John Owen got the cross and the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right. Come and see:
For the curse was upon him, Gal. 3:13, "He was made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Give me leave to say, Jesus Christ saw more into the nature of the curse of God for sin than all the damned in hell are able to see; which caused a dreadful conflict in his human soul upon that prospect. Secondly. It arose from hence, that the comforting influences of the union with the divine nature were restrained. Jesus Christ was in himself "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" but yet, all the while, there were the influences of light and glory from the divine nature to the human, by virtue of their union; and now they are restrained, and instead of that, was horrible darkness, and trembling, and the curse, and sin, and Satan, round about him; all presenting themselves unto him: which gave occasion to that part of his prayer, Ps. 22:12–21, "Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth," etc. There was the sword in the curse of the law, and the dog and the lion, or Satan, as it were, gaping upon him, as if ready to devour him; for it was the hour and power of darkness, dread and terror. Besides, there were cruel men, which he compares to "the bulls of Bashan," which rent him. This caused that terrible conflict. Thirdly. It was from the penal desertion of God. That he was under a penal desertion from God is plain: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And when I say so, I know little of what I say; I mean, what it is to be under such penal desertion. For the great punishment of hell, is an everlasting penal desertion from God. Fourthly. It was from the unspeakable extremity of the things that he suffered; not merely as to the things themselves which outwardly fell upon his body, but as unto that "sword of God which was awakened against him," and which had pierced him to the very soul. The advantage which he had in his sufferings by his divine union, was that which supported and bore him up under that weight, which would have sunk any mere creature to nothing. His heart was enlarged to receive in those pains, that dread and terror, that otherwise he could not have received. And notwithstanding all this, as I showed before, Christ kept up his faith in reference to his person, and kept up his faith in reference to his cause; and a great example he hath given unto us, that though the dog and the lion should encompass us, though we should have desertion from God and pressures more than nature is able to bear, yet there is a way of keeping up faith, trust, and confidence through all, and not to let go our hold of God. (Sacramental Discourses, Pages 31-33)
The principal object of meditation, in our preparation for this ordinance, is the horrible guilt and provocation that is in sin. There is a representation of the guilt of sin made in the cross of Christ. There was a great representation of it in the punishment of angels; a great representation of it is made in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and both these are proposed unto us in a special manner, 2 Pet. 2:4–6, to set forth the heinous nature of the guilt of sin: but they come very short,—nay, give me leave to say, that hell itself comes short,—of representing the guilt of sin, in comparison of the cross of Christ. And the Holy Ghost would have us mind it, where he saith, "He hath made him sin for us," 2 Cor. 5:21. "See what comes of sin," saith he, "what demerit, what provocation there is in it." To see the Son of God praying, crying, trembling, bleeding, dying; God hiding his face from him; the earth trembling under him; darkness round about him;—how can the soul but cry out, "O Lord, is this the effect of sin? is all this in sin?" Here, then, take a view of sin. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 76)
We know what is in the curse, even all the anger and wrath that a displeased holy God can and will inflict upon sinful creatures to all eternity . . . Why, saith the apostle, "He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. 3:13. By undergoing and suffering the curse of the law, he redeemed us from it . . . Pray remember that we are now representing this infinite effect of divine wisdom in substituting Jesus Christ in our room, to undergo the wrath and curse of God for us. (Sacramental Discourses, Pages 90, 92-94)
And you may observe, that the apostle uses the very same words in respect of Christ's sufferings that [Peter] uses in respect of the sufferings of the damned angels, Rom. 8:32, [2 Peter 2:4], "God spared him not." And when he would speak of the righteousness of God in inflicting punishment upon the sinning angels, he doth it by that very word, "God spared them not." So that whatever the righteousness of God did require against sinners, Christ therein was not spared at all. What God required against your sins and mine, and all his elect, God spared him nothing, but he paid the utmost farthing. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 92)
