Among all the ways to understand this haunting question, here is one that should stop you cold: If the innocent substitute for sinners suffered like this, what will happen when the sinner himself—the dry tree—falls into the hands of an angry God?

When God looked at Jesus bearing our sin, he did not spare him. And when he finds the unregenerate without Christ, he will not spare them either.

O sinner, Jesus was led away by his enemies—so will you be dragged away by fiends to the place appointed for you! Jesus was deserted by God; and if he, who was only imputedly a sinner, was deserted, how much more will you be? "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" What an awful shriek! But what will your cry be when you scream, "O God! O God! Why have you forsaken me?" and the answer comes back: "Because you have set at nought all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes."

If God spared not his own Son, how much less will he spare you!

What whips of burning wire will be yours when conscience smites you with all its terrors! You richest, you merriest, you most self-righteous sinners—who would stand in your place when God says, "Awake, O sword, against the man who rejected me; smite him, and let him feel the smart forever"?

Jesus was spit upon: sinner, what shame will be yours! We cannot sum up in one word all the mass of sorrows which met upon the head of Jesus who died for us; therefore it is impossible for us to tell you what streams, what oceans of grief must roll over your spirit if you die as you now are.

You may die so—you may die now.

By the agonies of Christ, by his wounds and by his blood, do not bring upon yourselves the wrath to come! Trust in the Son of God, and you shall never die.