CHAPTER VIII – The Substance of the Satisfaction of Christ
CHAPTER VIII – The Substance of the Satisfaction of Christ A digression containing the substance of a conference concerning the satisfaction of Christ.
About the time I was composing that part of the last argument which is taken from the satisfaction of Christ, someone came to the place where I live (whose name and everything else concerning him will be concealed out of respect for his modesty). To those who heard him in a private exercise about the sufferings of Christ, he seemed to enervate, indeed to overthrow, the satisfaction of Christ. Apprehending that to be a dangerous consequence, and to prevent further difficulty, I set myself briefly and plainly to oppose it. A little after, I willingly entertained a conference and debate (desired by the gentleman) about the point in question. Being carried along with that quietness and sobriety of spirit which befitted lovers of and searchers after truth, I easily perceived not only what his persuasion was in the thing in hand, but also the ground and sole cause of his misapprehension. It was briefly this:
The eternal, unchangeable love of God for his elect actually instated them in such a condition that they were incapable of having any satisfaction made for them. The result of that was to remove the wrath they were due, and to make atonement for their sins. Because it was an eternal preexisting love, they only lacked a clear manifestation of it to their souls. By such a manifestation they might be delivered from all that dread, darkness, guilt, and fear which was in and upon their consciences by reason of not understanding this love. That misapprehension came upon them through the fall of Adam.
Now, to remove this misapprehension, Jesus Christ was sent to manifest and declare the eternal good will of God towards them. Thus he bore and took away their sins by removing from their consciences this misapprehension of God and their own condition which they had by reason of sin. He did not satisfy the justice of God for their sins, for God was eternally well-pleased with them. The sum is this: election is asserted here to the overthrow of redemption.
What followed in our conference with whatever success it obtained by God's blessing will, for my part, rest in the minds and judgments of those who heard it; it was intended for their sake alone. The things themselves are first, of great weight and importance and of singular concern to all
Christians. Secondly, they contain a mixture of undoubted truth and no less undoubted errors, true propositions and false inferences, and assertions of necessary verities to the exclusion of others which are no less necessary.
And thirdly, they directly belong to the business in hand. I will briefly declare and confirm the whole truth in this business so far as opportunity was given by the exercise and debate before mentioned. I will begin with the first part of it concerning the eternal love of God for his elect, along with the state and condition they are placed in by it. Concerning this, you may observe, First, any objection to Christ's satisfaction is Pelagian or Arminian heresy.
What is now made by some to be a new doctrine of free Grace is indeed an old objection against it. The substance of it is that satisfaction by Christ is unnecessary as a consequence of eternal election. This was more than once objected to Austin [Augustine] by the old Pelagian heretics upon his clearing and vindicating that doctrine. The same objection, renewed by others, is also answered by Calvin in his Institutes lib. 2, cap. 16.
176 A number of schoolmen had also answered it before in their own way, as in Thom. 3.q.49, a.4.
177 Yet, despite its obvious senselessness, and the many solid answers which long before removed the objection, the Arminians, at the Synod of Dort, greedily snatched it up again. They placed it in the very front of their arguments against the effectual redemption of the elect by Jesus Christ. Now, what was only an objection in their arguments, is taken up by some among us as a truth. The absurd consequence of it is owned as just and good, and its conclusion is deemed necessary, from the granting of election to the denial of satisfaction.
Secondly, the Elect and the Reprobates are separate camps by nature.
Observe that where things are so opposed, it must be that they are separate:
"Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated," Rom. 9:13. By the one, men are "ordained to eternal life," Acts 23:48; by the other, men "were long ago ordained unto condemnation," Jude 4. Now if the elect are justified, and sanctified, and saved, merely because of God's decree that they will be so, and by which they need nothing but the manifestation of that truth, then it must be likewise for the reprobates. As soon as they are finally impenitent, damned, and burned, surely they lack nothing but a manifestation of that truth. Whether it is true or not, consult the whole dispensation of God towards them.
Thirdly, the Eternal Love of God is an act of will, not passion.
Consider the eternal love of God. Is it an affection in his eternal nature, as love is in ours? Once it was no less than blasphemy to conceive of it that way. His pure and holy nature, in which there is neither change nor shadow of turning, is not subject to any such passion. It must, then, be an eternal act of his will and that alone. In the Scripture, it is called his "good pleasure,"
Matt, 11:26; his "purpose according to election," Rom. 9:11; the "foundation of God," 2Tim. 2:19. Now, every eternal act of God's will is immanent in himself, and is not really distinguished from himself; whatever is so in God, is God. Hence, it puts nothing into the creature concerning whom it is directed, nor does it alter its condition at all. Indeed, it produces no effect until some external act of God's power makes it out.
