The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

the most cruel torments that hell and men could devise and invent! but Jesus Christ could not do so, as he was a sacrifice for sin; he died for sin, he was made a curse for us. O my brethren, Christ died many deaths at once, he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. Look how many thousands shall be saved—so many deaths did Jesus die; yet it was but once he died. He died thy death, and my death, and so many deaths as all our sins deserved who shall be saved from the wrath to come.

Now, to feign that these sorrows and this bloody agony, was not real, but in show only, what greater condemnation can be passed upon Jesus Christ, who loved to do all things in the most unfeigned simplicity? It was, therefore, because of sin, the sin that was put into the death he died, and the curse of God that was due to sin, that made death so bitter to Jesus Christ—‘It is Christ that died.’

The apostle speaks as if never any died but Christ, nor indeed did there, so wonderful a death as he (Rom 8:34). Death, considered simply as it is a deprivation of natural life, could not have these effects in a person, personally more righteous than an angel. Yea, even carnal, wicked men, not awakened in their conscience, how securely can they die! It must therefore also be concluded that the sorrows and agony of Jesus Christ came from a higher cause, even from the guilt of sin, and from the curse of God that was now approaching for that sin.

It cannot be attributed to the fear of men; their terror could not make him afraid; that was contrary to his doctrine, and did not become the dignity of his person; it was sin, sin, sin, and the curse due to sin.

Third. It is evident that Christ did bear and die the cursed death for sin, from the carriage and dispensations of God towards him.

1. From the carriage of God. God now becomes as an enemy to him.

(1.) He forsakes him—‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’

Yea, the sense of the loss of God’s comfortable presence abode with him even till he gave up the ghost. (2.) He dealeth with him as with one that hath sinned, he chastiseth him, he bruiseth him, he striketh and smiteth him, and was pleased—that is, his justice was satisfied—in so doing. ‘It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief’ (Isa 53:10).

These things could not be, had he only considered him in his own personal standing. Where was the righteous forsaken? Without the consideration of sin, he doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men—that is, not out of pleasure, or without sufficient cause.

Jesus Christ, then, since he is under this withdrawing, chastising, bruising, and afflicting displeasure of God, he is all that time under sin, under our sins, and therefore thus accursed of God, his God.

2. Not only the carriage of God, but his dispensations, his visible dispensations, plainly declare that he stood before God in our sins. Vengeance suffered him not to live. Wherefore God delivered him up—‘He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all’ (Rom 8:32). (1.) He delivered him into the hands of men (Mark 9:31). (2.) He was delivered into the hands of sinners (Luke 24:7).

(3.) He was delivered unto death (Rom 4:25). (4.) Yea, so delivered up as that they both had him to put him to death, and God left him for that purpose in their hands; yea, was so far off from delivering him, that he gave way to all things that had a tendency to take his life from the earth.

Now many men do what they will with him, he was delivered to their will—Judas may sell him; Peter may deny him; all his disciples forsake him; the enemy apprehends him, binds him, they have him away like a thief to Caiaphas the high-priest, in whose house he is mocked, spit upon, his beard is twitched from his cheeks; now they buffet him and scornfully bow the knee before him; yea, ‘his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men’ (Isa 52:14).

Now he is sent to the governor, defaced with blows and blood; who delivereth him into the hand of his soldiers; they whip him, crown him with thorns, and stick the points of the thorns fast in his temples by a blow with a staff in their hand; now he is made a spectacle to the people, and then sent away to Herod, who, with his men of war, set him at nought, no God appearing for his help.

In fine, they at last condemn him to death, even to the death of the cross, where they hang him up by wounds made through his hands and his feet, between the earth and the heavens, where he hanged for the space of six hours—to wit, from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon. No God yet appears for his help; while he hangs there some rail at him, others wag their heads, others tauntingly say, ‘He saved others, himself he cannot save’; some divide his raiment, casting lots for his garments before his face; others mockingly bid him come down from the cross, and when he desireth succour, they give him vinegar to drink. No God yet appears for his help.

Now the earth quakes, the rocks are rent, the sun becomes black, and Jesus still cries out that he was forsaken of God; and presently boweth his head and dies (Matt 26, 27; Mark 14, 15; Luke 22, 23; John 18, 19).

And for all this there is no cause assigned from God but sin—‘He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isa 53:5).

