...when Jesus Christ the Son of God suffered on the tree, he did not suffer for himself: He had no sin, either natural or actual. He had done nothing whatever that could bring him under the ban of heaven, or subject his holy soul and his perfect body to grief and pain. When he suffered it has as a substitute. He died — "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Had his sorrows been personally deserved they would have had no efficacy in them. But inasmuch as for sins not his own he died to atone; inasmuch as he was punished, not for any guilt that he had done or could do, but for the guilt incurred by others, there was a merit and an efficacy in all that he suffered, by which the law was satisfied, and God is able to forgive.
From a sermon entitled "Justice Satisfied," delivered May 29, 1859 ; Flickr photo by Helger Magnusson; some rights reserved.
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