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
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. This is a fascinating interview with Kevin DeYoung and Todd Rester, the man who is translating Van Mastricht from Latin and Dutch into English: Petrus Van Mastricht's Theoretical Practical Theology with Todd Rester.
Petrus Van Mastricht got the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right:
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)
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)
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)
(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)
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Getting The Cross Right
We must get the cross right! For more on Christ's forsakenness on the cross, please read:
1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book
2. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross
4. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken
5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross
6. Forsaken: A Very Unhelpful Chapter On The Cross
7. Did The Father Turn His Away From Jesus On That Cross?
8. A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken
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 for free!
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