John Calvin On God's Anger Toward His Son On That Cross

I regard these first three sentences of John Calvin as the worst three sentences I've ever read in all of his writings. The last sentence he wrote here is excellent, and I argue it is inconstant with the first three. Calvin wrote:

Yet we do not suggest that God was ever inimical or angry toward him. How could he be angry toward his beloved Son, "in whom his heart reposed"? (cf. Matt. 3:17). How could Christ by his intercession appease the Father towards others, if he were himself hateful to God? This is what we are saying: he bore the weight of divine severity, since he was "stricken and afflicted" [cf. Isa. 53:5] by God's hand, and experienced all the signs of a wrathful and avenging God. (Institutes, II.xvi.11)

I agree with Calvin that Jesus was not hateful to God on the cross. I agree that God loved His Son on the cross. But I also agree that Jesus bore the weight of divine severity, was stricken and afflicted by God's hand, and experienced all the signs of wrathful and avenging God on the cross. Amen! So I disagree with Calvin saying that God was not angry toward His Son. That is a very inconsistent statement if you affirm that Jesus was stricken and afflicted by God's hand and experienced all the signs of a wrathful and avenging God. If you are struck by God's hand and experience all the signs of a wrathful and avenging God, that means God is angry with you in some sense, and we must affirm that to be faithful to the Biblical doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement.

Thomas Goodwin is much more consistent and helpful guide on this point. For more on God's anger toward His Son on the cross and getting the Cross and the Trinity right, please read here.

The point of this brief article is simply to show that Calvin's three little sentences here are inconsistent with his other writings and sermons on God's anger toward His Son on the cross. His sermons and commentaries tell another story about the anger of God toward His Son on the cross. And I am so thankful he was inconsistent because the anger of God toward His Son on the cross is the heart of penal substitution, which is the heart of the Gospel.

Calvin's Sermons And Commentaries

Calvin was unashamed to proclaim that on the cross, Jesus received the same horrors that unrepentant sinners should receive in hell. He taught that Jesus faced the frightful reality of having God stand against Him as Judge and that Jesus was even beaten by His own Father for our sakes and received the worst torments that could ever exist:

And how is it that we are raised through Him, unless in that He descended to the depths of hell, that is, that He sustained the horrors which were upon us, because of our sins, and by which we might have been crushed? For God always had to be our Judge; and there is nothing more frightful that that God should be against us! Jesus Christ had to go that far as our security, and as the One Who should pay instead of us, and to let Himself be beaten on account of our condemnation to absolve us from it. (The Gospel According To Isaiah: Seven Sermons on Isaiah 53 Concerning The Passion And Death Of Christ, Trans. Leroy Nixon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), 16)

. . . our Lord Jesus Christ was beaten and struck by the hand of God, in order that we might be acquitted. (Third Sermon on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ)

. . . He was struck and beaten by the hand of God, that He suffered the horrible anguishes of His judgment, that in His body He bore the most dreadful torments that could be; and beyond that, He was vilified by men, as if He had not been worthy to share even the rank of the worst scoundrels! This, this is how the Son of God was afflicted . . . Now, we are spared! Behold Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, Who is imprisoned, and we are delivered! He is condemned and we are absolved. He is exposed to all outrages, and we are established in honor! He has descended into the depths of hell, and the Kingdom of heaven is open to us! (The Gospel According To Isaiah: Seven Sermons on Isaiah 53 Concerning The Passion And Death Of Christ, Trans. Leroy Nixon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), 87)

God is angry toward those in the depths of hell. God is angry with those He is against. God is angry with the one He beats and strikes. God's anger must be part of the most dreadful torments that could be. Jesus bore all of that anger and judgment for sinners so that all who repent and believe in Christ will never face it! This is the Gospel! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Calvin used shocking language like Jesus being made “detestable” and even “hated” for the sake of sinners on that cross. This is a direct contradiction of what he wrote in the Institutes cited above:

He was willing to be as it were cursed and detestable for our sakes, in order that we might find favor before God and that we might be acceptable to Him. (Sixth Sermon on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ)

. . . the One who is the head of angels, to whom belongs all glory, majesty and authority, hung on a tree and was cursed and hated for our sakes? (On Glorying Only in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ)

When describing the cross, Calvin even plainly wrote that Jesus had to face God as an angry judge:

Thus, "he was wounded for our transgressions," (Isaiah 53:5,) and had to deal with God as an angry judge. This is the foolishness of the cross, (1 Corinthians 1:18,) and the admiration of angels, (1 Peter 1:12,) which not only exceeds, but swallows up, all the wisdom of the world. (Commentary On Galatians, Galatians 3:13)

Calvin clearly believed that Jesus received the exact same equivalent punishment that unrepentant sinners should receive in hell forever – which must include the severe vengeance and anger of His Father:

If Christ had died only a bodily death, it would have been ineffectual. No – it was expedient at the same time for him to undergo the severity of God’s vengeance, to appease his wrath and satisfy his just judgment. For this reason, he must also grapple hand to hand with the armies of hell and the dread of everlasting death. A little while ago we referred to the prophet’s statement that ‘the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him,’ ‘he was wounded for our transgressions’ by the Father, ‘he was bruised for our infirmities’ [Isaiah 53:5 p.]. By these words he means that Christ was put in place of evildoers as surety and pledge – submitting himself even as the accused – to bear and suffer all the punishments that they ought to have sustained. All – with this one exception: ‘He could not be held by the pangs of death’ [Acts 2:24 p.]. No wonder, then, if he is said to have descended into hell, for he suffered the death that, God in his wrath had inflicted upon the wicked! (Institutes, II.xvi.10)

He bore the punishment which we would have had to endure, if He had not offered this atonement. (Commentary On The Book Of Isaiah, Isaiah 53:8 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 121)

Calvin understood Jesus to be both cursed by God and made a curse by God on that cross. 

