Of The Death Of Christ, And Of The Efficacy Of His Merits
Chapter 9
OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST,
AND OF THE EFFICACY OF HIS
MERITS The sum of those controversies, with which the Arminians and their abettors have troubled the church about the death of Christ, may be reduced to two heads: First. Concerning the object of his merit, or whom he died for; secondly. Concerning the efficacy and end of his death, or what he deserved, procured, merited, and obtained for those for whom he died. In resolution of the first, they claim that he died for all and every one; of the second, that he died for no one at all, in the sense in which Christians up to now have believed: that he laid down his life and submitted himself to bear the burden of his Father's wrath for their sakes. It seems to me a strange extenuation of the merit of Christ to teach that, by his death, no good at all redounds241 to those for whom he died. What participation in the benefit of his suffering did Pharaoh or Judas have? Do they not at this hour, and shall they not to eternity, feel the weight and burden of their own sins? Did they have either grace in this world, or glory in the other, that they should be said to have an interest in the death of our Savior? Christians up to now have believed that Christ made satisfaction for the sins of those for whom he died, so that they themselves would not suffer eternally for them. Is God unjust to punish twice for the same fault? To punish his own Son once, and then again punish the poor sinners for whom he
Chapter 9: OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST AND THE EFFICACY OF HIS MERITS
suffered? I cannot conceive an intention in God that Christ would satisfy God's justice for the sin of those who were in hell some thousands of years before, and yet still be resolved to continue their punishment to all eternity. No, doubtless Christ gives life to every one for whom he gave his life; he loses not one of those whom he purchased with his blood.
The first part of this controversy may be handled under these two questions: First. Whether God by giving his Son, and Christ by making his soul a ransom for sin, intended to redeem all and every one from their sins, so that all and every one alike, from the beginning of the world to the last day, would all equally partake of the fruits of his death and passion – this purpose for the most part being frustrated?
Secondly. Whether God did not have a certain infallible intention to gather to himself a "chosen people," (Deut 7:6) to collect a "church of first-born," (Heb 12:22) to save his "little flock," (Luk 12:32) and to certainly bring some to happiness by the death of his only Son – which he accomplishes in the event of his Son's death?
The second part also may be reduced to these two heads: First.
Whether Christ did not make full satisfaction for all the sins of those for whom he died, and merited glory or everlasting happiness, to be bestowed on them upon the performance of those conditions God would require? Secondly (which is the proper controversy I shall chiefly insist upon). Whether Christ did not procure for his own people the power to become the sons of God, and merit and deserve for them, grace, faith, righteousness, and sanctification from the hands of God, whereby they may infallibly be enabled to perform the conditions of the new covenant, upon which they shall be admitted to glory?
To the first question of the first part of the controversy, the Arminians answer affirmatively – that Christ died for all alike; the benefit of his passion belongs equally to all the posterity of Adam. And to the second negatively – that God had no such intention to bring many chosen sons to salvation by the death of Christ, but determined grace and glory no more precisely to one than to another, to John no
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more than to Judas, to Abraham no more than to Pharaoh. Both of these, as the learned Moulin observed,242 seemed to be invented to make Christianity ridiculous, and expose our religion to the derision of all knowing men. For who can possibly conceive that by the appointment of God, one should die for another, and yet that other, by the same justice, be allotted to death himself, when only one's death was due; that Christ should have made a full satisfaction for their sins who shall everlastingly feel the weight of them themselves; that he should merit and obtain reconciliation with God for those who live and die as his enemies; that he should merit and obtain grace and glory for those who are graceless in this life and damned in the life to come; that he should get remission of sins for those whose sins were never pardoned? In brief, if this sentence is true, then Christ did not reconcile us to God by his death, nor make satisfaction to God's justice for our iniquities, nor redeem us from our sins, nor purchase a kingdom, an everlasting inheritance for us – which I hope no Christian would say; or else all the former absurdities must necessarily follow – which no rational man will ever admit.