The sum then is, that Jesus Christ the Lord, by taking part of our flesh, became a public person, not doing or dying in a private capacity, but in the room and stead of sinners, whose sin deserved death and the curse of God; all which Jesus Christ bare in his own body upon the tree. I conclude, then, that my sin is already crucified and accursed in the death and curse Christ underwent.

[Objections to this doctrine.]

I come now to some objections.

Objection First. Christ never was a sinner, God never supposed him to be a sinner, neither did our sins become really his; God never reputed him so to have been; therefore hate or punish him as a sinner he could not; for no false judgment can belong to the Lord.

Answer.—First. That Christ was not a sinner personally, by acts or doings of his own, is granted; and in this sense it is true that God did never suppose him to be a sinner, nor punished him as such a sinner, nor did he really, if by really you understand naturally, become our sin, nor did God ever repute him so. Second. But that Christ stood before God in our sins, and that God did not only suppose him so to stand, but set him in them, put them upon him, and counted them as his own, is so true that he cannot at present be a Christian that denies it—‘The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all’ (Isa 53:6; 1 Peter 2:22). Third. So, then, though God did not punish him for sin of his own committing, yet he punished him for sin of our committing—‘The just suffered for the unjust’ (1 Peter 3:18). Fourth. Therefore it is true, that though Christ did never really become sin of his own, he did really become our sin, did really become our curse for sin. If this be denied, it follows that he became our sin but feignedly, that he was made our curse, or a curse for us but in appearance, show, or in dissimulation; but no such action or work can proceed of the Lord. He did then really lay our sin and his curse upon him for our sin.

Objection Second. But if Christ indeed hath suffered for our sins, and endured for them that curse that of justice is due thereto, then hath he also endured for us the proper torments of hell, for they are the wages of our sins.

Answer. Many things might be said in answer to this objection; but briefly—First. What God chargeth upon the soul for sin is one thing, and what followeth upon that charge is another. Second.

A difference in the person suffering may make a difference in the consequences that follow upon the charge. Let us then consider of both these things.

First. The charge is sin—God charge him with our sins. The person then stands guilty before the judgment of God. The consequences are—1. The person charged sustains or suffereth the wrath of God.

2. This wrath of God is expressed and inflicted on body and soul.

The consequences are—God forsaketh the person charged, and being left, if he cannot stand, he falleth under the power of guilt and horror of the same.

If the person utterly fall under this charge, as not being able to wrestle with and overcome this wrath of God, then despair, horror of hell, rage, blasphemy, darkness, and damnable anguish, immediately swallow him up, and he lieth for ever and ever in the pains of hell, a monument of eternal vengeance.

Now that Christ underwent the wrath of God it is evident, because he bare our curse; that God forsook him, he did with strong crying and tears acknowledge; and therefore that he was under the soul-afflicting sense of the loss of God’s favour, and under the sense of his displeasure, must needs flow from the premises.

[Second.] But now, because Christ Jesus the Lord was a person infinitely differing from all others that fall under the wrath of God, therefore those things that flow from damned sinners could not flow from him.

1. Despair would not rise in his heart, for his flesh did rest in hope; and said, even when he suffered, ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell’ (Acts 2:27).

2. The everlastingness of the punishment, therefore, nor the terrors that accompany such, could not fasten upon him; for he knew at last that God would justify him, or approve of his works that they were meritorious.

And mark, everlasting punishment is not the proper wages of sin but under a supposition that the person suffering be not able to pay the debt—‘Thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite’ (Luke 12:59).

The difference, then, of the persons suffering may make a difference, though not in the nature of the punishment, yet in the duration and consequences of it.

Christ under the sentence was, as to his own personal acts only, altogether innocent; the damned only altogether sinners. Christ had in him even then the utmost perfection of all graces and virtues; but the damned, the perfection of sin and vileness. Christ’s humanity had still union with his Godhead; the damned, union only with sin.

Now, an innocent person, perfect in all graces, as really God as man, can better wrestle with the curse for sin than either sinful men or angels.

While they despair, Christ hopes. While they blaspheme, Christ submits. While they rage, Christ justifies God. While they sink under the burden of sin and wrath, Christ recovereth by virtue of his worthiness—‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’ He was God’s Holy One, and his holiness prevailed.

So that