The Sufferings of Christ's Soul

 

(notes based on Francis Turretin's Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 2, pgs. 352-356)

Question: Did Christ in truth bear the spiritual and infernal punishments of sin themselves (in the superior as well as in the inferior part) properly in himself and from a sense of God's wrath? We affirm. 

Argument #1 - In John 12:27, Christ says "now is my soul troubled." In Matthew 26:38, He says "My soul is sorrowful (perilypos) even unto death." 

Bellarmine responds to this argument by citing a few different church fathers (Hilary, Jerome, Ambrose, Chrysostom). In this case, we confess that it is indeed true that these fathers interpret this passage to speak of things such as Christ's being sorrowful over the sin of Judas Iscariot and the Jews, as well as the disciples fleeing away from Him. However, this does not exclude that Christ also sorrowed out of dread of his bodily sufferings on the cross, which is why He began to sweat great drops of blood. We would have to disagree with Jerome when he says that Christ was not in any way sorrowful on account of death. 

Argument #2 - Just as man had sinned in both his body and soul, so Christ also must suffer in both the soul and body in order that they may both be redeemed. Hence Irenaeus says "The Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh" (Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 1)

Argument #3 - Christ was made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13), meaning that he undergoes the punishment for sin prescribed by the law. It is agreed (even by some of the papists, such as the Jesuit Juan Maldonatus) that Christ suffered the whole curse of the law. Since the curse of the law (cf. Gen. 2:17) pertained to both body and soul, therefore Christ also suffered in both His body and soul. 

Argument #4 - It is agreed upon by all that Psalm 22 is a prophecy of Christ's sufferings, the type of which are the sufferings of King David. But David also experienced suffering in his soul and heart (vv. 11, 14, 24), therefore Christ did as well. While it is true that the antitype is greater than the type even in this case, here it is not in respect of Christ supposedly suffering only in His body, but rather in respect of Christ's sufferings as having a far greater end than David's, namely the redemption and salvation of the elect. 

Answers to Objections

Objection #1 - "The Scriptures attribute our whole salvation to the bodily blood and death of Christ himself, and after his bodily death they acknowledge no further suffering (Philippians 2:8-9)." (Robert Bellarmine, On Christ)

Answer: When the Holy Scriptures attribute salvation to the cross and bodily death of Christ, this is not said to exclude his sufferings of soul. Rather it is said, by way of synecdoche denominating the whole the external aspect (the bodily sufferings). 

Objection #2 - "The animal sacrifices of the ceremonial OT law foreshadowed the sufferings of Christ. Since these were merely physical and external, such must also have been the case with the sufferings of Christ. Therefore, He did not experience any suffering in His soul. 

Answer: The sufferings of Christ's soul are contained in a general sense under the types of the OT. For example, fire is a symbol of divine wrath and it consumed the animal sacrifices. In this sense, it foreshadowed the sense of divine wrath which Christ experienced in His own soul.

Objection #3 - "Hebrews 10:10 says that Christ offered His body. It says nothing about His soul."

Answer: In this passage from Hebrews, there is not an antithesis between Christ's body and soul. Rather, the antithesis is between Christ's sacrifice and the Levitical sacrifices which were so often repeated, hence it emphasizes that Christ offered his body "once for all time."

Important Clarification/The Views of John Calvin

By this doctrine, we would never in any way teach that Christ despaired or damned. However, there are many Papists (such as Bellarmine and Taylor Marshall) who have accused Calvin of saying things like this, particular in Book 2, Chapter 16 of the Institutes.

Samuel Rutherford, Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself [London: Andrew Crooke, 1647], pg. 6)

However, having read the Institutes myself, Calvin never said such a wicked thing. Here is the relevant passage from Calvin (as quoted by Dr. Marshall):

"But, apart from the Creed, we must seek for a surer exposition of Christ’s descent to hell: and the word of God furnishes us with one not only pious and holy, but replete with excellent consolation. Nothing had been done if Christ had only endured corporeal death. In order to interpose between us and God’s anger, and satisfy his righteous judgement, it was necessary that he should feel the weight of divine vengeance. Whence also it was necessary that he should engage, as it were, at close quarters with the powers of hell and the horrors of eternal death [What!!! Christ suffered eternal death and the pains the hell!].We lately quoted from the Prophet, that the “chastisement of our peace was laid upon him” that he “was bruised for our iniquities” that he “bore our infirmities;” [the authors of Scripture and the Fathers apply these prophecies to the crucifixion–not to any penal condemnation in hell] expressions which intimate, that, like a sponsor and surety for the guilty, and, as it were, subjected to condemnation, he undertook and paid all the penalties which must have been exacted from them, the only exception being, that the pains of death could not hold him. Hence there is nothing strange in its being said that he descended to hell, seeing he endured the death which is inflicted on the wicked by an angry God. It is frivolous and ridiculous to object that in this way the order is perverted, it being absurd that an event which preceded burial should be placed after it. But after explaining what Christ endured in the sight of man, the Creed appropriately adds the invisible and incomprehensible judgement [so the cross as visible judgment was not enough. Christ suffered in hell…] which he endured before God, to teach us that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of redemption, but that there was a greater and more excellent price – that he bore in his soul the tortures of condemned and ruined man." (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapter 16)

There is nothing in this passage that says Christ was damned to hell. Calvin does not even use that word here at all.

On the contrary, hear what Calvin says in his Harmony of the Gospels:

"The solution, is easy, although the sense apprehended the destruction of the flesh, still faith stood fixed in his heart, by which he beheld a present God, concerning whose absence he complained" (Calvin, Harmony of the Gospels [trans. A.W. Morrison 1972], 3:208)