Nor may we be charged as straiteners243 of the merit of Christ; for we advance the true value and worth of it (as will appear shortly) far beyond all the Arminians ascribe to it. We confess that that "blood of God," Acts 20:28, the blood of the "Lamb without blemish and without spot," 1 Peter 1:19, was so exceedingly precious, and of that infinite worth and value that it might have saved a thousand believing worlds, John 3:16; Rom 3:22. His death was of sufficient dignity to have been made a ransom for all the sins of every one in the world. And on this internal sufficiency of his death and passion is grounded the universality of evangelical promises; these have no such restriction in their own nature that they should not be made to all and every one, though the promulgation and knowledge of them are tied only to the good pleasure of God's special providence, Mat 16:17.244 This is also true of that economy and dispensation of the new covenant whereby, the partition-wall being broken down, there remains no more
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difference between Jew and Gentile – the utmost borders of the earth have been given for Christ's inheritance. So that, in some sense, Christ may be said to die for "all," and "the whole world;" – first, inasmuch as the worth and value of his death was sufficient to have paid a price for all their sins; secondly, inasmuch as this word "all" is taken for some of all sorts (not for every one of every sort), as it is frequently used in the holy Scripture. So Christ being lifted up, "drew all to himself," John
12:32; that is, believers out of all sorts of men. The apostles cured all diseases, or some of all sorts: they did not cure every particular disease, but there was no kind of disease that was exempted from their power of healing. So that where it is said that Christ "died for all," it means either first, all the faithful; or, secondly, some of all sorts; thirdly, not only Jews, but Gentiles. For – Secondly. The proper counsel and intention of God in sending his
Son into the world to die was that thereby he might confirm and ratify the new covenant to his elect, and purchase for them all the good things which are contained in the tenure of that covenant – grace and glory; so that by his death he might bring many (yet some certain) children to glory, obtaining for those that were given to him by his
Father (that is, his whole church) reconciliation with God, remission of sins, faith, righteousness, sanctification, and life eternal. That is the end to which they are to be brought, and the means by which God would have them attain it. He died that he might gather the dispersed children of God, and make them partakers of everlasting glory – to "give eternal life to as many as God gave him," John 17:2. The intercession of Christ for his elect and chosen people is founded on this purpose, of himself and his Father – performed partly on earth
(John 17) and partly in heaven before the throne of grace. This is nothing but a presentation of himself and his merits before God, accompanied by the mediatorial prayers that God would be pleased to grant and effectually apply the good things he has obtained by his merits, to all those for whom he has obtained them. His intercession in heaven is nothing but a continued oblation245 of himself. So that
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whatever Christ impetrated,246 merited, or obtained by his death and passion, must be infallibly applied to and bestowed on those for whom he intended to obtain it; or else his intercession is in vain, and his mediatorial prayers are not heard. An actual reconciliation with God, and a communication of grace and glory, must befall all those that have any such interest in the righteousness of Christ as to have it accepted for their good. The sole end why Christ would so dearly purchase those good things, is an actual application of them to his chosen. God set forth the propitiation of his blood for the remission of sins, that he might be the justifier of him which believes on Jesus, Rom 3:25-26.
But this part of the controversy is not what I principally intend; I will only give you a brief sum of those reasons which overthrow their heresy in this particular branch of it: –
First. The death of Christ in diverse places of the Scripture is restrained to his "people," and "elect," his "church," and "sheep," Mat
1:21; John 10:11-13; Acts 20:28; Eph 5:25; John 11:51,52; Rom 8:32,34; Heb 2:9,14; Rev 5:9; Daniel 9:26 – and therefore the good purchased by his death ought not to be extended to "dogs,"
"reprobates," and "those that are without."
Secondly. For whom Christ died, he died as their sponsor, in their place and turn, so that he might free them from the guilt and desert of death; which is clearly expressed Rom 5:6-8. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed," Isaiah
53:5,6, etc. "He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal 3:13. "He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin," 2 Cor 5:21. Evidently he changes turns with us, "so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Indeed, in other things, it is plain in the Scripture that to die for another is to take his place, with an intention that the other should live, 2 Samuel 18:33;
Rom 5. Thus Christ, in dying for men, made satisfaction for their sins, so that they would not die. Now, for those sins for which he made satisfaction, the justice of God is satisfied; which surely is not done for
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the sins of reprobates, because he justly punishes reprobates to eternity for themselves, Mat 5:26.
