Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 - Shedd - XXIV - Chapter 2 Vicarious atonement continued

Required reading  

Dogmatic Theology Vol 2 by William G.T. Shedd (Available from Amazon or here) - Continue Chapter 2 'Vicarious atonement' by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'Having thus considered the nature of atonement, and the sufferings of the Mediator as constituting it, we proceed to notice some further characteristics of it.' (Page 434)

My summary  

This week we continue learning about types of suffering by hearing a discussion of the third species of suffering: punishment.

We learn:

(i) about both the quantity and quality of penal suffering;
(ii) about Christ's penal and atoning sufferings as ordinary and extraordinary;
(iv) that the positive inflictions on Christ were not emotional but judicial as it was not for his sin
(v) about the active and passive obedience of Christ.

What grabbed me

I thoroughly enjoyed the explanation that Shedd gave about the wrath of God towards his Son: 'Though the Father " smote," " wounded," and " bruised" the Son, he felt no emotional anger towards the person of the Son. The emotional wrath of God is revealed only against personal unrighteousness, and Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. The Father smote his " beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased," Matt. 3 : 17. At the very instant when the Father forsook the Son, he loved him emotionally and personally with the same infinite affection with which he had loved him " before the world was." When it is said that Christ experienced the " wrath of God," the meaning is, that he experienced a judicial suffering caused by God. The "wrath'' of God in this instance is not a divine emotion, but a divine act by which God the Father caused pain in Jesus Christ for a particular purpose. This purpose is judicial and penal, and therefore the act may be called an act of wrath...God the Father could love the Son, therefore, at the very instant when he visited him with this punitive act His emotion might be love, while his act was wrath. Nay, his love might be drawn forth by this very willingness of the Son to suffer vicariously for the salvation of man. " We do not admit," says Calvin (Inst., II. xvi. 11), " that God was ever hostile or [emotionally] angry with him. For how could he be angry with his beloved Son in whom his son delighted! or how could Christ by his intercession appease the Father for others, if the Father were incensed against him? But we affirm that he sustained the weight of the divine severity ; since being smitten and afflicted of God, he experienced from God all the tokens of wrath and vengeance.'

God the Father loved his obedient Son even as he poured out his wrath on him.

Next week's reading    

Continue Chapter 2 'Vicarious atonement' by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'Respecting the possibility of the substitution of penalty, it is to be observed: 1. In the first place, that the punishment inflicted by justice is aimed, strictly speaking, not at the person of the transgressor, but at his sin.' (Page 451)

Now it's your turn

Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.