The Weight of God's Wrath

[Thompson, Darryl]

The Weight of God's Wrath 

     All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his
own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isa.
53:6.  

     In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man's stead, and the
human nature of the Son of God staggered under the terrible horror of
the guilt of sin, until from His pale and quivering lips was forced the
agonizing cry, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me"; but if there is no other way by which the salvation of fallen man
may be accomplished, then "not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matt.
26:39).  

     The power that inflicted retributive justice upon man's substitute
and surety, was the power that sustained and upheld the suffering One
under the tremendous weight of wrath that would have fallen upon a
sinful world. Christ was suffering the death that was pronounced upon
the transgressors of God's law. It is a fearful thing for the
unrepenting sinner to fall into the hands of the living God. This is
proved by the history of the destruction of the old world by a flood, by
the record of the fire which fell from heaven and destroyed the
inhabitants of Sodom. But never was this proved to so great an extent as
in the agony of Christ, . . . when He bore the wrath of God for a sinful
world. . . .  

     Man has not been made a sin-bearer, and he will never know the
horror of the curse of sin which the Saviour bore. No sorrow can bear
any comparison with the sorrow of Him upon whom the wrath of God fell
with overwhelming force. Human nature can endure but a limited amount of
test and trial. The finite can only endure the finite measure, and human
nature succumbs; but the nature of Christ had a greater capacity for
suffering; for the human existed in the divine nature, and created a
capacity for suffering to endure that which resulted from the sins of a
lost world. The agony which Christ endured, broadens, deepens, and gives
a more extended conception of the character of sin, and the character of
the retribution which God will bring upon those who continue in sin. The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ.  

>From That I May Know Him - Page 64