Answering Calvin's Question 

Calvin's question was:

How could He [God] be angry toward His beloved Son, "in whom His heart reposed"? (cf. Matt. 3:17) (Institutes, II.xvi.11)

I'll answer:

1) Because the Bible tells me so: "You have been very angry with Your Anointed One." Psalm 89:38

2) Because of the imputation of our sins to Christ: 2 Cor. 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

If you can't say God was angry with Christ on the cross because of our sins imputed to Him, then you should also stop saying that God is pleased with the saints because of Christ's righteousness imputed to them. 

3) Because the words of Scripture demand that God be angry with His Son on the cross: He did not spare Him; He crushed Him; He struck Him; He cursed Him; He forsook Him; He pierced Him with His sword; He gave Him the cup of wrath; He turned His face away (Ps. 88).

4) Because God being angry with His Son on the cross is the heart of the Gospel - it is the very essence of what propitiation and penal substitution mean.

5) Because God never stopped loving His Son on the cross, as Thomas Goodwin wrote: "That God should never be more angry with his Son than when he was most pleased with him, for so it was when Christ hung upon the cross, God did find a sweet-smelling savour of rest and satisfaction even when he cried out, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'" As the last Adam, the Son, according to His human nature, achieved perfect obedience to the Father's will. This was well pleasing to the Father. And so, the Father was well pleased with the Son, according to His human nature, because of His perfect obedience, but at the same time, He was also angry with the Son, according to His human nature, because of our sins imputed to Him.

6) Because God was not angry with His Son in the eternal, intratrinitarian relationship between the Persons. Yet, because of our sins imputed to Christ, God was angry with Christ according to His human nature with all His infinite anger. But it was not the human nature which suffered, but the Person according to this nature. "And since the Person is infinite, all that Christ suffered was of infinite efficacy and value." (Wilhelmus à Brakel)

Jesus endured all of this for us and for His Father's glory! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

More Resources On That Cross

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

3. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

4. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Stephen Charnock On God's Anger Toward His Son On That Cross

The Puritan, Stephen Charnock (1628-1680), got the cross right:

As the Father did not in the time of his humiliation treat him as a son, but as a servant, as a sinner, as one he was angry with, he was exposed to the violences of men, as if he had been utterly neglected and abandoned by his Father . . . ." (The Necessity Of Christ's Death, Exaltation, And Intercession, Page 116)

To demonstrate His goodness to man, in preventing his eternal ruin, He would for a while withhold His goodness from His Son, by exposing His life as the price of our ransom; not only subjecting Him to the derisions of enemies, desertions of friends, and malice of devils, but to the inexpressible bitterness of His own wrath in His soul, as made an offering for sin. The particle so (John 3:16), seems to intimate this supremacy of goodness; He 'so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.' He so loved the world, that He seemed for a time not to love his Son in comparison of it, or equal with it. The person to whom a gift is given is, in that regard, accounted more valuable than the gift or present made to him: thus God valued our redemption above the worldly happiness of the Redeemer, and sentenceth Him to an humiliation on earth, in order to our exaltation in heaven; He was desirous to hear Him groaning, and see Him bleeding, that we might not groan under His frowns, and bleed under His wrath; He spared not Him, that He might spare us; refused not to strike Him, that He might be well pleased with us; drenched His sword in the blood of His Son, that it might not forever be wet with ours, but that His goodness might forever triumph in our salvation; He was willing to have His Son made man, and die, rather than man should perish, who had delighted to ruin himself; He seemed to degrade Him for a time from what He was. (The Complete Works Of Stephen Charnock Vol. 2, Pages 322-323)

More Resources On That Cross

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

3. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

4. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne On God's Anger Toward His Son On That Cross

 

Robert Murray M'Cheyne was a pastor in Dundee, Scotland, who died in 1843 at the age of 29. I've been using his yearly Bible reading plan for years. All these quotations are from The Works of The Late Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Vol. 2. He got the cross right:

But now the wrath of God has all fallen upon Him. The thunder-clouds of God’s anger have spent all their lightnings on his head. The vials of God’s wrath have poured out their last drops upon Him. He is now justified from all the sins that were laid upon Him. He has left them with the grave-clothes. (Page 52)

Oh! how dreadful his Father's anger was in his eyes; for he had known nothing but his infinite love from all eternity. Oh! how could he bear to lie down under that wrath? How could he bear to exchange the smile of his Father's love for the dark power of his Father's anger? How could he bear, for the sake of vile sinners, to exchange the caresses of that God who is love, for the piercings and bruisings of his almighty hand? (Page 257)

