“When Jesus took the curse upon Himself, He so identified with our sin that He became a curse… At the moment that Christ took upon Himself the sin of the world, He became the most grotesque, most obscene mass of sin in the history of the world… I have heard many sermons about the physical pain of death by crucifixion. I’ve heard graphic descriptions of the nails and the thorns. Surely the physical agony of crucifixion was a ghastly thing. But there were thousands who died on crosses and may have had more painful deaths than that of Christ… But only one person has ever received the full measure of the curse of God while on a cross… On the cross Jesus was in the reality of hell… He became a curse for us so that we someday will be able to see the face of God. So that the light of His countenance might fall upon us, God turned His back on His Son. No wonder Christ screamed (Mark 15:34).”
R.C. Sproul, Saved from What?, 83–85.