For instance, God decreed from eternity that he would make the world. Yet we know the world was not made until about five thousand five hundred years ago.
178 But you will say, "It was made in God's purpose." That is, he purposed to make it. In the same way, he purposes there will be a day of judgment. Is there, therefore, actually a universal day of judgment already?
God purposes that he will justify and save certain persons in and through Christ. Are they therefore justified because God purposes it? It is true, they will be justified, because he has purposed it; but it is denied that they are so.
The consequence is inevitable from the divine purpose to the fruition of anything. This refers to the certainty of its event, not its actual existence.
When the Lord went to actually make the world in the beginning, there was
no world; so when he comes to bestow faith and actually justify a man, until he has done so, the man is not justified. The sum is this,
First, God willfully chooses to act in behalf of His elect.
The eternal love of God towards his elect is nothing but his purpose, his good pleasure. It is a pure act of his will by which he determines to do such and such things for them in his own time and way.
Secondly, no act of God changes the nature its object.
No purpose of God, no immanent eternal act of his will, produces any outward effect, or changes anything in the nature and condition of that thing concerning which his purpose is exercised. It only makes the event and its success necessary with regard to that purpose.
Thirdly, the wrath of God is also not passionate, but willful.
The wrath and anger of God that sinners lie under is not any passion in God, but only the outward effects of anger, such as guilt, bondage, etc.
Fourthly, God's love does not remove any conditions for His elect.
An act of God's eternal love, which is immanent in himself, does not exempt the creature from the condition in which he is under God's anger and wrath, until some temporal act of free grace really changes its state and condition.
For example: God holding the lump of mankind in his own power, like clay in the hand of the potter, determines to make some vessels for honor, to the praise of his glorious grace. Others he makes for dishonor, for the manifestation of his revenging justice. To this end, he suffers them all to fall into sin and the guilt of condemnation, by which they all become liable to his wrath and curse. His purpose to save some of these does not at all exempt or free them from the common condition of the rest with regard to
themselves and the truth of their estate; not until some actual thing is accomplished to bring them near to him. So that notwithstanding his eternal purpose, his wrath with regard to the effects of their sin and guilt abides on them until that eternal purpose makes itself out in some distinguishing act of free grace. This may be further manifested by these ensuing arguments:
1. Acknowledging God's election does not justify or reconcile us.
If the sinner wants nothing toward acceptance and peace with God except a manifestation of his eternal love, then evangelical justification is nothing but an apprehension of God's eternal decree and purpose. But this cannot be made out from the Scripture. God's justifying of a person is not making known to him God's decree of election; nor is man's justification an apprehension of that decree, purpose, or love. Where is any such thing in the book of God? It is true, there is a revelation of it made to justified believers, and therefore it is attainable by the saints. "God shedding abroad his love in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to them," Rom.
5:5. But it is after they are "justified by faith," and have "peace with God," verse 1. Believers are to give "all diligence to make their calling and election sure." But saying that justification should consist in this is a strange notion. Justification in the Scripture is an act of God. It is pronouncing an ungodly person, upon believing, to be absolved from the guilt of sin, and to gain an interest in the all-sufficient righteousness of Christ. This is how
God "justifies the ungodly," Rom. 4:5, "by the righteousness of God which comes to believers through faith in Jesus Christ," Rom. 3:22. Christ becomes righteousness for those who were sinful in themselves. But in this manifestation of eternal love, there is not the least foundation for a form of justification, though justification is not without a sense and perception of the love of God.
2. All men remain under the wrath of God until they are reconciled.
Before actual reconciliation, the Scripture is exceedingly clear that all men are in a like state and condition, without any real difference at all. The Lord reserves to himself his distinguishing purpose of the alteration that he will
effect afterward by his free grace: "There is none that does good, no, not one," Rom. 3:12; for "we have proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin," verse 9. All mankind is in the same condition, with regard to themselves and their own real state. This truth is not at all prejudiced by their relation to the eternal decrees; for "every mouth is stopped, and all the world has become guilty before God," Rom. 3:19. The word is hupodikos,
(NT:5267) meaning liable to his judgment. "Who makes you differ from another? And what have you that you did not receive?" 1Cor. 4:7. All distinguishment with regard to state and condition is by God's actual grace.
For even believers are "by nature children of wrath, even as others," Eph.
2:3. The condition, then, of all men during their unregeneracy is one and the same. The purpose of God concerning the difference that will be effected in the elect is referred to himself. Now, I ask whether reprobates in that condition lie under the effects of God's wrath or not? If you say "No," who will believe you? If so, then why not the elect also? The same condition has the same qualifications. We have proved there is not an actual distinguishment. Produce some difference that has a real existence, or the cause is lost.