The head of Christ's sufferings was in the divine desertion, whence he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is certain Christ was forsaken of God; he had not else so complained,—forsaken of God in his soul. How? The divine nature in the second person did not forsake the human; nor did the divine nature in the third person forsake the human, as to the whole work of sanctification and holiness, but kept alive in Christ all grace whatsoever,—all grace in that fullness whereof he had ever been partaker: but the desertion was as to all influence of comfort and all evidence of love from God the Father (who is the fountain of love and comfort), administered by the Holy Ghost. Hence some of our divines have not spared to say, that Christ did despair in that great cry, "My God, my God," etc. Now, despair signifies two things: a total want of the evidence of faith as to acceptance with God; and a resolution in the soul to seek no farther after it, and not to wait for it from that fountain. In the first way Christ did despair,—that is penal only; in the latter he did not,—that is sinful also. There was a total interception of all evidence of love from God, but not a ceasing in him to wait upon God for the manifestation of that love in his appointed time. Remember, Christ was thus forsaken that his people might never be forsaken. (Sacramental Discourses, Pages 126-127)
There were sufferings positive in his soul, when he was made sin and a curse for us, and had a sense of the wrath and anger of God on his soul. This brought those expressions concerning him and from him: "He began to be sore amazed, and said. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He was "in an agony." I desire no more for my soul everlastingly to confute that blasphemy, that Christ died only as a martyr, to confirm the truth he had preached, but the consideration of this one thing: for courage, resolution, and cheerfulness, are the principal virtues and graces in him who dies only as a martyr; but for him who had the weight of the wrath of God and the curse of the law upon his soul, it became him to be in an agony, to sweat great drops of blood, to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" which, had he been called to for nothing else but barely to confirm the truth he had preached, he would have done without much trouble or shaking of mind. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 127)
Surely it was a close and strong trial, and that immediately from his Father, he now underwent; for how meekly and cheerfully doth he submit, without any regret or trouble of spirit, to all the cruelty of men and violence offered to his body, until this conflict being renewed again, he cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And this, by the way, will be worth our observation, that we may know with whom our Saviour chiefly had to do, and what was that which he underwent for sinners; which also will give some light to the grand query concerning the persons of them for whom he undertook all this. His sufferings were far from consisting in mere corporal perpessions and afflictions, with such impressions upon his soul and spirit as were the effects and issues only of them. It was no more nor less than the curse of the law of God which he underwent for us: for he freed us from the curse "by being made a curse," Gal. 3:13; which contained all the punishment that was due to sin, either in the severity of God's justice, or according to the exigence of that law which required obedience. That the execration of the law should be only temporal death, as the law was considered to be the instrument of the Jewish polity, and serving that economy or dispensation, is true; but that it should be no more, as it is the universal rule of obedience, and the bond of the covenant between God and man, is a foolish dream. Nay, but in dying for us Christ did not only aim at our good, but also directly died in our stead. The punishment due to our sin and the chastisement of our peace was upon him; which that it was the pains of hell, in their nature and being, in their weight and pressure, though not in tendence and continuance (it being impossible that he should be detained by death), who can deny and not be injurious to the justice of God, which will inevitably inflict those pains to eternity upon sinners? It is true, indeed, there is a relaxation of the law in respect of the persons suffering, God admitting of commutation; as in the old law, when in their sacrifices the life of the beast was accepted (in respect to the carnal part of the ordinances) for the life of the man. This is fully revealed, and we believe it; but for any change of the punishment, in respect of the nature of it, where is the least intimation of any alteration? We conclude, then, this second act of God, in laying the punishment on him for us, with that of the prophet, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," Isa. 53:6: and add thereunto this observation, that it seems strange to me that Christ should undergo the pains of hell in their stead who lay in the pains of hell before he underwent those pains, and shall continue in them to eternity; for "their worm dieth not, neither is their fire quenched." (The Death Of Death, Pages 64-65)
Getting The Cross Right
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