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.