Christ cursed for us

God cannot look where there is sin with any pleasure, and though as far as Jesus is personally concerned, he is the Father’s beloved Son in whom he is well pleased; yet when he saw sin laid upon his Son, he made that Son cry, ‘My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?’

It was not possible that Jesus should enjoy the light of his Father’s presence while he was made sin for us; consequently he went through a horror of great darkness, the root and source of which was the withdrawing of the conscious enjoyment of the Father’s presence. More than that, not only was light withdrawn, but positive sorrow was inflicted. God must punish sin, and though sin was not Christ’s by his actually doing it, yet it was laid upon him, and therefore he was made a curse for us … God only knows the griefs to which the Son of God was put when the Lord made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all. To crown all there was death itself.

— Charles Spurgeon, quoted by Steve Jeffery, et al. inPierced for Our Transgressions (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2007), 194

 

HT:OFI