If Sin’s Penalty Is Eternal, Why Isn’t Jesus Still Suffering? - by John Piper

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Dr. Piper needlessly wrestles with a question that is based on several false premises, including

• Sin is punished
• Jesus paid the debt our sins
• Jesus was punished for our sin
• The length of punishment is connected to the length of suffering
• Jesus substituted Himself in our place

We will explain each in turn as we comment upon this truly terrible presentation.

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If the consequences of our sin against a holy God require eternal judgment, why did Christ suffer for no more than 33 years? Shouldn’t his sufferings also be eternal, if that’s what we deserve? (The duration of Jesus' suffering is not the measure of His sacrificial work on the cross. In order to understand the nature of Jesus' sacrifice, we should first turn to the OT sacrifices because they were a type for the Lamb of God. We find that those sacrifices never involved the suffering of the animals. They were not regarded as guilty, and they were never punished. They were simply killed and their blood was spilled.

It's not about the suffering, but about the blood: 

Ro. 3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. 

Ro. 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 

Ep. 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins...

He. 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Re. 1:5 ...To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood...

The blood is the agent by which we are cleansed of sin. This means Dr. Piper's answer is founded upon a misunderstanding of how we are forgiven.)

Here are two emails: “Pastor John, hello to you. My name is Glenn from San Jose. Thank you for your ministry. As with many people, APJ has been a part of my regular routine, and it has blessed me and allows me to bless others in return. I have a question for you about Jesus that I cannot answer for myself, namely: Why did Jesus not spend eternity in hell, if this was the awesome and holy price to be paid for sin? Does the Bible tell us why?” This is basically the same question from a listener named Floris: “Pastor John, can you explain why Jesus’s payment for our sins was not eternal, as it is for sinners?” (Jesus did not pay for our sins. There is no verse that tells us that. Go ahead, dear reader, check the Scriptures for yourself. 

Rather, He paid for us. Dr. Piper completely misses this, even though he quoted some Scriptures that clearly state this:

Mark 10:45: “The Son of Man came . . . to give his life as a ransom for many.”

1 Corinthians 6:20: “You were bought with a price.”

Acts 20:28: “[God] obtained [the church] with his own blood.”

This is a crucial understanding. Jesus spilled His blood to purchase us:

1Ti. 2:5-6 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men — the testimony given in its proper time.) 

This is an excellent question because it pushes us to take seriously the worth of the death of Jesus, and we need to do that. We don’t ponder too often the greatness of the achievement of Christ in paying the debt for millions upon millions of hell-deserving sinners, like the thief on the cross, who before he was crucified had never done one single work of faith in his life. Or like you and me, who may have known Jesus all our lives, and yet have fallen short so many thousands of times we couldn’t even begin to count them.

Our worship, and our love for Christ, ought to burn brightly when we contemplate that one man, one God-man, could endure enough in 33 years to provide a sufficient satisfaction in the justice of God for eternal salvation for so many wicked people. (Dr. Piper repeats his faulty premise, and adds in another faulty concept, that Jesus satisfied the justice of God by His suffering. 

This is a Calvinistic concept, that this was some sort of legal transaction. However, there is no courtroom, there is no evidence presented, and there is no presumption of innocence. There is no prosecutor, no jury, and no defense attorney. Jesus does not walk into the courtroom and substitute Himself for punishment, for no legal jurisdiction would allow such a thing.

Jesus' death was not a legal transaction, it was a sacrificial transaction. )

This is why we will sing “the song of the Lamb” — the crucified Lamb — forever, not just “the song of the risen King” (Revelation 15:2–4). The song of the slaughtered Lamb will be sung forever and ever. It was a staggering achievement on the cross. (??? This makes no sense. Jesus bears the marks of the crucifixion [Re. 5:6], which are simply identifiers. These marks are never celebrated. Rather, His sacrifice is celebrated [Re. 5:9]. Because of His victory over death He is celebrated in heaven [Re. 5:13].

His suffering is predicted and acknowledged but never celebrated. It seems that Catholics tend to celebrate the suffering Christ, but Christians celebrate the risen Christ.)

Sin’s Eternal Cost

The question is, How is it possible? Jesus taught us that sinners like us deserve eternal punishment. “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). So, the punishment for sin is as long as life is long for the saved: forever. Paul said the same thing: “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

So, the question Glenn is asking is, If Christ bore our punishment, why then does he not have to endure the same punishment — namely, eternal suffering? (Dr. Piper keeps repeating the question. 