Thirdly. For whom Christ "died," for them also he "rose again," to make intercession for them. For their "offenses he was delivered;" for their "justification he was raised," Rom 4:25, 5:10. He is a high priest
"to make intercession for them" in the holy of holies for whom "by his own blood he obtained eternal redemption," Heb 9:11-12. These two acts of his priesthood are not to be separated: it belongs to the same mediator to sacrifice for sin, and to pray. Our assurance that he is our advocate is grounded on his being a propitiation for our sins. He is an "advocate" for every one for whose sins his blood was a "propitiation,"
1 John 2:1-2. But Christ does not intercede and pray for all, as he himself often testifies, John 17:9; he "makes intercession" only for those who "come to God by him," Heb 7:25. He is not a mediator of those that perish, any more than he is an advocate of those that fail in their suits; and therefore the benefit of his death must also be restrained to those who are finally partakers of both. We must not so disjoin the offices of Christ's mediatorship, that one office may be wrapped247 around some towards whom he does not exercise the other; much less ought we thus separate the several acts of the same office. For whom Christ is a priest (offering himself as a sacrifice for their sins), he is surely a king (applying to them the good things purchased by his death), as Arminius himself confesses; much more to whom he is a priest by sacrifice, he will be a priest by intercession. And therefore, seeing that he does not intercede and pray for every one, he did not die for every one.
Fourthly. For whom Christ died, he merited grace and glory, faith and salvation, and reconciliation with God; as I will show afterward.
But he has not done this for all and every one. Many never believe; the wrath of God remains on some; the wrath of God abides on those that do not believe, John 3:36. To abide argues a continued, uninterrupted act. Now, to be reconciled to one, and yet to lie under his heavy anger,
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seem to me ajsu>stata – things that scarcely go together. The reasons are many; I only point at the heads of some of them.
Fifthly. Christ died for those whom God gave to him to be saved:
"Yours they were, and you gave them me," John 17:6. He lays down his life for the sheep committed to his charge, John 10:11. But all are not the sheep of Christ; all are not given to him by God to be brought to glory; for of those that are given to him, there is not one that perishes,
(Joh 18:9) for "he gives eternal life to as many as God has given him,"
John 17:2. "No man is able to pluck them out of his Father's hand,"
John 10:28-29.
Sixthly. Look at whom, and how many, the love of God embraced, which was the cause of sending his Son to redeem them. For them, and only so many, according to the counsel of his Father and in himself,
Christ intentionally laid down his life. Now, this love is not universal.
It is his "good pleasure" to bless with spiritual blessings and save some in Christ, Eph 1:4-5. This good pleasure of his evidently comprehends some, while others are excluded, Mat 11:25-26.248 Indeed, the love of God in giving Christ for us has the same extent as that grace whereby he calls us to faith, or bestows faith on us: for "he has called us with a holy calling, according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus," 2 Tim 1:9; which, doubtless, is not universal and common to all.
There are innumerable other reasons which prove that God has given only his elect, only those whom he loved, to Christ to be redeemed; that the Son loves only those who are given to him by his
Father, and redeems only those whom he loves; and that the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the Son, sanctifies only those who are elected and redeemed. Therefore, it is with preposterous liberality on our part, and it is against the testimony of Christ himself, to assign the salvation attained by him, as due those outside the congregation of those whom the Father has loved and chosen, and who are outside the church which the Son loved and gave his life for. None of these are members of that sanctified body of which Christ is the Head and
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Savior. I urge no more, because this is not part of the controversy that I desire to lay open.
I come now to consider the main question of this difference, though sparingly handled by our divines, concerning what our Savior merited and purchased for those for whom he died. And here you shall find the old idol playing his pranks, and quite divesting the merit of Christ from the least ability or power of doing us any good. For though the Arminians pretend, very speciously, that Christ died for all men, yet, in effect, they make him die for no one at all. And they do this by denying the effectual operation of his death, and by ascribing the proper issues of his passion to the brave endeavors of their own
Pelagian deity.
We, according to the Scriptures, plainly believe that Christ has, by his righteousness, merited grace and glory for us; that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in, through, and for him; (Eph 1:3) that he is made unto us righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; (1
Cor 1:30) that he has procured for us (and that God for his sake bestows on us) every grace in this life that makes us differ from others,
(2 Cor 9:8) and all that glory we hope for in what is to come; (Eph 2:7) that he procured for us remission of all our sins, (Act 10:43) an actual reconciliation with God, (Rom 5:11) faith, and obedience. (Rom 1:5)
But this is such an extreme doctrine that it stabs at the very heart of their idol, and it would make him altogether useless, as if he were but a fig-tree log. What would remain for him to do if all the things in this great work of our salvation must be thus ascribed to Christ and the merit of his death? For this reason, the worshippers of this great god,
Free-will,249 oppose their engines against the whole fabric of it; and on behalf of their imaginary deity, they decry the title of Christ's merits to these spiritual blessings.
