Jonathan Edwards once wrote that Peter van Mastricht’s systematic theology was the best thing ever written in the history of the world, except, of course, for the Bible. --- Joel Beeke
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)
It was extremely bitter for the Mediator, if you would devoutly think of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, his bloody sweat, his head lacerated with thorns, his beatings, his pierced hands and feet, his wounded heart, his desertion by God, his supplications as if in vain, without access to the Father. (Page 81)
Thus by his own spiritual death, Christ: (1) was deprived of the joy and delight which his soul had been able otherwise to draw from the enjoyment of God and the fullness of grace, because having become sin for us, at the same time he had to become an object of divine wrath (2 Cor. 5:21 with Ps. 22:1-2; Isa. 53:10). (Page 413)
Therefore, he undertook eternal death, from which it is said that he was made a curse (Gal. 3:13), and as a sign of this, he willed to be hung upon a cross. But he accepted this eternal death only with respect to its essentials, and by no means with respect to those circumstantials which accompany it in the damned. And what then are the essentials of eternal death? I respond, As regards the poena damni, the pain of loss, it is the separation from the gracious presence, sight, and enjoyment of God as the highest good; as regards the poena sensus, the pain of sense, it is the intolerable torture of soul and body (Matt. 25:41; 2 Thess. 1:9). Therefore if the Savior sustained both of these, he certainly sustained the essentials of eternal death. But he did sustain them: first with respect to the pain of loss, when he was forsaken by the Father, stripped for a time of all sense of spiritual consolation and joy, and compelled to lament, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!" (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34 from Ps. 22:1) . . . . (Page 414)
(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)
. . . it must altogether be remembered that all those things which he endured externally in his reputation, in his goods, in his body, also by analogy, he endured internally and spiritually: for example, when he was deserted externally by all his disciples, we should consider also that he was deserted by God, by his own heavenly Father; when he was delivered up bodily into the hands of the Gentiles, at the same time he was delivered up spiritually by God into the power of the hellish torturers; when he was condemned to death, first by the ecclesiastical court, then by the civil court, bodily, at the same time he was condemned spiritually, before the divine tribunal; when his head was crowned with thorns, his face defiled with spit, his body torn apart by whips, and that by men most vile, he suffered by analogy the same things in his soul spiritually; when his body was crucified naturally, his soul was also crucified spiritually. And in this way we should proceed through each and every part of his suffering, so that we may perceive and represent the weight and gravity of his suffering more distinctly . . . By whose initiative he endured all those things both inwardly and outwardly . . . he endured the same things from God , from his God, from his very own Father, from his own heavenly Father, inasmuch as he is the one who not only permitted all those things to be inflicted (Acts 4:28), but he himself inflicted them (Isa. 53:6, 10; Zech. 13:7), from which the gravity of each suffering increased immensely. (Pages 430-431)
(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)
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)
The second descent of Christ's soul shall be, not into a place, but into the infernal state, wherein he experienced infernal things, or infernal punishments, in his soul . . . that infernal state is plainly attributed to Christ's soul, when it is said both that he was forsaken by God (Matt. 27:46), and that he labored under the sense of divine wrath and anger (Rev. 19:15 with Matt. 26:39, 42), and that by these things his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even to death, that is, eternal or infernal death (Matt. 26:38). (Page 462)
Jesus Was Damned By God On That Cross
. . . then with respect to the pain of sense, when, under a curse (Gal. 3:13), he took upon himself the utmost limits of God's wrath and judgments (Rev. 19:15), experienced the sorrows of death (Acts 2:24), indeed was encompassed by the sorrows of death, and overtaken by the sorrows of hell (Ps. 18:4-6), and for all these things he laments that his soul is exceeding sorrowful, even to death (Matt. 26:38), and that his heart has become like wax that is melted in the midst of his bowels (Ps. 22:14), and he acknowledges that his soul is cast down to hell, where eternal death was usually endured (Ps. 16:10; cf. 30:3; 86:13) . . . . (Page 414)
(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)
. . . because we cast down the Son of God into hell by our sins (Isa. 43:24). On the contrary, (2) him whom we have sunk down all the way into hell by our sins, let us extol all the way to heaven, indeed above the heavens, with our gratitude and praises . . . . (Pages 468-469)