"Thine anger is turned away." . . . There is abundant provision for the pardon and peace of the sinner; for God's anger is turned away on the head of Christ. The thing which troubles the conscience of awakened souls is the anger of God. It is this which makes them tremble, by night and by day, in public and in secret. An awakened soul feels that he has broken God's law, and is exposed every moment to his wrath. He can find no rest in his bed, no peace at his meals, no joy in his friends; the heavens are black above his head, the earth is ready to open and devour him. If God be a just and holy God, he will pour out his anger. If he be a true God, he will fulfill all his threatenings. If such a soul would take Christ as his surety, he would find abundant peace. The anger of God has already been turned away on the head of Christ. All the clouds of wrath have been directed, like a water-spout, upon that one head. If you are willing that Christ be your surety, you do not need to fear. (Page 414)

For this end he took on him our nature—became a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. From his cradle in the manger to the cross, the dark cloud of God's anger was over him; and especially toward the close of his life, the cloud came to be at the darkest —yet he cheerfully suffered all. "How am I straitened till it be accomplished!" The cup of God's anger was given him without mixture; yet he said: "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" Now, we may be quite sure, that since he was the Son of God, he hath suffered all that sinners should have suffered. (Page 457)

If you believe on Christ, you are one with him-a member of his body; and as sure as Christ your Head is now passed from the darkness of God's anger into the light of his countenance, so surely are you, O believer, passed from darkness into God's marvelous light. (Page 520)

What this love cost him. When Jacob loved Rachel, he served seven years for her; he bore the summer's heat and winter's cold. But Jesus bore the hot wrath of God, and the winter blast of his Father's anger, for those he loved. Jonathan loved David with more than the love of women, and for his sake he bore the cruel anger of his father, Saul. But Jesus, out of love to us, bore the wrath of his Father poured out without mixture . . . it was love that made him not despise the Virgin's womb; it was love that brought him to the manger at Bethlehem; it was love that drove him into the wilderness; love made him a man of sorrows; love made him hungry, and thirsty, and weary; love made him hasten to Jerusalem; love led him to gloomy, dark Gethsemane; love bound and dragged him to the judgment hall; love nailed him to the cross; love bowed his head beneath the amazing load of his Father's anger. "Greater love hath no man than this." "I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." Sinners were sinking beneath the red-hot flames of hell; he plunged in and swam through the awful surge, and gathered his own into his bosom. The sword of justice was bare and glittering, ready to destroy us; He, the man that was God's fellow, opened his bosom and let the stroke fall on him. We were set up as a mark for God's arrows of vengeance; Jesus came between, and they pierced him through and through; every arrow that should have pierced our souls, stuck fast in him. He, his own self, bare our sins in his own body on the tree. As far as east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. This is the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. This is what is set before you today in the broken bread and poured-out wine. This is what we shall see on the throne - a Lamb as it had been slain. This will be the matter of our song through eternity: "Worthy is the Lamb!" (Page 544)

He was "a man of sorrows" from his youth. Often, often, he sank under the dark cloud of his Father's anger, till he groaned his last on Calvary. (Page 564)

More Resources On That Cross

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

3. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

4. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Christ Jesus Is God’s Son Who Died!

Christ Jesus Is God’s Son Who Died

An Earthquake Shook The Land He Eyed

The Gentile Soldiers Testified

Truly This Was God’s Son He Cried

Forever By His Father’s Side

Well Pleasing, Loved By God, His Pride

Came Down To Save His Sinful Bride

He Bore God’s Wrath And Bled And Died

Then Rose Alive To Life Provide

Saves From All Nations, Saves Worldwide

Saves Men And Women All Abide

In Him By Faith We Come Inside

By Faith Alone We’re Justified

For Christ Is All Because He Died

All Joys In Him Are Now Supplied!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Richard Sibbes On God's Anger Toward His Son On That Cross

Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) was a puritan pastor and theologian who got the cross right:

That is not all, beloved, but there were immediate sufferings, even of his soul also, which he groaned under. God the Father laid a heavy stroke upon that. He was smitten of the Lord, Isa. 53:4; and when God deals immediately with the soul himself, and fills it with his wrath, no creature in the world is able to undergo the same. None can inflict punishment upon the soul but God only. Satan may urge and press arguments of discouragement, and affright us with God's displeasure; but the inflicting of anger upon the soul issues immediately from the hand of the Almighty. We must here, therefore, consider God as a righteous Judge, sitting in heaven in his judgment-seat, taking the punishment of the sins of all his people upon Christ. There was a meeting together of all the sins of the faithful, from Adam to the last man that shall be in the world, as it were, in one point upon him, and the punishment of all these was laid on his blessed shoulders, who suffered for them in both body and soul. (Christ's Sufferings For Man's Sins, Page 7)