Now, the things about which we contend before the King of heaven are twofold, each part producing its own evidence. The first part springs from the favor of God towards us, and the second from the working of his grace actually within us. I shall handle them severally
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and apart – especially because we lay a double claim on God's behalf to things of this latter sort. They are "gifts" as we call them, which enable us to fulfill the condition required to attain glory. This is so first, because the death of Christ is the meritorious cause which procures them from him; secondly, because his free grace is their efficient cause which works them in us. These [Arminians] also produce a double title, whereby they invest their beloved darling [Free-will] with sole propriety in causing these effects; and this is so, first, in the regard that they are our own acts, performed in us and by us; and secondly, because they are parts of our duty which we are enjoined to do. So that the quarrel is directly between Christ's merits and our own free-will in procuring the favor of God, and obtaining grace and righteousness. Let us see what they say to the first.
They assert that "the immediate and proper effect or end of the death and passion of Christ is not an actual ablation of sin from men, nor an actual remission of iniquities, nor the justification and redemption of any soul;"250 that is, Christ's death is not the meritorious cause of the remission of our sins, nor of our redemption and justification. The meritorious cause, I say. For some of these ends, such as justification (as it terminates in us), we confess there are causes of other kinds – for example, faith is the instrument of it, and the Holy
Spirit is the efficient cause of it. But for the sole meritorious procuring cause of these spiritual blessings, we have always taken it to be the righteousness and death of Christ. We believed plainly that the end for which Christ died, and the fruit of his sufferings, was our reconciliation with God, redemption from our sins, freedom from the curse, and deliverance from the wrath of God and the power of hell.
Though we are not actual partakers of these things, to the pacification of our own consciences, without the intervening operation of the Holy
Spirit, and the faith that is wrought in us by him.
But if this is not so, then pray tell what is obtained by the death of Christ? Why, "a potential, conditional reconciliation, not actual and absolute," says Corvinus.251 Yet this potential reconciliation is a new
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expression that is never intimated in the Scripture, and is scarcely intelligible of itself. Thus we want a further explanation of their mind, to know what it is that they directly assign to the merits of Christ.
Therefore they tell us that the fruit of his death was "such an impetration or obtaining of reconciliation with God, and redemption for us, that God thereby has a power – his justice being satisfied, and so it is not compelling him to the contrary – to grant remission of sins to sinful men on whatever condition he would have;"252 or, as another speaks of it, "By the effusion of Christ's blood, a right was obtained and settled in God, to reconcile the world [to himself], and to open to all a gate of repentance and faith in Christ." 253 But now, whereas the Scripture everywhere affirms that Christ died for our good, to obtain blessings for us, to purchase our peace, to acquire and merit for us the good things contained in the promise of the covenant, this opinion seems to restrain the end and fruit of his death to obtaining a power and liberty for God to prescribe for us a condition whereby we may be saved. Yet perhaps this much at least Christ obtained from God on our behalf: that God would assign faith in Christ to be this condition, and to bestow this faith on us also. No, they say; neither the one nor the other. "After all this, if it seemed good to his wisdom, God might have chosen the Jews, and others, following the righteousness of the law, as well as believers; because he might have assigned any other condition of salvation besides faith in Christ," says Grevinchovius.254
Notwithstanding, then, the death of Christ for us, they say we might have been held to the old rule, "Do this, and live." But if this is true, I cannot perceive how it may be said that Christ died to redeem us from our sins, to save our souls, and to bring us to glory. Perhaps they do not think this is any great inconvenience; for the same author affirms that "Christ cannot properly be said to die to save any one."255 And a little afterward he more fully declares that "after Christ had obtained all that he obtained by his death, the right remained wholly in God to apply it, or not to apply it, as it seemed good to him; the application of grace and glory to any man was not the end for which Christ obtained them,
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but it was only to get a right and power for God to bestow those things on whatever sort of men he would;"256 – which does not argue a redemption from our sins, but a vindication of God from such a condition in which he did not have power forgive them; it does not obtain salvation for us, but a liberty for God to save us on some condition or other.