Secondly, the descent of the Mediator supplies a foundation for Christian confidence, comfort, and joy, so that with the Mediator as our head, we may sing, "Therefore my heart is glad and my glory exulted; my flesh also shall dwell in confidence" (Ps. 16:9-10, 1 Cor. 15:55-56). It provides, I say, a foundation for confidence, whenever: (1) we think upon and dread the limitless abyss of those who descend into hell, with the devil (Rev. 20:3), dreading and pleading against his descent (Luke 8:31), with the feasting rich man (Luke 16:23, 25), with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Num. 16), with the dragon (Rev. 12:9, 20:2), and the false prophet (Rev. 20:10); whenever we seem to hear the terrible voice of the Judge say to us, "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41), and likewise the wailings and gnashings of teeth of those who have been cast into infernal darkness (Matt. 22:13); and we think about the worm that will never die and the fire that will never be quenched (Isa. 66:24) - what could be more effective to give comfort in this instance than that the Mediator descended, not for himself but for his own, into an abyss of misery so deep (Rom. 10:7), and obtained its keys (Rev. 1:18; 3:7), and upon exiting, as it were opened it and delivered his own who were bound from the pit (Zech. 9:11)? Whenever (2) the horror of the grave terrifies us, where our bodies rot, become worse smelling than the corpses of all other living things, an abomination to men, and food for worms (Job 4:19; 17:14; 21:26; Isa. 51:8; cf. Acts 12:23) - then what could raise us up more effectively than to consider that our Jesus also descended into the grave, not for himself, but for his own, and consequently made of the grave a resting place, or rather a dwelling place, in which our bodies can dwell securely until the resurrection (Ps. 16:9)? Whenever (3) our souls descend into the horrors of hell, with David (Ps. 18:4-6), with Heman (Ps. 88:4, 6, 14-16), with Asaph (Ps. 77:7-9) - what then is more effective than to think that Christ also descended, and that not for himself, but for his own, and just as God did not leave him in hell, so also, on account of him, he will not abandon them? Whenever (4) the dominion of death, of the tyrant Satan (Heb. 2:14) and of darkness (Col. 1:13) torture us as they loom over us - what will be more effective to think upon than that the Lord's Holy One also descended into it, and that not for himself, but for his own, and so then we with him will never see . . . the pit, or eternal destruction? (Pages 469-470)
For is it not surely (1) most shameful for the Son of God to descend from heaven all the way to hell . . . Is it not surely (2) most wicked, when we have by the depth of our misery as it were dragged into hell the Son of God, for us as it were to occupy his throne in the heavens? Is it not surely (3) most just, if we lift ourselves all the way up to heaven, when the Son of God sent himself all the way down to hell, if we have placed our throne next to God or above him, for us to be, with Babylon . . . cast into hell . . . . (Page 470)
Jesus Was Loved By God On That Cross
But he was presented as an object of the divine wrath, not absolutely with respect to the divine affection; for he was that Son so well-beloved of the Father (Matt. 3:17; 17:5), but with respect to his effective action, that is, those penalties that were owed to the Son from our undertaken guilt. (Page 413)
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)
(5) The treasures of inexhaustible love and mercy toward desperate sinners, by which he preferred to destroy his Son, his very own, only begotten, best, and most beloved Son, the brightness of his glory and the express image his person (Heb. 1:3), rather than a sinner, his enemy (Rom. 5:5-10; 8:32; John 3:16). (Page 432)
On Jesus As The Mediator
The Mediator is in the middle between the offended & offending party. Accordingly, in this matter there is, first the offended party, God (Ps. 51:4: theologically, God three in persons (Isa. 63:9-10), then economically, the Father, insofar as he is the supreme Lawgiver, Lord, & Judge (2 Cor. 5:19). Second, there is the offending party, certainly not each & every person (John 17:9), but all so beloved by the Father that they were given to the Mediator to be redeemed (John 17:11, 24; 3:16). Third, there is the Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8:6-8; 9:14-15; 12:24), who is in the middle: (1) between the offended persons (Matt. 28:19; 1 John 5:7); (2) between the disputing parties, God & man, as Immanuel (Isa. 7:14 with Acts 10:38), bearing the natures of both equally, as the God-man, God revealed in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16), the middle ladder, joining heaven & earth (Gen. 28:12); (3) by office, pleading the cause of each with the other (1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 5:1), first of God with man (2 Cor. 5:20), & in turn of man with God, satisfying & interceding for him (1 John 2:1). Thus not unwisely do many observe that Christ from almost any perspective is viewed as in the middle: he is born, as some think, in the middle of the night; he suffers in the middle of the world, in Jerusalem; he is crucified in the middle of thieves; he died in the middle between heaven & earth; after the resurrection he stands in the middle of his disciples; he promises that where two or three are gathered in his name, there he would be in the middle of them; he walks in the middle of the candlesticks; & like the heart in the middle of his mystical body, he imparts spirit & strength to his members. (Page 61)
On God's Love For Sinners
And what of his love toward us, whom he loved in his own certain way above that Son of his who was so greatly beloved, inasmuch as he even delivered him up for us, and delivered him up to such weighty and great things? (Page 443)
More Resources On That Cross
1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book
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
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