03:22.320 | And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

00:03:28.360 | So the punishment for sin is as long as life is long for the saved, forever.

00:03:37.560 | Paul said the same thing.

00:03:39.000 | They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, 2 Thessalonians 1, 9.

00:03:46.260 | So the question Glenn is asking is, if Christ bore our punishment, why then does he not

00:03:55.560 | have to endure the same punishment, namely eternal suffering?

00:04:01.400 | And make no mistake, those who trust in Christ are saved from eternal punishment because

00:04:10.080 | Christ bore our punishment for us.

00:04:13.480 | Colossians 1, 14, "The record of debt against us God set aside, nailing it to the cross."

00:04:21.080 | That means through the hands of Jesus.

00:04:23.640 | Galatians 3, 13, "Christ became a curse for us."

00:04:28.240 | Isaiah 53, 5, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities."

00:04:34.760 | 1 Peter 2, 24, "He bore our sins in his body on the tree."

00:04:39.880 | Romans 8, 3, "By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, God

00:04:46.720 | condemned our sin in the flesh."

00:04:50.480 | Romans 10, 45, "He gave his life as a ransom for many."

00:04:54.320 | 1 Corinthians 6, 20, "You were bought with a price."

00:04:58.160 | Acts 20, 28, "God obtained the church with his own blood."

00:05:05.080 | Christ achieved this substitution for millions of believers, not by suffering eternally in

00:05:15.480 | hell but by being obedient in suffering unto death, even death on a cross.

00:05:23.400 | And the question is, how does he bear eternities of punishment in the space of 33 years of

00:05:34.040 | life?

00:05:36.640 | How does his suffering suffice to cancel the punishment of millions of people who were

00:05:43.720 | bound to eternal punishment?

00:05:48.240 | Now the Bible does not say explicitly how this works.

00:05:55.920 | But just as we learn the demerit of sin by looking at God's appointed penalty for it,

00:06:05.280 | namely eternal punishment, so also we learn the merit or the worth of Christ and his suffering

00:06:13.920 | by looking at the achievement of it, namely salvation for millions of hell-deserving sinners.

00:06:21.040 | So the question becomes, what is it about the worth of Jesus and his suffering that

00:06:28.240 | makes it sufficient to remove the punishment of millions of sinners?

00:06:34.720 | Let me read you the answer given by Jonathan Edwards and then say a word about it.

00:06:41.840 | This comes from a sermon he preached in 1729 entitled "The Sacrifice of Christ Acceptable."

00:06:48.240 | Here's what he says.

00:06:51.440 | Though Christ's sufferings were only temporal, that is, not eternal, yet they were equivalent

00:07:01.000 | to our eternal sufferings by reason of the infinite dignity of his person.

00:07:08.840 | His blood which he spilled, his life which he laid down, was an infinite price because

00:07:17.920 | it was the blood of God, as it is expressly called in Acts 20, 28, the church of God which

00:07:28.960 | he hath purchased with his own blood.

00:07:33.600 | His life was the life of that person that was the eternal Son of God, though it was

00:07:42.040 | the life of a human nature.

00:07:45.440 | Now upon this account, the price offered was equivalent to the demerit of the sins of all

00:07:55.360 | mankind and his sufferings equivalent to the eternal sufferings of the whole world.

00:08:03.560 | Now the principle behind that argument is that the greater the worth or the dignity

00:08:11.440 | or the honor of a person, the more insulting and dishonorable and shameful is the innocent

00:08:22.080 | suffering of that person, so that the suffering of the Son of God is a greater evil than the

00:08:30.680 | suffering of a sinful human.

00:08:33.780 | And since the worth and the honor of the Son of God is an infinite worth and an infinite

00:08:40.120 | honor, therefore his suffering had an infinite worth, more than enough to be the punishment

00:08:49.840 | for finite human beings.

00:08:53.680 | Or to say it one more way, when Christ descended from the position of equality with God, Philippians

00:09:02.680 | 2, to the point of forsakenness by God on the cross in agony, that depth of descent

00:09:12.600 | was infinitely greater than the descent of any sinful human into the sufferings of hell,

00:09:20.920 | indeed all of them together.

00:09:23.680 | So one way of answering the question, how does Christ's 33-year-long suffering cover

00:09:31.520 | the sins of millions of people who deserve eternal suffering, is because the infinite

00:09:39.640 | worth of his person makes his suffering of infinite worth and sufficient for the covering

00:09:47.880 | of all the sins of all his people.

00:09:51.920 | So as I said at the beginning, our worship and our love for Christ ought to burn very

00:10:00.020 | brightly when we consider that one man, one God-man, could endure enough suffering to

00:10:07.660 | cover so many hell-deserving sins.

00:10:12.000 | Amen.

00:10:13.000 | God's own blood.

00:10:14.520 | You can't really say it any more scandalously than Acts 20, 28 puts it.

00:10:19.000 | Thank you, Pastor John, for helping us take seriously the worth of the death of Jesus

00:10:23.360 | today.

00:10:24.760 | That is what makes such a question worth asking and answering in the first place, because

00:10:28.320 | we get to dwell on Christ's all-sufficient sacrifice for us.

00:10:33.960 | Awesome.

00:10:35.120 | Thank you for joining us today.

00:10:36.520 | If you have a hard question to ask Pastor John, email us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

00:10:43.220 | As you can tell, this is a season of some interesting apologetics questions, answering

00:10:46.860 | objections, hard questions.

00:10:49.120 | And we have another one up.

00:10:50.300 | Next time, this one.

00:10:51.880 | Does God love us beyond loving himself in us?

00:10:56.000 | Does God love us because he really loves us for us, or does he love us simply because

00:11:00.420 | he sees his own reflection in us, and he loves that reflection of himself and not really

00:11:06.480 | us?

00:11:07.980 | This is such a key question.

00:11:09.420 | Actually it's part of nine related questions that I'm going to attempt to serve up to Pastor

00:11:13.560 | John in one single episode.

00:11:16.680 | We're going to put him to work next time.

00:11:18.280 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:11:19.600 | We'll see you on Thursday.

00:11:21.080 | [END]

00:11:21.580 | 1.

00:11:22.580 | Is God's love for us beyond loving himself in us?

00:11:23.580 | 2.

00:11:24.580 | Is God's love for us beyond loving himself in us?

00:11:25.580 | 3.

00:11:26.580 | Is God's love for us beyond loving himself in us?

00:11:27.580 | 4.

00:11:28.580 | Is God's love for us beyond loving himself in us?

00:11:29.580 | 5.

If Sin’s Penalty Is Eternal, Why Isn’t Jesus Still Suffering?

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