But now, after God has gotten this power by the death of Christ, and out of his gracious good pleasure he has assigned faith to be the means for us to attain those blessings, he has procured for himself a liberty to bestow them. Did Christ obtain this faith for us from God, if it is not a thing in our own power to obtain? No; "faith is not obtained by the death of Christ," says Corvinus.257 So there is no good thing, no spiritual blessing, in which any man in the world has any interest by the death of Christ. This would not be so great an absurdity except that they are most ready to grant it! Arnoldus confesses, "that he believes that the death of Christ might have enjoyed its end, or his merit its full force, even if no one had ever believed:" and again, "The death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished, it might come to pass that, none having fulfilled the condition of the new covenant, none would be saved." 258 So also says Grevinchovius. O Christ! That anyone pretending to profess your holy name would thus slight the precious work of your death and passion! Surely none before, who counted it their glory to be called Christians, ever thus extenuated259 the dignity of Christ's merit and satisfaction (except their friends the Socinians).
Take but a short view of the benefit they allow to redound to us by the effusion of his precious blood, and you may see what a pestilent heresy these men have labored to bring into the church. Christ has purchased for us neither faith nor salvation, grace nor glory – we cannot claim that any spiritual blessing is ours by our interest in his death! It is not such a reconciliation with God that thereupon he would be content again to be called our God; it is not justification, nor righteousness, nor actual redemption from our sins; it did not make
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satisfaction for our iniquities and deliver us from the curse; "it was only a means to obtain such a possibility of salvation, that God might save us if he would, without wronging his justice one way or the other."260 So that, when Christ had done all that he could, there was not one man in the world who was immediately the better for it; notwithstanding the utmost of his endeavor, every one might have been damned with Judas to the pit of hell; for "he died as well for Simon Magus and Judas as he did for Peter and Paul," say the Arminians.261 Now, if no more good redounds to us by the death of Christ than it does to Simon Magus, we are not much obliged to Christ for our salvation. No, he may rather be said to have redeemed
God than us; for he immediately procured for God a power to redeem us if he would; by virtue of that power, he only procured for us a possibility to be redeemed – which leaves nothing of the nature of merit annexed to his death; for merit requires that something be done, not only that it may be done; the workman deserves that his wages be given to him, and not that they may be given to him. And then what becomes of all the comfort and consolation that is proposed to us in the death of Christ? But it is time to see how this stubble is burned up and consumed by the word of God, and how what they thought to overthrow, is established.
First. It is, clear that Christ died to procure for us an actual reconciliation with God, and not just a power to be reconciled to him; for "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son," Rom 5:10. We enjoy an actual reconciliation to God by Christ's death. God is content to be called "our God" when we are enemies, (Rom 5:10) without any intervening condition on our part being required; though, before we believe in him, our souls are not compassed by the sweetness, comfort, and knowledge of this reconciliation. Again, we have remission of sins by his blood, and justification from them; not just a vindication into such an estate that, if it pleases God and ourselves, our sins are pardonable. For we are
"justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
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Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins," Rom
3:24-25. Yes, he obtained righteousness and holiness for us by his death. "He gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," Eph 5:25-26; "that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle;" so that we would be "holy and without blemish," verse 27, where, first, we have those for whom
Christ died or gave himself (his church); secondly, we have what he obtained for them – holiness and righteousness, freedom from the spots and blemishes of sin; that is, he obtained the grace of justification and sanctity. "He made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor 5:21. And, lastly, he died to purchase for us "an eternal inheritance," Heb 9:15. So that both grace and glory are bestowed on those for whom he died, as the immediate fruits of his death and passion.
Secondly. See what the Scripture rJhtw~v, "expressly," assigns as the proper end and immediate effect (according to the purpose of God and his own intention) of the effusion of the blood of Jesus Christ, and you will find that he intended to take away the sins of many by it; to "make his soul an offering for sin," so that he might "see his seed," so that "the pleasure of the LORD might prosper in his hand," Isaiah
53:10; to be "a ransom for many," Mat 20:28; to "bear the sins of many," Heb 9:28. He "bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we should live to righteousness," 1 Peter 2:24; so that "we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor 5:21; thereby reconciling us to God, verse 19. He died to "reconcile us to God in the body of his flesh through death," so that we might be "holy and unblamable," Col 1:21-22; to "purge our sins," Heb 1:3; to "obtain eternal redemption for us," Heb 9:12. So that if Christ obtained by his death what he intended, then he has purchased for us not only a possibility of salvation, but actual holiness, righteousness, reconciliation with God, justification, freedom from the guilt and
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condemning power of sin, everlasting redemption, eternal life, and glory in heaven.
