Did God punish Christ?
We hear a lot of talk about God being angry with Jesus
because Jesus became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). We hear almost as much
about Jesus the Lord absorbing the wrath due each one of us, or, to put
it another way, we hear that Jesus Christ suffered the punishment that
was due us. Even John Calvin fumed against the notion that God was angry
with Jesus. And how could Jesus have suffered what was due the sinner
if what was due the sinner was eternal punishment? And if Jesus bore the
punishment on sin that was due all of us how can any of us (believers
or not) ever be punished? Imagine a sinner about to be punished by God
saying, "But you already punished Jesus for that!"
God wasn’t angry with Jesus who ceaselessly did only what pleased the Holy Father. Punishment is only for the guilty otherwise it is immoral. Christ became part of a human family that was under judgement before God (a redeeming judgement) and the judgement that brings us peace fell on him also (Isaiah 53). For some more on this click here.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.