I had misbehaved in a worship service. My father promised me that I would be appropriately punished when we arrived home. He proceeded to fulfill his promise as soon as we walked through the door. He told me to lay my body across a piano bench. He removed his belt and said, “Son, this will hurt me more than it hurts you.” I laughed aloud and said something like “Yeah!” Perceiving that I did not believe him, he told me to rise from the bench, and then placed his chastening instrument in my hand and laid his own body across the bench, and told me to administer my punishment to himself. I told him I would not. He then said, “Son, if you do not, you will wish you had!” I knew him well enough to know what that meant. I therefore lightly applied the belt to his posterior. He told me to do so harder. I did somewhat harder, only to hear him demand I do so as hard as I could. I eventually complied, with all the might of a boy about twelve years of age, and in a manner as to have surely hurt him more than he ever would have hurt me.

That was the worst punishment I ever experienced – except for the following:

I had sinned against God. He promised me that I would be appropriately punished, and that “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). I knew He would keep His word, for that Father does not lie or forget. Doing so evidently grieves Him in some way I am not certain I understand, for He repeatedly says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 18:32; 33:11). But I continued to defy Him, and would not believe Him. Just before the punishment was to be inflicted upon me, He in the person of the God-Man took my place and stead, and stretched His sinless body upon an accursed tree, and endured the punishment I deserved and would have administered with all the malicious force I could muster.

Now, that was truly the worst punishment I ever experienced! I experienced it in three ways.

First, I count myself among the inflictors of Christ’s punishment. Knowing the native depravity of my heart, I gladly and gleefully would have joined the number of those of whom it is said “you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 2:22f). Yes, I see myself when I see those who said “Crucify Him!”, beat His body, plowed His back with a whip, plucked the beard from His face, crushed a crown of thorns into His brow, drove spikes into His hands and feet, and pierced His side with a spear, and then jeered Him as He suffered such ignominy.

Second, I was the reason for Christ’s punishment. Through the gospel afterward preached to me I learned that I was among those of whom it is said, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:3-5). He did that for me!

Third, I was a participant in Christ’s punishment. “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20; cp. 6:14). And I am among the number of those of whom it is said “we have been united together in the likeness of His death, ... our old man was crucified with Him .... we died with Christ” (Romans 6:5-8).

However, I also am a benefactor of Christ’s punishment. Because He was punished for me, I am among the number of those of whom it is said “by His stripes we are healed. .... By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5, 11). And because I was in Him when He was punished, I was also in Him when He was raised from the dead and exalted in glory, where I shall be in and with Him for all eternity.

Therefore, the worst punishment I ever experienced resulted in the greatest blessing I shall ever receive. And just as I hated myself and loved my earthly father all the more after the punishment he endured for me, so do I now hate my sin and love Christ all the more because of what He endured for me. Is it so with you?