Thirdly. I appeal to the conscience of all Christians – First. Whether they do not suppose that the very foundation of all their consolation is struck at when the following places in Scripture are twisted so as to say that Christ only did something from which these things might perhaps follow? Heb 9:12, 14-15, 24, 28; Isaiah 53:10; 1
John 2:2, etc – these places affirm that Christ died to take away our sins, to reconcile us to God, to put away or abolish our transgressions, to wash and regenerate us, to perfectly save us, and to purchase for us an everlasting redemption, whereby Christ becomes to us righteousness, redemption, and sanctification, the Lord our righteousness, and we become the righteousness of God in him,
Secondly. Whether they do not think it is an easy way to impair their love and to weaken their faith in Christ, when they are taught that Christ has done no more for them than for those who are damned in hell; that however great their assurance that Christ died for them, there is still enough to be laid to their charge to condemn them; that although God is said to have reconciled them to himself in Christ, Col
1:19-20, yet indeed he is as angry with them as with any reprobate in the world; that God does not love us first, but as long as we continue in a state of enmity against him, and before our conversion, he continues to be our enemy also – so that the first act of friendship or love must be performed on our part, notwithstanding that the Scripture says,
"When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God," Rom 5:10?
Thirdly, Whether they have not up to now supposed themselves bound to believe that Christ died for their sins, and rose for their justification? Do they not think it is lawful to pray that God would bestow grace and glory on them for Christ's sake? And to believe that Jesus Christ was such a mediator of the new covenant, that he procured for the persons he covenanted with all the good things comprehended in the covenant promise?
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I will not press this prevarication262 against Christian religion any further. I desire only that all those who love Jesus Christ would seriously consider whether these men truly aim at his honor, and advance the dignity of his merit? Or do they rather praise their own endeavors, seeing that the sole cause of denying these glorious effects of the blood of Christ is to appropriate the praise of them to themselves
(as we will see in the next chapter).
These charges are never to be waived by the vanity of their sophistical distinctions, as [they have waived] impetration and its application. Though impetration may be received in an orthodox meaning, yet it is not to be received in that sense (or rather nonsense) for which they abuse it – namely, as though Christ had obtained for some what will never be imparted to them; that all the blessings procured by his death are proper to none, but are hanging in the air for those who can or will catch them. When we object that by this means all the efficacy of the merit of Christ is in our own power,263 they readily grant it, and say it cannot be otherwise. Let those who can, receive these monstrosities into Christianity. For my part, in the following contradictory assertions, I choose rather to adhere to the authority of the word of God, than of Arminius and his sectaries:
S.S.
Lib. Arbit.
"He made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor 5:21. "He loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might present it unto himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,"
Eph 5:25,27.
"The immediate effect of the death of Christ is not the remission of sins, or the actual redemption of any," Armin.
"Christ did not properly die to save any one," Grevinch.
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," 2 Cor 5:19.
"A potential and conditionate reconciliation, not actual and absolute, is obtained by the death of Christ," Corv.
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"When you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand," Isaiah 53:10.
"I believe it might have come to pass that the death of Christ might have had its end, though never any man had believed,"
Corv.
"By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities,"
Isaiah 53:11.
"The death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished, yet it may so come to pass that, none at all fulfilling the condition of the new covenant, none might be saved," Idem.
"Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," Heb 9:28. "By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us," chapter 9:12. "He has reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable," Col 1:21,22.
"The impetration of salvation for all, by the death of Christ, is nothing but the obtaining of a possibility thereof; that God, without wronging his justice, may open unto them a gate of mercy, to be entered on some condition," Rem. Coll. Hag.
"Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins," etc.: "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus," Rom 3:25,26.
"Notwithstanding the death of Christ, God might have assigned any other condition of salvation as well as faith, or have chosen the Jews following the righteousness of the law," Grevinch.
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we were healed," 1 Peter 2:24.
"Why, then, the efficacy of the death of Christ depends wholly on us."
"True; it cannot otherwise be," Rem.
Apol.