3. Conclusion. But how could Christ be forsaken of God, especially so forsaken as to suffer the anger of his father, being an innocent person? Ans. 1. I answer, first, the Paschal lamb was an innocent creature, yet if the Paschal lamb be once made a sacrifice, it must be killed. Though Christ were never so unblameable, yet, if he will stoop to the office of a surety, he must pay our debt, and do that which we should have done. If a prince's son become a surety, though his father love him and pity him never so much, yet he will say, Now you have taken this upon you, you must discharge it. 2. Secondly, as in natural things the head is punished for the fault of the body, so Christ, by communicating his blessed nature with ours, made up one mystical body, and suffered for us. (Christ's Sufferings For Man's Sins, Pages 7-8)

Oh marvel not at it, but have such conceits of sin as God had when he gave his Son to die for it, and such as Christ had, when in the sense of his Father's anger he cried thus, "My God, my God," (Christ's Sufferings For Man's Sins, Page 12)

Sin also thrust Adam out of paradise, Gen. iii. 23, and made God angry with him and the whole world, so as to destroy it with a flood of water, Gen. vi.13, and will at last make him burn and consume all "with a deluge of fire", 2 Pet. iii.12. Yea, it made him in a sort angry with his own dear Son, when he underwent the punishment of sin as our surety, so that he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mat. xxvii. 46. If God thus shewed his anger against sin, in punishing it in Christ our surety, who was made sin for us, and yet had no sin in himself, how will he punish it much more in those who are not in Christ? (The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 2, Page 336)

More Resources On That Cross

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

3. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

4. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Hugh Martin On God's Anger Toward His Son On That Cross

Hugh Martin (1822–1885) was a Free Church of Scotland Presbyterian minister of the Gospel. He got the cross right:

And what, it must be asked, was the cause of the tormenting sorrow and amazement which now so greatly weakened and agitated the Son of God? It is a solemn question, worthy of long and reverent consideration. But doubtless His sorrow arose from the source that His prayer was concerned with—the vivid view and near approach of that cup which the Father was just giving Him to drink. That curse of God, from which He came to redeem His elect people—that sword of the Lord's wrath and vengeance which He had just predicted—the penal desertion on the cross—the withdrawal of all comfortable views and influences—and the present consciousness of the anger of God against Him as the surety-substitute, a person laden with iniquity— these were the elements mingled in the cup of trembling which was now to be put into His hands: and the prospect caused Him deadly sorrow! (The Shadow Of The Calvary, Page 9)

The anger of the invisible God against the invisible soul of the man Christ Jesus could not be beheld by mortal eye. But the world might be constrained to behold it as in a glass. (The Shadow Of The Calvary, Page 99)

More Resources On That Cross

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

3. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

4. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Christ Jesus Died, The Earth Did Quake!

Christ Jesus Died, The Earth Did Quake

The Temple's Curtain Opened Break

And People From The Dead Awake

For God, His Son, He Did Forsake

Christ Bore God’s Wrath, The Fiery Lake

And All Our Sins To Hell He’d Take

He Crushed That Head, The Evil Snake

Christ Died And Rose For Us To Make

A Way To God For His Name’s Sake

Into God’s Presence We Partake

Of Joys That Make Us Shout And Shake

And One Day Too We’ll Rise Awake

For Death And Sin We’ll All Forsake

To Be With God Our Holy Ache

For Christ Is All, Make No Mistake

That’s Why The Earth Did Move And Quake!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Forsakenness, Anger, Damnation, And The Death Of Christ On That Cross According To Petrus Van Mastricht

After reading the chapter in this book, "The Death Of The Mediator", Petrus Van Mastricht has become one of my favorite writers on the cross! He gets the cross right and clear! See more from Joel Beeke on why you should read Van Mastricht here: 3 Reasons Pastors Need to Read Petrus van Mastricht

Jesus Was Truly And Objectively Forsaken By God On That Cross

Don't ever let anyone tell you not to sing: "How deep the Father's love for us . . . how great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away"

Sing it with Petrus Van Mastricht, who described the sufferings of Jesus on that cross as: 

Christ deserted and denied by the whole world, by friends as well as enemies, even by God . . . God stopping his ears to all his [Christ's] supplications, turning his face away from him (Pages 435-436)

Also:

(2) What did he suffer?
What he suffered; not some light affliction, but the greatest of all evils, the highest affliction of all, death, and not only one kind of death, not only natural death, which we sometimes read is sought and desired by men, because it brings them deliverance from pressing evils, and an entrance into a better life (2 Cor. 5:1-2; Phil. 1:23); but in addition spiritual death, wherein deserted by God, exceeding sorrowful, even to death, he walked in darkness and saw no light (Isa. 50:10) (Page 430)

(5) with respect to his soul, into the infernal state and condition (Ps. 88:4-6), wherein he was deserted by God his Father (Matt. 27:46), and tortured with the pains of death, that is, of infernal death (Matt. 26:37-38; Acts 2:24), and he was made the curse itself (Gal. 3:13) (Page 468) 

If (8) anguish of soul and spiritual desertions, his soul was exceeding sorrowful for his own, even to death (Matt. 26:37-38); abandoned by his Father for his own, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Ps. 22:1; Matt. 27:46). And all these things the Redeemer accepted for this purpose, that he might deliver his own from them all (Isa. 53:5). (Page 643)

