Jesus' Death In Our Place
(Lake of Fire and Brimstone Series - Part 1)

If Jesus' death was to take our place, then the penalty He suffered for our sins should be equivalent to our penalty and to what those who do not accept His death on their behalf will have to suffer. This is important to understand when we get to the point of trying to understand what will finally happen to the lost in the Lake of Fire experience.

This is part one of a seven-part study on the true meaning of The Lake of Fire and Brimstone. See the Fire and Brimstone Introduction and summary of topics.

We are told in Romans:

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom 6:23)

Either we pay the penalty ourselves or Jesus' death on our behalf pays it for us. Note that the penalty is simply death, not torture and not crucifixion. The form or means or agent of death is not specified. We need to understand also that this is not talking about the first death that every human dies at the end of their life. Everyone dies the first death whether they will finally be saved or not. No, the death spoken of is the second death which will only happen after the final judgment.

Understand that God did not devise crucifixion - the Romans did that as a means of executing who they regarded as criminals in the most painful and humiliating way they could. And God did not require that His Son be crucified although He foresaw and predicted it. He did allow it to happen and, actually, this relates, in a very interesting way, to Jesus' resurrection and the sign of Jonah mentioned in Matt 12:39.

For now, understand that Jesus, who died both the first death and the second on the same day, died a second death similar in character to the lost who will finally have to suffer the second death (the wages of sin) for themselves because they have not availed themselves of the provided substitute.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isa 53:5)

The character of Jesus' death (second death experience) was that of separation from God. That is why He cried out:

"... My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46)

It is that final, eternal separation from God that the lost will experience in the final judgment that Jesus experienced (tasted) for them:

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Heb 2:9)

The wrath of God is better understood as God leaving the sinner because of man's sin thus removing His protection and exposing him to the destroyer.

The next page in this series (part 2) will look at the final judgment and its fire and help us to understand how the Bible uses the term fire.