The Death of Death in the Death of Christ
J. Owen
Book 1, Chapter 3, Section 2, Subsection 2
The Father Punishes the Son

The second act is laying upon the Son the punishment for sins. This is ascribed to the Father throughout the Scripture: "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, says the LORD of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered," Zech. 13:7. What is set down here imperatively, as a command, is indicatively expounded in the gospel. "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad," Matt. 26:31. "He was stricken by God, and afflicted... The LORD laid upon him the iniquity of us all... It pleased the LORD to bruise him, and to grieve him," Isa. 53:4, 6, 10. "He made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2Cor. 5:21. The adjunct in both passages is made the subject, as the opposition between his being made sin and our being made righteousness declares. "Him who knew no sin," that is, who deserved no punishment, "him has he made to be sin," or laid the punishment due to sin upon him. Or perhaps, in the latter place, sin may be taken to mean an offering or sacrifice for the expiation[24] of sin, (NT:266, hamartia). This corresponds to the word chattath in the Old Testament [OT:2403], which signifies both sin and the sacrifice for it.

And the Lord God did this. For Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, did nothing but "what his hand and counsel had determined before to be done," Acts 4:27, 28. This is the source of the great shakings of our savior in his close conflict with his Father's wrath, and of that burden which the Father directly imposed on him. When there was no hand or instrument outwardly appearing to cause him any suffering or cruciating torment, he "began to be sorrowful, even to death" Matt. 26:37, 38. When he was in the garden with his three best apostles, before the traitor or any of his accomplices appeared, he was "confounded, and very heavy," Mark 14:33. That was the time, "in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death," Heb. 5:7. His state is described by the evangelist in Luke 22:43, 44: "An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. But being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground." Surely it was a close and strong trial that he now underwent, coming directly from his Father. For how meekly and cheerfully he submits to all the cruelty of men, and the violence done to his body, without any regret or troubled spirit, until this conflict with his Father is renewed. He cries, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

This, by the way, will be worth our observation, so that we may know with whom our Savior chiefly had to deal, and what he underwent for sinners. It will also give some light to the grand query concerning for whom he undertook all this. His sufferings did not consist in mere corporal punishments and afflictions, or their effects alone on his soul and spirit. It was no less than the curse of the law of God that he underwent for us. For he freed us from the curse "by being made a curse," Gal 3:13. This curse contained all the punishment that was due to sin, either in the severity of God's justice, or according to the demands of that law which required obedience. It is true that the curse of the law would only be temporal death. This is because the law was considered the instrument of Jewish polity, and it served that economy or dispensation. But it is a foolish dream that it is no more than that, because it is the universal rule of obedience, and the bond of the covenant between God and man. In dying for us, Christ not only aimed at our good, but he also directly died in our stead. The punishment due to our sin and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. The punishment was the pains of hell, in their nature and being, and in their weight and pressure, but not in their tendency and continuance (for it is impossible for him to be detained by death). Who can deny this and not injure the justice of God, which will inevitably inflict those pains upon sinners to eternity? It is true, indeed, that the law is relaxed with regard to those who are suffering. God allows commutation, as he did in the carnal sacrifices that were made under the old law. The life of a beast was accepted instead of the life of a man. This is fully revealed, and we believe it. But where is any alteration in the nature of the punishment intimated?

We conclude with the prophet, then, that there is a second act of God in laying the punishment on him for us. He says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all," Isa. 53:6. It seems strange to me that Christ would undergo the pains of hell in the stead of those who lay in the pains of hell before he underwent those pains, and who will continue in those pains until eternity; for "their worm does not die, nor is their fire quenched," Isa. 66:24. To which I may add this dilemma to our universalists: God imposed his wrath, and Christ underwent the pains of hell, either for all the sins of all men, or for all the sins of some men, or for some of the sins of all men.

If it was the last, for some of the sins of all men, then all men have some sins to answer for; and so no man will be saved. For if God enters into judgment with us, even though it is with all mankind for one sin, no flesh will be justified in his sight: "If the LORD should mark iniquities, who would stand?" Ps.130:3. We all might as well cast all we have "to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty," Isa. 2:20, 21.

If it was for the second, which is what we affirm, that Christ in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the world.

If it was the first, then why are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, "Because of their unbelief; they will not believe." But this unbelief, is it a sin or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it is, then Christ either underwent the punishment for it, or he did not. If he did, then why should that sin keep them from partaking of the fruit of his death more than their other sins for which he died? If he did not undergo the punishment for it, then he did not die for all their sins. Let the universalists choose which part they prefer.

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24. That is, atonement.