God Was Angry With Jesus On That Cross

He sensed that God was in some way alienated from him, & like a judge who was angry with him, & inflicting upon him the truly hellish pains due for our sins. (Page 406)

And what was for God himself the cause of his raging as it were with just cruelty against the inmost parts of his only begotten Son, except human sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53:6)? . . . If he burned with such rage against his own Son, who was so beloved by him, for our sins while they still lived, how would he not burn with rage against us, if we spare our sins? (Pages 450-451)

Jesus Was Damned By God On That Cross

(2) What did he suffer?
What he suffered . . . moreover, even eternal or infernal death, which the damned experience in hell, through which he was a curse (Gal. 3:13) (Page 430)

How Jesus Suffered As God And Man On That Cross

He suffered not only as man, nor only as God, but simultaneously as God and man.
XI. All these things the Mediator endured, whether in body or in soul, neither only as man, nor only as God, but as the God-man, simultaneously as God and man, just as, according to the nature of the theandric effects, each nature bestowed its own part to Christ's sufferings: while the human nature alone sustained and suffered them (since passive potency does not occur in the divine nature, Mal. 3:6; James 1:17; and much less death, because the divine nature is incorruptible, Rom. 1:23; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16), the divine nature furnished to his sufferings an infinite weight, value, and price, so that they were God's sufferings (Acts 20:28), and the blood of the Son of God (1 John 1:7), suited to cleanse us from all sin. (Page 415)

Who Ultimately Killed Jesus On That Cross? God Did 

I wrote an article defending the "American Gospel: Christ Crucified" documentary on this point: "American Gospel" Gets It Right. Petrus Van Mastricht said it well:

The supreme cause of Christ's death was God.
XII. Christ had, as the first and chief cause of his entire death, God his own Father, the supreme Judge (Isa. 53:6, 10; Zech. 13:7; 2 Cor. 5:21; Acts 2:23; 4:28), for which reason he laments, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Ps. 22:1). Moreover, God was involved in the sufferings and death of his Son in more than one way, namely: (1) by predetermining them (Acts 2:23; 4:28; Rom. 8:29; Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 17:3); (2) by foretelling them (Ps. 22; Isa. 53; Zech. 13:7; Dan. 9:26); (3) by sustaining him while he suffered them (Ps. 22:11, 24); (4) by permitting his enemies to do them (Acts 4:28); and (5) by limiting them (Acts 4:28; John 19:31-33); (6) by directing them to their predetermined end (2 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53:5). God had as a moving cause, as it were: (1) his grace and mercy toward the sinner (Rom. 9:23 with 2 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53:6; Rom. 8:32); (2) avenging justice toward the expromissor, his Son (Rom. 3:22; 8:3); and (3) the glory of both, of grace as well as justice (Rom. 3:25). (Page 415)

More Resources On That Cross

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

3. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

4. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Christ Was Forsaken Then He Died!

Christ Was Forsaken Then He Died

Gave Up His Spirit As He Cried

He’s Truly Man The Crucified

He Paid For Each Sin Of His Bride

The Wages Of Our Sin Applied

All Sin Is Dealt With Death Defied

No Charges Stick! We’re Justified!

Christ Rose – He’s LORD Of All Worldwide

We’re Changed For Now Christ Lives Inside

We Live For Him, In Him Abide

With Him Forever By His Side

With Him The Keys Of Death Reside

The Devil’s Crushed And Death It Died

For Christ Fulfilled God’s Word Our Guide

In Paradise He’s Glorified

For Christ Is All And He’ll Provide

All We Need Because He Died!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Jesus Was So Disfigured That He Did Not Even Look Like A Man

Just as many were appalled at You - His appearance was so disfigured that He did not look like a man, and His form did not resemble a human being . . . . Isaiah 52:14

Petrus Van Mastricht on the horrific physical sufferings of Jesus on His way to and on the cross:

Christ's natural death has, first, its beginning, and in this beginning, besides the mortality inborn in him:

1) Weakening, brought upon him externally by various distresses, being led from place to place, the imposition of the cross, and other things

2) That among the disciples, he was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, deserted by all

3) He was declared by every kind of person, and especially by the leaders, to be a madman, demoniac, Samaritan, reveler, profane man, impostor, blasphemer, seducer, magician, rebel, and invader from another kingdom; he was rejected by the people, valued less than the worst sort of murderer, and crucified in the middle of two thieves

4) He was stripped of his clothing

5) Furthermore, when he was arrested, he was shamefully dragged from court to court, as if he were a thief

6) He suffered the most unjust judgments, as much ecclesiastical, under the priests Ananias and Caiaphas, as political, under Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch

7) He was mocked, spat upon, beaten, mangled with a thorny crown, first before Caiaphas, then before Herod, and finally before Pilate and his officials and soldiers

8) Furthermore, like a villain, with his body stripped naked, in a place of infamy between two thieves, he endured a savage, shameful, and cursed kind of punishment, preceded also by a thousand insults, by a drink steeped with gall and myrrh, and by a sarcastic inscription on the placard

9) Finally, he suffered in all the parts and members of his body: his ears were filled with mockeries, his head battered with a reed, and lacerated with thorns, his body scourged, his mouth given vinegar and gall to drink, his face disgraced with spit, his shoulders burdened with the wood of the cross, his side pierced, his arms extended over the cross, his hands and feet affixed to the cross with nails, his blood from all his veins poured out, his heart melted with anguish, and so forth (Theoretical-Practical Theology, Redemption in Christ, Vol. 4, 2023, page 411).

