Archives for October 2012

Question: You have said that Christ’s death for our sins was a satisfaction to God’s justice. Why don’t all professing Christians believe that?

Some professing Christians have rejected the historic understanding of Christ’s death as a satisfaction for sins. This is nothing new. Faustus Socinus (1539–1604), a forerunner of modern Unitarianism, raised a number of objections against this doctrine. The Socinians made Christ more of a teacher and example than a redeemer and priest.

What reasons do they give against the doctrine that Christ satisfied God’s justice?

G. H. Kersten outlined Socinus’s objections, and explained why they are false (Reformed Dogmatics [1980], 261, 263).

Objection 1: The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is not necessary. God is not bound to do justice. He is merciful and can simply forgive.

Objection 2: The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is absurd. How can the innocent one be punished, and the guilty one be acquitted? This would set a bad example and corrupt society.

Objection 3: The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is impossible. No one can pay someone else’s moral debt to God. No one can obey in someone else’s place.

Objection 4: The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is harmful. It makes Christ’s love greater than God’s mercy, because Christ was willing to pay when God was not willing to forgive. It also opens the door for people to sin because Christ paid for their sins.

How do you answer those objections?

1. The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is necessary because God is righteous and just in His very being. The Bible insists that God is just and the justifier of sinners who trust in Christ’s blood (Rom. 3:25–26). Forgiveness does not mean God pretends that no evil has been done. God forgives the guilt based on the satisfaction that He Himself paid in His Son.

2. The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is not absurd but most wise because glorifies both God’s mercy and justice. It shows that God’s righteousness and love do not compromise each other or fight against each other, but operate in perfect harmony. It does not corrupt society, but it saves corrupt men and makes them like God in both mercy and justice.

3. The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is possible because Christ, as a divine Person, has the power and freedom to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:17–18). He therefore could be the Surety, binding Himself to pay our debts to God, for He as God the Son was free from all debts.

4. The satisfaction of God’s justice by Christ is beautiful and helpful because it displays God’s mercy in Christ’s dying love. Christ did not give Himself against the Father’s will, but was sent by the Father because of the Father’s love for sinners (John 3:16). This does not give people permission to sin, but, if they truly receive Him, motivates them to also give their lives in service to others (Eph. 4:32–5:2).

Therefore, it is biblical and right for us to say that Christ acted as a substitute for His elect. He stood in their place to obey God’s law, bear the curse of sin, and pay the full price required to satisfy God’s justice.

God is mercifully just and justly merciful. Let us not fall into the error of Jacob Arminius, who said that God has a throne of mercy and a throne of justice, and His throne of mercy is exalted above His throne of justice. God has one throne, and there mercy and justice dwell together in infinite brightness and joy.

Both justice and mercy shine forth from the cross of Jesus with unspeakable beauty. Yes, His mercy shines all the brighter when seen in the light of His justice. His mercy is for hell-deserving sinners. Nor is it a reluctant mercy. God delights in mercy. That is why, as Luther said, Jesus Christ was reckoned the greatest sinner who ever lived. He that knew no sin became sin to satisfy the justice of God. God’s mercy did not ignore the debt, but paid the price.

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen. 18:25)

Question: I am starting to see why I would need a Mediator between God and me. But what do you mean by Him making satisfaction for my sins?

Satisfaction means to perfectly satisfy divine justice, that is, to make complete payment so that God’s justice is satisfied or appeased. In His passive and active obedience Christ gave perfect and complete satisfaction to the justice of God. That’s why He said He came “to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He died in the place of many as the payment of the price to set them free from what they deserved.

Why would God’s justice need to be satisfied?

God’s justice requires that sin receives punishment. Sin provokes God’s righteous hatred. Psalm 5:4–5 says, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” Psalm 11:6–7, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.”

Most people don’t believe that.

