I want to start be pointing out that the reason our sin is considered deserving of such as awful sentence as hell is because of the nature of the one against whom we have rebelled. 'Sin is infinitely heinous because it is directed against an infinitely holy and perfect God' (Jeffery, Ovey and Sach).
If hell is what our sin deserves how could Jesus have paid the penalty for it? Surely for the cross to be equitable with the punishment that we deserve Christ must suffer an infinite punishment. After all hell will be a punishment of eternal duration (Mark 9:48) and Jesus is paying the penalty for a multitude of people.
The answer lies in the dignity of the person who was punished. Christ is the one in whom the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Col. 2:9), his incarnation was an act of infinite condescension, the Apostle Paul marvels at the fact that this one would humble himself to death--even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6-8), his blood is of infinite worth. Turretin (1623-87) writes 'Christ alone ought to be estimated at a higher value than all men together. The dignity of an infinite person swallows up . . . all the infinities of punishment due to us.' 'Thus Christ's suffering, though it lasted only a finite time, was infinite in value because he is infinitely worthy' (Jeffery, Ovey and Sach).
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