Jesus endured all of this AND the forsakenness of God, AND the anger of God, AND the damnation of God because of His great love with which He loved sinners so that we might NEVER be forsaken by God, AND NEVER bear God's anger, AND NEVER endure God's damnation, but enjoy God's smile and love for all eternity where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Helen Roseveare And The Worthiness Of Christ

A powerful story told about missionary Helen Roseveare:

Helen Roseveare grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Helen Roseveare became a skilled surgeon. All her life, both before and after she came to Christ, and she came to Christ during her university days, Helen Roseveare had a motto. And her motto was in the form of a question, and the question was this: “Is it worth it?” Is it worth it? And she would ask and honestly answer that question before she did anything. Before she went out on a day with a guy, she would say, “Is it worth it?” Before she would buy a book at Barnes and Noble and read it, she’d say, “Is it worth it?” Before she took a course in college, she’d say, “Is it worth it?”

And by asking and answering that question honestly, she became a very well-educated, disciplined, young woman physician. And after she graduated from Cambridge and got her hospital training, she gave her life to the Lord for missionary service in the northeast corner of the Belgian Congo in the community of Nobobongo. And she served their in the fifties and sixties eleven solid years of sacrificial, loving service to the African people. She did leprosy work, children’s work, built a hospital, built a Bible school. And then, in 1964 the Simba Uprising took place in the Congo, what we here in distant America called the Congo Rebellion. And the tribal people rose up, and the foreigners were ruthlessly treated.

Helen Roseveare went through that. Now I didn’t know anything about that, I did’t know anything about her, and I’ll never forget the first time I met her. I was a guest teacher for ten weeks at Columbia Bible College in South Carolina. My wife and I and our four kids were living in the men’s dorm in two dorm rooms that they put together in a makeshift little apartment for us. We were living there for ten weeks while I taught several courses in the school. And one night at nine o’clock at night, word came through the men’s dormitory that all the men were to leave their studies, and to go to the central lobby, because a woman missionary was passing through campus that evening, she couldn’t stay for the next day, and so they wanted the men to hear her give a brief word of testimony about her missionary work in Africa. Well, to be real honest with you, none of the boys were very excited, you know. But the school said they had to do it, so we all went to the main lobby of the men’s dorm, and when we got there, the guys were in there, they were draped over the couches, sitting on the floor, and kind of looking like they didn’t want to be there. And, then two of the school administrators walked in with Dr. Roseveare standing between the them, and when we saw her, everybody’s worst fears were well-founded, because she looked like a missionary. Whatever that means.

Simple cotton dress. Gray hair pulled back in a bit of a bun. Very thick, coke-bottle glasses, because her eyesight was not good. & she was tired. So somebody grabbed a gray, folding, metal Samsonite chair & put it in the middle of the floor, & she sat on it, & they said, ah, “Gentlemen, this woman, Dr. Roseveare, has just come through our campus, we just want her to share a little bit of her experience with you tonight.” And so she started to give her testimony. And being the astute woman that she is, about two minutes into her testimony, she knew that most of those guys were not interested at all, and so she stopped. And she said, “You know what, boys, I don’t want to bore you with the details of my life. You’ve probably heard different stories and so forth. So, it’s late, why don’t we just take another five, ten minutes or so and, and I’ll just answer questions. Maybe, you know, you have a question. I’d rather talk about the things you’re interested in.” And this kid immediately stuck his hand up, I feel sorry for him to this day, he stuck his hand up, and he said, “Yeah I’ve got a question,” “You know, we’ve got missionaries coming through here all the time, and they’re always talking about, you know, paying the price and suffering for Jesus – what did you ever suffer for Jesus?” She sat there and looked at him and, without any bitterness or any anger, she said, “Well, during the Simba Uprising, I was raped twice.” Everything got real quiet.

And then she told us about the rape. She told us how the government soldiers came to her bungalow that night, came inside, ransacked it, grabbed her, beat her, threw her to the floor, kicked in all of her teeth. And then two army officers, one at a time, took her to her own bedroom and violated her body by raping her. And then, after the second incident, she was dragged from that bungalow out into a clearing and tied to a tree. And standing around the tree were all the laughing government soldiers. And then, while she was standing there, beaten and humiliated and violated and ridiculed, someone discovered in the bungalow the only existing hand-written manuscript of a book that she had been writing about the Lord’s work in the Congo over an eleven year period. They brought it out, put it on the ground in front of her, and burned it. And as she saw that book go up in smoke, through clenched teeth, she said to herself: “Is it worth it? Is it really worth it? Eleven years of my life poured out in selfless service for the African people and now this.” And then she told those boys in that dormitory room that night as we all sat there spellbound, she said, “And boys, the minute I said that, God’s Holy Spirit settled over that terrible scene, and He began to speak to me, and this is what He said. He said to me: “Helen, my daughter Helen, you’ve been asking the wrong question all your life. Helen, the question is not, ‘Is it worth it?’ The question is: ‘Am I worthy? Am I, the Lord Jesus who gave His life for you, worthy for you to make this kind of sacrifice for me?’”And by her own tearful testimony she told us how God broke her heart, she looked up into the face of Jesus and said, “Oh Lord Jesus, yes, it is worth it, for thou art worthy.”

