To me, the only plausible explanation is that Jesus knew that “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience,” Ephesians 5:6.And that wrath is mentioned again in Romans 1:18, and Revelation 6, verses 16 and 17. What about Job 26:11, “The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at His reproof;” or Nahum 1:6, “Who can stand before His indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him;”or Revelation 14:10, God’s “wrath” is unmixed. You see, as long as man lives, that wrath of God is mixed with mercy and grace, but once death comes, that door of grace will be forever closed to them that wouldn’t accept it. And so here Jesus is, about to bear the wrath of God. 1 John 3:8 says that in every sin there is a trace of the devil! Matthew 25, verse 41, says that hell was “prepared for the devil and his angels.” So that means Christ was about to experience hell, so that you and I might not have to experience that in the world to come! “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” I have no “glory,” except it be “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And yet we speak of the cross so flippantly! We speak of it without a flicker of emotion! But there is a lot of emotion in devotion! If we fully understand all that was involved on that cross, and what it took, we would understand what a just Godis to save a lost world through His grace; and there would be a lot more appreciation of that cross!

For a long time in my audience where I preached, down on my left toward the front, there sat a gray-haired, old man who probably was never conscience of what he was voicing out loud. Or maybe he was not conscience of even doing it at all, but if I preached about the cross or about the love of God, or about what God’s done for us, or about how God made it possible that we don’t have to go to hell, you could hear the whimper of this man’s voice above the sound of my voice. If you looked at the man, you would see tears streaming down his aged cheeks. And I thought to myself, the cross doesn’t mean that much to the average person as it does to this gray-haired, old man—it doesn’t really mean that much to the average man! We don’t fully understand all that is involved on that cross.

You see, it was on that cross, Hebrews 2:9, “that He, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man.” And with that grace, nobody has to go to hell, because our Lord experienced that! Now, we often say, “War is hell,” and, no doubt, in this audience, there are those who have seen some action in wars. And no doubt you would agree that that is a pretty good description. Ask anybody in the front trenches! Ask anybody who’s been out on that battlefield for any length of time. It’s a pretty good description! But even a better description is to say, “Crucifixion is hell!” I’ve read two or three doctors’ descriptions of death by crucifixion, and undoubtedly, it is the worst death that man could die! The very position of the body is such that every movement is pain and agony, and it is a gradually increasing agony! After going through that horrible scourging, with 13 stripes across a naked shoulder—the first of which would rip a man’s flesh and the blood would gush—and then 13 across the right shoulder, and 13 across the mid-section—39 in all, but allowed 40, so that if there was a miscount, it wouldn’t go beyond what was allowed. We’re told by historians that very, very few people ever survived that scourging. Many people became raving maniacs. They were tied to a whipping frame [like a post] and the body was in such a position that they could hardly flinch or move. It was certainly an experience of “hell.” And we’re told that many of the people scourged lost consciousness and many of them died. Our Lord must have been a real “he-man” physically—not that “milk-toast,” effeminate sort of a fellow that some artists have depicted [painted or drawn or sculpted or carved]. He never did anything to dissipate that body. He could take [bear] anything that man could inflict and, my!, what He took [bore]! But every lash of that whip, and every prick or sting of that nail, and even the thrust of that sword was that I deserved—what you deserved—it’s what sin deserved! But He gave us something that is undeserved, something that’s unearned and un-repaid and that’s grace. Now we don’t have to be lost!

In Matthew 19:25, the Bible says, “Who then can be saved?” Can anybody be saved? Oh yes! Because Christ made it possible! Do you realize that when the Bible says that “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,” (mentioned in Titus 2, verses 11 and 12) it is instructing us “to the intent that denying ungodliness…” Oh! I thought there wasn’t anything man is to do? Oh yes! That’s grace! Grace instructs us to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”That grace was something that you couldn’t deserve, couldn’t earn, couldn’t repay, and you can’t, because sin deserved punishment in hell. Our Lord was made “to be sin” for us.

We often sing that beautiful hymn, “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Price of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.” What do you see when you survey that cross? Beloved, be sure you see the condemnation of sin. The Bible said He was “smitten of God,” Isaiah 53:4. I thought he was smitten of men! And the Bible said, “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” Isaiah 53:10. That’s not a typographical error—that’s not an error by the copyist. It pleased God to bruise Him? Why? On the basis of 1 Corinthians 1:21, it “pleased God…to save.” And for God to save a lost world, it pleased Him to do it through the bruising of the Son of God. The Bible said, “by His stripes we are healed, [Isaiah 53:5]. “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” [Isaiah 53:6]. “For the transgressions of my people” has He been “stricken” all of this, Isaiah 53[:8], and also in 1 Peter 2:24. The Bible says, “He, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man.” We see the condemnation of sin—whatever sin called for—for God to remain just, and His nature calls for His justice. He’s “known by the judgment He executes,” Psalm 9, verse 16. And that judgment is just, Romans 2:2 and 1 Peter 1:17 and 18, and so forth.