Recently I have been thinking about what went on in the Spiritual realm during the time Christ was in the tomb. Those must have been dark days in heaven. As I thought more, I realized that it was through Jesus’s suffering and death God’s justice was satisfied – that is, the sins of all mankind were paid for. As much as the human part of Jesus suffered physically and mentally, it seems one man’s, one human’s suffering and death would not, could not be enough to balance the scales of justice for all the sins of all mankind for all time. It had to be the suffering of the divine part of Jesus that met God’s justice.

But how does a divine being suffer? We have no idea. However, we can know the extent or magnitude of it. It had to be enough to pay for all the sins of man. One way to grasp it is this: during those days Jesus was in the tomb, His divine nature suffered as much as if all who ever lived or would live (117 billion as of 2021) suffered and died for their own sins. It is as if Jesus was crucified not once but more than 117 billion times. That’s how much divine suffering Christ had to endure for us.

Wow! How much does God value each of us? How much does each of us matter to God? He chose to create us even though He knew it would cost Christ (God the Son) this much suffering. This reminds me of Jesus’s parable of the 99 sheep which were safely in the fold and the one which was lost. The good shepherd left the 99 and went and found the one lost sheep. Each one of us is like the lost sheep. Each of us is extremely valued and loved by God.