The Extent of the Penal Work of the Atonement

The deep humiliation to which the Son of God was subjected in taking upon Him the form of a servant, and being made “in the likeness of sin’s flesh,” was a judicial infliction imposed upon Him by the Father, yet voluntarily submitted to by Himself. The very purpose of His humiliation, His obedience, His Sufferings, makes them penal, for they were unto the satisfying of the claims of God’s law upon His people. In being “made under the law” (Gal. 4:4) Christ became subject to all that the law enjoins: “Now we know that what things whatsoever the law says, it says to them who are under the law” (Rom. 3:19), which means the law calls for the fulfillment of its terms. “Christ in our room and stead, did both by doing and suffering, satisfy Divine justice, both the legislatory, the retributive, and the vindictive, in the most perfect manner, fulfilling all the righteousness of the law, which the law otherwise required of us, in order to impunity, and to our having a right to eternal life” (H. Witsius, 1693).

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust”
(1 Pet. 3:18).

The reference here must not be restricted to what Christ endured at the hands of God while He hung upon the Cross, nor to all He passed through during that day and preceding night. Beware of limiting the Word of God! No; the entirety of His humiliation is here included. The whole life of Christ was one of sufferings, therefore was He designated “the Man of sorrows,” not simply, “sorrow.” From His birth to His death, suffering and sorrow marked Him as their legitimate Victim. While yet an infant He was driven into exile, to escape the fury of those who sought His life. That was but the prophetic fore runner of His whole earthly course. The cup of woe, put to His lips at Bethlehem, was never removed till He drained its bitter dregs at Calvary.

Every variety of suffering was experienced by Him.

• He tasted poverty in its severest rigor.
• Born in a stable,
• owning no property on earth,
• dependent upon the charity of others (Luke 8:3),
• oftentimes being worse situated than the inferior orders of creation: (Matthew 8:20).
• He suffered reproach in all its bitterness.
• The most malignant accusations, the vilest aspersions, the most cutting sarcasm, were directed against His person and character.
• He was taunted with being a glutton, a winebibber, a deceiver, a blasphemer, a devil.
• Therefore do we hear Him crying, “Reproach hath broken my heart” (Ps. 69:20).
• He experienced temptation in all its malignity.
• The Prince of darkness assailed Him with all his ingenuity and power, causing his infernal legions to attack Him, coming against Him like “strong bulls of Bashan,” gaping on Him with their mouths like ravening and roaring lions (Ps. 22:12, 13).
• Above all, He suffered the wrath of God, so that He was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38), in “an agony” (Luke 22:44), and ultimately, “forsaken of God.”

When the Scriptures speak of the Satisfaction of Christ, they ascribe it to His sufferings in general, as Isaiah 53:4, “Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,” that is, He suffered all the pains and sorrows due to us from sin. It is to be most carefully noted that the inspired declaration “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6) comes before “ He was oppressed” and before “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter;” as it was at the commencement of His public ministry, and not while He hung upon the Cross that God moved one of His servants to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God” which taketh away the sin of the world. Christ was brought “to the slaughter” before the three hours of darkness, yet even then “affliction” lay upon Him, and our iniquity was exacted of Him. So too this very chapter (Isaiah 53) ascribes our “healing” to the stripes which He received from men as plainly as other passages attribute our being delivered from the curse of the law through God’s visiting Him with its curse.

Christ must take on Him the guilt of our transgressions before He could take our punishment upon Him, and so satisfy Divine justice on our behalf. That He did so, is demonstrated by His own words. It is indeed remarkable to find how that Christ actually owned our sins as being His. First, in the 40th Psalm. That this Psalm is a Messianic one we know from its quotation in Hebrews 10. That it contains the very words of Christ, is plainly evident from verses 7–11. He is still the Speaker in verse 12, where He declared “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.” What a proof that the sins of His people had been transferred to Him! Second, in the 69th, another great Messianic Psalm. There too we find Him saying, “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee” (v. 5). How unmistakably do those words show our sins had been reckoned to Him! Those sins were His not by perpetration, but by imputation.

[Pink, A. W. , The Satisfaction of Christ.]