Hallelujah! What a Savior! Yes, Jesus is worthy: 

Revelation 5:1-10: Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals." And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." 

More On Helen Roseveare

1. A Woman of Whom the World Was Not Worthy: Helen Roseveare (1925-2016) by Justin Taylor

2. A Call for the Perseverance of the Saints by Helen Roseveare at the 2007 Desiring God National Conference

3. Speaker Panel Q and A at the 2007 Desiring God National Conference

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Christ Jesus’ Cross On Full Display!

Christ Jesus’ Cross On Full Display

Shows God’s Righteous, Holy Way

And Sin’s Great Evil, Death, Decay

But God Is Sovereign, Holds All Sway

And Gave An Actual Atonement Day

God Crushed His Son, His Loved One Slay

The Triune God Would Win And Say

“I Love Lost Sinners Gone Astray!”

Christ Died And Rose For All He’d Pay

His Death Takes All Our Sins Away

And Shows Us How To Live Today

We Die And Sacrifice His Way

The Power Of The Cross Survey

Will Strengthen Us To Love Display

We Serve And Sacrifice And Pray

For Christ Is All Our Hope And Stay!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

The Mothers Of The Kings Of Judah And The Serpent Crushing King Of Kings!

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8

Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered . . . . Revelation 5:5

I was reading the book of Kings with a friend, and she keenly noticed in the section we were reading, often the mothers' names of the righteous kings are mentioned, but the mothers' names of the wicked kings are not. After further research (spurred on by Sister Becky Osborne - thank you Sister Becky!), I found this:

1. Of all the 20 kings of Judah, every time the Bible speaks of them becoming king, with only 2 exceptions, every other time their mothers' names are explicitly mentioned. 18 mothers! 7 of these kings were righteous, while 13 were wicked (Amaziah is sort of on the borderline).

2. Of all the 19 kings of Israel (all of which are evil), with 1 exception (Jeroboam I - a transition period), their mothers' names are never explicitly mentioned at all when they became king.

So generally, the mothers' names of the kings of Judah are recorded. But the mothers' names of the kings of Israel are not recorded.

Guess what kings' names are recorded in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1? The line of Judah whose mothers' names are mentioned! 

I'm not sure about the significance of this, but I wonder if the mothers' names being mentioned serves to highlight and emphasize the fact that the Seed of the WOMAN, the righteous King of all kings, would eventually come to crush the head of the serpent on that cross?!

Then, I asked Dr. Iain Duguid about this (he's my favorite O.T. scholar in the whole world! And he answered my email at 2:19am! - what a blessing!), and he directed me to this excellent article in the Tyndale Bulletin: "MOTHERS OF OFFSPRING IN 1–2 KINGS A MESSIANIC HOPE IN DAVID’S LINE?" by Jesse R. Scheumann

Scheumann comes to my same conclusion! Here are some highlights from Scheumann's article:

Summary

In the books of 1 and 2 Kings, the mothers of Judaean kings are given a unique focus in being mentioned. Historically-minded scholars, neglecting a more message-minded approach, have not sufficiently explored why this is the case. However, when viewed as an allusion to Genesis 3:15, the focus on mothers reveals a literary marking of each Judaean king as an offspring of the woman, maintaining messianic hope within a dark period of Judah’s history.

Genesis 3:15 Sightings In Kings (these are AMAZING!)

It is likely that the editor of Kings has the Genesis 3 account in mind, because there are three probable allusions to this passage in the narrative. Before David publically announces his successor, Adonijah exalts himself as king (1 Kgs 1:5). Adonijah, however, is an imposter, since David has promised that Solomon would reign next (1 Kgs 1:13, 17, 24, 30), and the reader is told that Adonijah is sacrificing ‘by the Serpent’s Stone’ (1:9). Adonijah is, at least literarily, allied with the serpent. Solomon describes David’s military victories in the language of Genesis 3:15, declaring that ‘God put them [his enemies] under the soles of his feet’ (1 Kgs 5:3; cf. Gen. 22:17b; 24:60; 49:8; Num. 24:7, 17–19). Hezekiah’s actions are compared to David’s (2 Kgs 18:3), and the editor relates next that ‘he beat into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made’ (2 Kgs 18:4), because it was used as a place of sacrifice. Again, at least literarily, Hezekiah defeats the serpent to secure sole devotion to God.