Jesus did not endure our punishment. Again, there is no verse that tells us such a thing. This right here is the key to the misunderstanding. The Father did not punish Jesus. No verse says that He did. Once again, dear reader: Check it.)

And make no mistake, those who trust in Christ are saved from eternal punishment because Christ bore our punishment for us.Colossians 2:14: “The record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands . . . [God] set aside, nailing it to the cross” — that means through the hands of Jesus. ("Set aside" is the Greek word airó, which means I raise, lift up, take away, remove. Jesus removed our sin by lifting it up and nailing it to the cross, like some gathering up the garbage and taking it out to the garbage can. 

Jesus bore our sin in the sense of carrying it, not receiving it or being punished for it.)

Galatians 3:13: “Christ . . . [became] a curse for us.”
Isaiah 53:5: “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.”
1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”
Romans 8:3: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [God] condemned [our] sin in the flesh.”
Mark 10:45: “The Son of Man came . . . to give his life as a ransom for many.”
1 Corinthians 6:20: “You were bought with a price.”
Acts 20:28: “[God] obtained [the church] with his own blood.”

Christ achieved this substitution for millions of believers, (He did not substitute for us, He died to wash away our sin and condemnation. There is no verse that says He substituted.)

not by suffering eternally in hell, but by being obedient in suffering unto death, “even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). (Well, he gets it right, finally. His obedience to give his life was all that was required to obtain our salvation.)

And the question is, How does he bear eternities of punishment in the space of 33 years of life? (This is the third time Dr. Piper tells us the question...)

How does his suffering suffice to cancel the punishment of millions of people who were bound to eternal punishment? (His suffering doesn't, His blood does.)

Christ’s Infinite Dignity

(Based on a misunderstood sacrifice, Dr. Piper must now find a convoluted solution...) Now, the Bible does not say explicitly how this works. But just as we learned the demerit of sin by looking at God’s appointed penalty for it — namely, eternal punishment — so also we learn the merit, or the worth, of Christ and his suffering by looking at the achievement of it — namely, salvation for millions of hell-deserving sinners. So, the question becomes, What is it about the worth of Jesus and his suffering that makes it sufficient to remove the punishment of millions of sinners? (His suffering did not remove our punishment, His death did.)

Let me read you the answer given by Jonathan Edwards and then say a word about it. This comes from a sermon he preached in 1729 entitled “The Sacrifice of Christ Acceptable.” Here’s what he says:

Though Christ’s sufferings were but temporal [that is, not eternal], yet they were equivalent to our eternal sufferings by reason of the infinite dignity of his person. Though it was not infinite suffering, yet it was equivalent to infinite suffering, for it was infinite expense. His blood which he spilled, his life which he laid down, was an infinite price because it was the blood of God, as it is expressly called. Acts 20:28, “The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” His life was the life of that person that was the eternal Son of God, though it was the life of the human nature. Now, upon this account, the price offered was equivalent to the demerit of the sins of all mankind, [and] his sufferings equivalent to the eternal sufferings of the whole world. (Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:452)

“We learn the merit, or the worth, of Christ and his suffering by looking at the achievement of it.”

Now, the principle behind that argument is that the greater the worth — or the dignity or the honor — of a person, the more insulting and dishonorable and shameful is the innocent suffering of that person. So, the suffering of the Son of God is a greater evil than the suffering of a sinful human. And since the worth and the honor of the Son of God is an infinite worth and an infinite honor, therefore, his suffering had an infinite worth, more than enough to be the punishment for finite human beings. (This is a convoluted and unnecessary workaround for a flawed doctrinal idea.)

Or to say it one more way, when Christ descended from the position of “equality with God” (Philippians 2:6) to the point of forsakenness by God on the cross in agony, that depth of descent was infinitely greater than the descent of any sinful human into the sufferings of hell — indeed, all of them together.

Worship Burning Bright

So, one way of answering the question, “How does Christ’s 33-year-long suffering cover the sins of millions of people who deserve eternal suffering?” is this: Because the infinite worth of his person makes his suffering of infinite worth and sufficient for the covering of all the sins of all his people. (His worth is indeed infinite, but has nothing to do with the topic at hand.)

As I said at the beginning, our worship and our love for Christ ought to burn very brightly when we consider that one man, one God-man, could endure enough suffering to cover so many hell-deserving sins. (Sigh. He keeps repeating himself...)

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Come, Lord Jesus.