Sadly, no, they do not. The clear teachings of the Bible have little effect on their hearts. By nature we are prone to think God is like us. We want to hear only about God’s love but ignore His righteousness. But the sinner experiences something of God’s justice when God begins to work in his heart. For the first time in his life he does not excuse himself by looking at other people or outward circumstances. He sees into his own heart by the light of God’s Spirit and compares himself with God’s holy law. He experiences that no man shall be justified by that law, and says, “I am guilty. I really do deserve to go to hell forever.” God’s justice becomes solemnly real. In this way the sinner realizes that he needs a righteousness he does not have.

Doesn’t that drive men to despair?

It drives them to despair of themselves. It cuts off their hopes of saving themselves or making themselves worthy of heaven. No amount of prayer and good works can compensate God for our sins. All our prayers and works are stained by sin. It would be like trying to get out of debt by taking on more debt to pay the bills.

But it does not lead them to absolute despair. Instead it moves them to begin casting about for some hope outside of themselves. They cannot make satisfaction to God by their own obedience, so they look for someone else who can make satisfaction for them. By faith they look to Jesus Christ, whose passive and active obedience satisfies God’s just demands on men.

What is Christ’s passive and active obedience? How does it make satisfaction?

His active obedience means that Christ actively and perfectly obeyed and fulfilled the law of God in both its literal commandments and its spiritual intent, loving God above all and loving His neighbor as Himself for the full duration of His 33 years of life. He obeyed in the stead of His people who had disobeyed, thereby meriting their right to eternal life. Thus Romans 5:19b says that “by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

His passive obedience refers to Christ’s suffering or passion (Latin passio), patiently bearing and willingly drinking the full cup of God’s wrath against the sins of His elect. He took the full punishment due to their sins upon Himself in hellish sufferings and agonies, thereby satisfying the justice of God and removing the curse of the law from them. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

So there is a way, a glorious way, a fully-paid way for a sinner to escape God’s punishment by the work of Another. God looks upon the obedient sufferings of His Son and His justice is completely satisfied. As Christ said on the cross, “It is finished!”

No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

Why is it absolutely necessary that there be a Mediator between God and man?

Our sin has built a high wall and dug a vast gulf between God and us. Our greatest problem is the offense of our sins against God’s justice. As we saw from the Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 1) in the last post, we need a mediator “who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins.”

What qualifications must this Mediator meet in order to make satisfaction for my sins?

As the Canons of Dort (2.4) remind us, He must be truly man, perfectly holy, and the Son of God, possessing the same eternal, divine essence as the Father. Hebrews 2:17 says that he had to be truly human, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Hebrews 7:26 tells us he was holy and pure of all sin: “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” And Hebrews 1:1–3 says that this One who made “purification for sins” is God’s Son, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

Couldn’t Jesus just pray for God to forgive us?

We do need Him to intercede for us. But we also need Him to be the sacrifice of propitiation to satisfy God’s justice and turn away His anger. The Bible says in 1 John 2:1–2, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Abraham Hellenbroek said in his Specimen of Divine Truths (12.2) that Christ is the Mediator of intercession and also of reconciliation. He must not only pray, but also give Himself as the “ransom” (1 Tim. 2:6).

How does that comfort your soul?

It is a wondrous comfort to know that I belong to the Savior “who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins.” How comforting are those words “fully” and “all”! Ephesians 1:7 says, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Colossians 2:13 tells those made alive in Christ that God has “forgiven you all trespasses.”

How can I know that this is true, when I am so very guilty of sin?

You must rest your hope on Christ’s blood (Rom. 3:25; 5:9). The blood of Christ is exceedingly precious. By the blood of a sacrifice atonement is made for sin (Heb. 9:22). This is the blood of a perfectly righteous man who gave His life for sinners. This is the blood of a divine Person, the inseparable God-man whose life has infinite value. This blood is an acceptable sacrifice to the Father because it glorifies all God’s attributes in a beautiful harmony of divine justice, mercy, wisdom, and love. Thus this blood is precious in the experience of believers, who find all of their hope, all of their refuge, all of their salvation in His blood.