Questions
Did God punish Jesus on the cross?
God did not pretend you were Jesus 2000 years before you even existed and punish Him as if He were you. God does not punish the innocent and cover up the crimes of the guilty so they can go free to sin with impunity. Punishing the innocent is not only unjust. It is bearing false witness about that person and their state and what they have and have not done. Justice cannot be satisfied by injustice. Justice is not achieved by doing the exact opposite of what it calls for.
The standard
Did God act unjustly? No. Is God a wrongdoer? No. Does God do what He hates? Does God go against His own law? No. Principle over interpretation, always. Popular does not equal truth. The truth is, God is good. Who is doing the act is not what determines if it is good or not. The act plus motive does.
Most Christians know what justice is in every day life. They are horrified when an injustice is done to someone. For example, who wouldn’t be angered at an innocent man being falsely accused of a crime and punished for it? But as soon as God enters in the mix, justice goes out the window. “God can do what He wants. He’s God,” like a bad parent who says “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Then who punished Him?
Jesus says who was doing this to Him. And it wasn’t God. From the cross Jesus said, “Father don’t hold this against them, for they are ignorant” (Luke 23:34) — naming who was punishing Him unjustly.
In Acts 2:23 Peter says Jesus was delivered up “by the set purpose of God,” yet nailed to the cross by the “hands of lawless men.” It was God’s will that the righteousness of Christ be displayed for all to see, not to punish the innocent.
What about Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2:24?
Nowhere does Isaiah 53 say God punished His Son in our place. It says He was put to death because of what they did to Him — because of their iniquities and that this was done for their benefit.
“He bore our sins in His body” (1 Peter 2:24) — in other words, He took the blows. The sins He bore in His body were the wrongs men committed against Him.
“Punished in our place” has to be read into the text because that’s not what it says.
So why did Christ die?
This is the reason Christ came and died — not to take the wrath of God meant for us, but to test His motive because of the accusation Satan made against God in the rebellion. Christ wasn’t punished by God. He was unjustly punished by men, which God allowed for this very reason.
God does not and never will punish the innocent. That includes His own Son.
God on Trial: The Oldest Accusation, Settled at the Cross — coming 2027.