Conclusion

Attention given to mothers in Kings contributes to the book’s message in a twofold way. First, only mentioning the Judaean mothers strengthens a dichotomy between Israel and Judah as distinct, rival lines. Even the Judaean kings J(eh)oram and Ahaz, whose mother’s names are omitted, are evaluated as walking like Israelite kings. The evil of Israel is spread to Judah through Jezebel and her daughter Athaliah, who attempted to exterminate David’s offspring. Second, frequently mentioning the Judaean mothers animates the hope that one of David’s offspring would be the serpent-crushing offspring of the woman. The true Judaean line is marked by kings whose mothers’ names are given, literarily marking them as offspring of the woman. This line of promise is preserved in times of peril by Bathsheba and Jehosheba. Even in exile, hope remains kindled in the continuation of David’s line through Jehoiachin. Although many scholars have made a strong case for a messianic reading of Genesis 3:15, they have done so almost exclusively from the angle of ‘offspring of the woman’. In doing so, they have produced a truncated Messianism, because Scripture also develops Genesis 3:15 from the complementary angle of ‘mother of the offspring’. This study suggests that the editor of Kings focuses on motherhood, a theme throughout Scripture, to highlight how the line of promise is preserved and to heighten hope that the Messiah will yet come.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

I've been reading the Bible in a year for almost 30 years, and I've never seen this before! There is always more to see in God's Word! Keep reading! Keep meditating! And keep praying!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Jesus Was Treated Like A Disowned Son

Why did Jesus cry out, "My God! My God!" on that cross and not, "My Father! My Father!"?

Because the Truine God loved sinners so much that Jesus was treated like a disowned son on that cross, so that all who repent and believe in Him might be adopted as God’s sons & daughters forever!

Joel Beeke: The consciousness of His son-ship seems to recede. I don't say He loses it altogether, but the sense of sinner-ship - the sense of 2 Cor. 5:21: "He Who knew no sin became sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him" - overwhelms Him! Engulfs Him! Submerges Him! & He cries out of the depths of it: "My God! My God!" . . . He began by crying out on the cross: "Father". He ended in the seventh cross word by crying out: "Father". But in this middle cross word, the sense of son-ship has receded. The sense of sinner-ship has come to the foreground . . . In this moment when He became the anathema of God and bore the curse of God, He does not cry out, “My Father!”. When He enters His suffering on the cross, He cries out, “Father! Forgive them, for they know not what they do!”. When He leaves His suffering and dies, He says, “Father! Into Thy hands I commit My spirit!”. But in this three hour period, in His own self image, He's not the beloved son, with Whom the Father is well pleased. He sees, He feels not His son-ship, but only sinner-hood. He becomes sin, not son. He becomes the cursed one, the vile one, the repulsive one, the foul one. (Also see here.)

Ian Hamilton: He cannot say Abba. All He can say is "My God!" Abba is out of reach. The Father & the Son had gone together up to Calvary . . .  but now there is no sense of His divine son-ship. There is no sense of the Father's love . . . fellowship with His Father was lost . . . He endured hell for you that you might never endure hell!

William Shishko: It's the word "Eloi" - God, powerful God, a God known . . . in His raw, almighty actions . . . in His terrors. Jesus here utters words in which He is exposed to the terrors and the power of God - to Whom He has no liberty to call "Father" at this time . . . [Jesus is asking] "Why am I now in the place of those who will one day be told: 'Depart from Me! I never knew you!'" . . . that One of Whom the Father had said, "I am well pleased!" is the One of Whom the Father would now say, "He is vile. He is repulsive. He must be cast out of My sight."

Stephen Charnock: As the Father did not in the time of his humiliation treat him as a son, but as a servant, as a sinner, as one he was angry with, he was exposed to the violences of men, as if he had been utterly neglected and abandoned by his Father

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Christ Jesus Endured Our Hellish Damnation!

Christ Jesus Endured Our Hellish Damnation

For That Is The Heart Of Propitiation

The Curse Of The LORD Was His Condemnation

The Opposite Of God's Blessed Proclamation

And Even Worse Did Christ Pay For Our Salvation

For He's The Innocent Son Incarnation

Who's Made To Be Sin By God's Imputation

And Finished God's Wrath Forever Cessation

He Died And Then Rose For Our Justification

By Faith Alone He Saves From Every Nation

By His Spirit He Works For Our Sanctification

And He'll Hold Us Fast Until Glorification

Where We'll Praise His Name In Glad Celebration

For He Is Our All And Preoccupation!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.

Christ Jesus Is God's Anger Propitiation!

Christ Jesus Is God's Anger Propitiation

They'll Say Christ Bore God's Wrath For Every Nation

But Deny God Was Angry With Him Our Salvation

Of The Heart Of The Gospel That's A Castration

Not Precise Theological Thought Interpretation

Since Christ Was Made Sin On The Cross By Imputation

God's Word Says He Was Angry With The Beloved Incarnation

Psalm 89:38, Crushed, Struck, Cursed, Full Damnation

Drank God's Cup Of Anger: Hell's Fury Summation

Pierced With God's Sword Of Anger Retaliation

God Did Not Spare Any Anger Conflagration 

Toward Christ According To His Human Nature Mediation

He Died And Then Rose For Our Justification

So Please Don't Propitiate God's Propitiation

For This Is Our Only Hope Of Salvation

Through Him Who's Our All And Praise Adoration!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.