Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / If Sin’s Penalty Is Eternal, Why Isn’t Jesus Still Suffering?

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If Sin’s Penalty Is Eternal, Why Isn’t Jesus Still Suffering? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Welcome back on this new week as we pick up with our third consecutive apologetics
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  question on the person known work of Christ. Started last week when we asked,
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  even if the Christian faith is untrue, if the Cross and Resurrection didn't
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  happen, aren't Christians still happier than non Christians in this life? That was
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  ABJ nineteen seventy seven, followed by a look at six reasons why Jesus had
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  to leave Earth after Easter. Imagine life on earth of Christ was still here
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  with us? Well he's not. Why not? That was last time in
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  ABJ nineteen seventy eight. That takes us to today. If the consequences of
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  our sin against the Holy God require eternal judgment, why did Christ suffer for
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  no more than thirty three years? Shouldn't his sufferings also be eternal if that's
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  what we deserve? Here are two emails Pastor John, Hello to you.
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  My name is Glenn from San Jose. Thank you for your ministry. As
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  with many people, APJ has been a part of my regular routine and has
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  blessed me and allows me to bless others in return. That's awesome to hear.
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  I have a question for you about Jesus that I cannot answer for myself,
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  namely, why did Jesus not spend eternity in hell? If this was
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  the awesome and holy price to be paid for sin? Does the Bible tell
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  us why? And this is basically the same question from a listener named Floris.
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  Pastor John, can you explain why Jesus's payment for our sins was not
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  eternal as it was for sinners? This is an excellent question because it pushes
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  us to take seriously the worth of the death of Jesus, and we need
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  to do that. We don't ponder too often the greatness of the achievement of
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  Christ in paying the debt for millions upon millions of hell deserving sinners, like
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  the thief on the cross, who, before he was crucified, had never
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  done one single work of faith in his life, or like you and me,
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  who may have known Jesus all our lives and have fallen short so many
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  thousands of times we couldn't even begin to count them. Our worship and our
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  love for Christ ought to burn brightly when we contemplate that one man, one
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  god man, could endure enough in thirty three years to provide a sufficient satisfaction
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  in the justice of God for eternal salvation for so many wicked people. This
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  is why we will sing the song of the Lamb, the crucified Lamb,
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  forever, not just the song of the risen King. The song of the
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  slaughtered Lamb will be sung forever and ever. It was a staggering achievement on
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  the cross. So the question is, how is it possible. Jesus taught
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  us that sinners like us deserve eternal punishment Matthew twenty five, forty six.
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  And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
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  So the punishment for sin is as long as life is long. For
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  the saved forever. Paul said the same thing, they will suffer the punishment
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  of eternal destruction second Thessalonians one nine. So the question Glenn is asking is
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  if Christ bore our punishment, why then does he not have to endure the
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  same punishment, namely eternal suffering. And make no mistake, those who trust
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  in Christ are saved from eternal punishment because Christ bore our punishment for us Causians
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  one fourteen. The record of debt against us God set aside, nailing it
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  to the cross. That means through the hands of Jesus Galatians three thirteen,
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  Christ became a curse for us Isaiah fifty three five. He was pierced for
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  our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. First Peter two twenty four.
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  He bore our sins in his body on the tree Romans eight three,
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  by sending his own son in the lightness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
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  God condemned our sin in the flesh Romans ten forty five. He gave
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  his life as a ransom for many First Corinthians six twenty. You were bought
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  with the price Acts twenty twenty eight. Odd obtained the church with his own
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  blood. Christ achieved this substitution for millions of believers not by suffering eternally in
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  hell, but by being obedient in suffering unto death, even death on the
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  cross. And the question is, how does he bear eternities of punishment in
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  the space of thirty three years of life? How does his suffering suffice to
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  cancel the punishment of millions of people who were bound to eternal punishment. Now
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  the Bible does not say explicitly how this works, but just as we learn
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  the demerit of sin by looking at God's appointed penalty for it, namely eternal
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  punishment. So also we learn the merit or the worth of Christ and his
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  suffering by looking at the achievement of it, namely salvation for millions of hell
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  deserving sinners. So the question becomes, what is it about the worth of
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  Jesus and his suffering that makes it sufficient to remove the punishment of millions of
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  sinners. Let me read you the answer given by Jonathan Edwards, and then
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  say a word about it. This comes from a sermon he preached in seventeen
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  twenty nine entitled the Sacrifice of Christ Acceptable. Here's what he says. Though
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  Christ's sufferings were only temporal, that is not eternal, yet they were equivalent
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  to our eternal sufferings by reason of the infinite dignity of his person. His
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  blood which he spilled, his life, which he laid down, was an
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  infinite price, because it was the blood of God, as it is expressly
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  called in X twenty twenty eight, the Church of God, which he hath
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  purchased with his own blood. His life was the life of that person that
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  was the eternal son of God. Though it was the life of a human
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  nature. Now, upon this account, the price offered was equivalent to the
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  demerit of the sins of all mankind, and his sufferings equivalent to the eternal
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  sufferings of the whole world end quote. Now, the principle behind that argument
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  is that the greater the worth, or the dignity or the honor of a
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  person, the more insulting and dishonorable and shameful is the innocent suffering of that
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  person, So that the suffering of the Son of God is a greater evil
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  than the suffering of a sinful human. And since the worth and the honor
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  of the Son of God is an infinite worth and an infinite honor, therefore
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  his suffering had an infinite worth, more than enough to be the punishment for
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  finite human beings. Or to say it one more way, when Christ descended
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  from the position of equality with God Philippians two, to the point of forsakenness
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  by God on the cross in agony, that depth of descent was infinitely greater
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  than the descent of any sinful human into the sufferings of Hell, indeed all
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  of them together. So one way of answering the question, how does Christ's
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  thirty three year long suffering cover the sins of millions of people who deserve eternal
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  suffering is because the infinite worth of his person makes his suffering of infinite worth
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  and sufficient for the covering of all the sins of all his people. So,
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  as I said at the beginning, our worship and our love for Christ
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  ought to burn very brightly when we consider that one man, one God man,
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  could endure enough suffering to cover so many hell deserving sins. Amen God's
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  own blood. He can't really see it anymore scandalously than Acts twenty eight points
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  it. Thank you, Pastor John, for helping us take seriously the worth
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  of the death of Jesus today. That is what makes such a question worth
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  asking and answering in the first place, because we get to dwell on Christ's
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  all sufficient sacrifice for us. Awesome. Thank you for joining us today.
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  Have hard question to ask, Pastor John email us had asked Pastor John at
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  Desiring God dot Org. As you can tell, this is a season of
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  some interesting apologetics, questions, answering objections, hard questions, and we have
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  another one up next time, this one. Does God love us beyond loving
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  himself? In us? Does God love us because he really loves us for
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  us? Or does he love us because he sees his own reflection in us
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  and he loves that reflection of himself and not really us. This is such
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  a key question actually, as part of nine related questions that I'm going to
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  attempt to serve up to Pastor John in one single episode, We're going to
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  put him to work. Next time. I'm your host, Tony Rankie.
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  We'll see you on a Thursday