Did Jesus suffer the pains of Hell on the cross?

How are Christ's sacrificial sufferings related to the sufferings of the lost in hell?

What was infinite in character (the sufferings of our Lord Jesus at Calvary) and what will be eternal in duration (the sufferings of the lost in the lake of fire) should be carefully distinguished. A reverent consideration of the Bible's descriptions of Calvary indicates that the Lord Jesus endured the unmitigated judgment of God. His was an infinite capacity to feel and to suffer. His holy emotions, unclouded by sin, fully registered the approaching storm when He was in Gethsemane. He endured the totality of that judgment on the cross. Prophetically, His language was, "Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves." "All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me." Although the flood waters were "restrained" in Noah's day, no such limitations restricted the flood-tide of grief that swept over His holy soul. Typologically, the scapegoat, whose death was in an uninhabited land, points to the One Whose sufferings were incomprehensible to the human mind. How could we measure His sufferings when He Who is absolute Holiness was, at the same time, "made sin for us?" Not only was the Savior suffering for countless others' sins, but God, through His Son, was condemning sin in the flesh. How correct Samuel Stennett was, "What he endured no tongue can tell to save our souls from death and hell!" Saying, "Christ suffered our hell" not only claims too much but also says too little. He suffered infinitely more than we could have endured through endless ages.

E Higgins

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