(An Answer to Questions)
A right conception of death will, I think, remove some of your difficulties. Death is the wages of sin,-but not the full wages, as Heb. 9:27 shows:"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, judgment." God, in His governmental ways with fallen, sinful men, removes them from the earth. Man was created to live on the earth. His abiding on the earth was conditional on obedience. The right to continue on the earth was forfeited by sin, and death is his removal from his appointed place. But beside forfeiting the right to live here on the earth, the sinner deserves judgment-what Scripture calls "the second death" (Rev. 20:14). So, we may say, there are two parts to the penalty of sin-death and judgment. The second part comes not till after death, 1:e., until death is destroyed. (See 1 Cor. 15:26; Rev. 20:11-14). This means that the judgment will not take place till after the resurrection of the dead.
Death, therefore, may be called the temporary penalty of sin, while the lake of fire, which is the second death, is the final and eternal penalty. Notice that the second death is not another physical death. It is the lake of fire itself-a place and condition in which both soul and body are cast. (See Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:5).
The wages of sin among the angels is judgment-what for men is the final penalty-which is final and eternal for the fallen angels also. Being spirits, without physical bodies, they do not die. What is the first death for man does not apply to them, but the lake of fire-which is man's second death-is the doom of the wicked angels. The lake of fire-Gehenna-was indeed prepared for Satan and his angels (Matt. 25:41). We are not told it was prepared for men, yet it is clear the unredeemed of men will be cast there. If God had not intervened in grace through Christ, all men, as well as all the fallen angels, would be subject to the lake of fire-the eternal penalty of sin.
Neither men nor angels can avert the penalty of sin:nor can God set it aside. His holiness, His righteousness, His spoken word, require His execution of it. If, then, He delivers any from it He must find some way whereby He can vindicate His holiness, maintain His righteousness and keep His word in carrying it out. There was but one way in which He could do this-to find a substitute, one able to take the sinner's place, and as His representative, adjust and settle all the issues which sin has raised, and give God the glory that is His due. No such substitute could be found either among men or angels. What mere creature can measure the requirements of the Infinite? A creature can violate the rights of the Infinite, but has no power to restore them. This is a task absolutely beyond a creature's power. Must God then submit to an eternal humiliation? Either that, or provide the Substitute.
The only way to provide such an one was by His Son stooping into the place of the sinful creature. Becoming man He assumed this responsibility to represent sinful man. In the hour of His forsaking on the cross He restored to God His rights-rights which He had not taken away; for throughout His life He ever did God's will.
Let me repeat. By incarnation and the unparalleled sacrifice of the Cross God's rights have been secured. Oh, the love of God in giving His Son for this! How He loves man, the Cross tells us (John 3:16). There, Christ suffered the penalty of sin, both the eternal and the temporal part-judgment and death. The judgment of God, in full measure, was endured in those hours of abandonment.
Do you say, It was not eternal? The answer is, He who was an infinite Person suffered infinite wrath-what a finite person can never exhaust. Once this is seen and understood, difficulties disappear. We must not take the commercial view of it, or we will become either universalists or believers in a limited atonement, 1:e., an atonement not sufficient to save all. We are not to think of Christ's sufferings as simply sufficient for a specified number of sins or sinners:that would mean that salvation is not available for all-that He did not suffer and die for all. He endured the penalty of sin for all (Heb. 2:9), and so procured for God the ground to righteously redeem. He has the right to redeem all; but God cannot apply redemption in un-holiness. This is as impossible as it is for Him to lie God has displayed His righteousness in providing a redemption in Christ Jesus. Having done so He makes all welcome to receive it; but it must be received as in Christ, not apart from Him; hence it cannot be available without faith in Him. It is provided for all, but only believers in Him actually receive and possess it. (See Rom. 3:22.)
To refuse redemption at the hands of Jesus Christ is a glaring affront to God. What can He do with those who thus affront Him but leave them to the portion they deserve? He has provided a way for them to escape. He cannot save them in any other way. So the despisers must suffer the just due of their sins-the judgment that must necessarily be eternal.
You speak of a man hanged for one murder, when he has committed a dozen, and remark:"In this case justice has been satisfied as to the one murder, but he has been put where justice cannot be done for the others." The illustration fails, because man's judgment does not apply to one that has died, while God's does. Nor does it illustrate the death of Christ. A man hanged for murder does not make an atonement. It is not a propitiatory death, to save from death and the judgment after death.
Christ was a Substitute. Being both God and man His worth exceeds the combined worth of angels and men. Combine the sins of angels and men:shall we say that the blood of Christ is not of sufficient value to cover them all? We cannot realize the transcendent value of His Person, and say so. It is true the apostate angels have no desire to seek shelter under that infinitely precious blood. Of how many men is that true also!
It is the fact that Christ endured infinite wrath that enables God to forgive and save. But, as we have already said, the forgiveness and salvation thus provided, and available for all, is only actually bestowed on those who come to Christ for it. Christ's propitiatory death has glorified God as to His holiness, His righteousness, His word, His wisdom and love. He has thus restored to Him His rights, and thus furnished a righteous ground where God is free to show unlimited mercy to all who will receive it, while every refusers of it must necessarily be abandoned to a doom from which he has refused to be delivered.
"He tasted death for every man," should probably be read, "He tasted death for everything." By His blood He has purchased all creation, and so by that title-the title of Redeemer-He will renovate it. It will be as the Redeemer, the Lamb once slain, that He will sit on the throne of judgment, where He will ratify the work of the Cross in the judgment after death.
Unbelievers will not only suffer for rejecting Christ, but for their sins-the deeds done in the body. (See Rev. 20:12-14.)
How blessed it is that believers can say, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." In so speaking they are saying nothing but what anyone is free to say if in his heart he bows to the truth which the Cross declares.
John 5:24 assures believers they will never come into judgment. John 8:51 puts it, "Will never taste of death." It is true that believers die, but not under the penalty of sin. Christ's death for us is our deliverance from death as penalty, so that death for believers is gain.
Necessarily, in writing, one has to be brief. To speak face to face would be more satisfactory. C. Crain