3. The Elect are under God's wrath in the same way as Reprobates.
Consider what it means to lie under the effects of God's wrath according to the declaration of the Scripture. Then see whether the elect are delivered from it before their actual calling. Now, this consists in a number of things:
(1.) To be in such a state of alienation from God that none of their services are acceptable to him: "The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD," Prov. 28:9.
(2.) To have no outward enjoyment sanctified, but all things are unclean, Tit. 1:15.
(3.) To be under the power of Satan who rules at his pleasure in the children of disobedience, Eph. 2:2.
(4.) To be in bondage to death, Heb. 2:15.
(5.) To be under the curse and condemning power of the law, Gal. 3:13.
(6.) To be liable to the judgment of God, and to be guilty of eternal death and damnation, Rom. 3:19.
(7.) To be under the power and dominion of sin reigning in them, Rom.
6:19.
These and similar things are what we call the effects of God's anger.
Let anyone now tell me what the reprobates in this life lie under more than these? And do not all the elect, until their actual reconciliation in and by Christ, lie under the very same things?
(1.) Are not their prayers an abomination to the Lord? Can they please God without faith? Heb. 9:6. And we suppose them not to have faith, for if they have it, they are actually reconciled.
(2.) Are their enjoyments sanctified to them? Does anything have a sanctified relation without faith? See 1Cor. 7:14.
(3.) Are they not under the power of Satan? If not, then how does Christ come in and for them to destroy the works of the devil? Did not he not come to deliver his own from the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil? Heb. 2:14; Eph. 2:2, (4.) Are they not under bondage to death? The apostle plainly affirms that they are, all their lives, until they are actually freed by Jesus Christ, Heb.
2:14, 15.
(5.) Are they not under the curse of the law? How are they freed from it?
By Christ being made a curse for them, Gal. 3:13.
(6.) Are they not liable to judgment and guilty of eternal death? How is it, then, that Paul says that there is no difference, that all are subject to the judgment of God and are guilty before him? Rom. 3:9; and that Christ saves them from this wrath which was to come upon them with regard to merit? Rom 5:9; 1Thes. 1:10.
(7.) Are they not under the dominion of sin? "God be thanked," says Paul, "that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed," etc., Rom. 6:17.
In brief, the Scripture is more plentiful in nothing else than in laying and charging all this misery and wrath upon the elect of God, due to an unreconciled condition, until they actually partake in the deliverance by Christ.
But now some men think to wipe away all that has been said in a word.
They tell us that all this is only in their own apprehension, that these things are not so in themselves. But if these things are so only in the apprehension of the elect, why are they otherwise to the rest of the world? The Scripture makes no difference or distinction between them. And if it is so with all, then let all get this apprehension as fast as they can, and all will be well with the whole world, which is now miserably captived under a misapprehension of their own condition. That is, let them say the Scripture is a fable, and the terror of the Almighty is only a scarecrow to frighten children, that sin is only in conceit, and so square their life to their blasphemous fancies. Some men's words eat like a canker.
4. The Elect are not reconciled to God until they believe the Son.
Of particular passages of Scripture which might abundantly be produced to our purpose, I will content myself to name only one: John 3:36, "The one who does not believe the Son shall not see life; the wrath of God abides on him." It abides: there it was and there it will remain if unbelief is continued; but upon believing it is removed. "But is it not God's love by which we shall be freed from his wrath?" Who denies it? But is an apprentice free because he will be free at the end of seven years? Because God has purposed to free his people in his own time, and will do it, are they therefore free before he does it? "But are we not in Christ from all eternity?" Yes, we are chosen in him. Therefore, in some sense we are in him. But how? Just as we are. Actually, a man cannot be in Christ until he exists. Now, how can we be from eternity? Are we eternal? No. It is only that God from eternity has purposed that we will be eternal. Does this give us an eternal being? Alas! We are of yesterday. Being in Christ only respects God's purpose, and therefore from that we can only infer that we are not eternal until we believe.
Conclusion: Election does not remove the need for Christ's satisfaction.
This then being cleared, I hope it is apparent to all how miserable a strained consequence it is to argue from God's decree of election to the overthrow of
Christ's merit and satisfaction. The redemption wrought by Jesus Christ is indeed the chief means of carrying along that purpose of election to its execution, the pleasure of the Lord prospering in Christ's hand. The argument is undeniable from the purpose of God to save sinners, that the satisfaction of Christ for those sinners is the evident consequence of that purpose. The same act of God's will which sets us apart from eternity for the enjoyment of all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, also sets apart
Jesus Christ to be the purchaser and procurer of all those spiritual blessings by making satisfaction for all their sins. We will prove by these ensuing arguments that Christ did so, which is the main thing opposed in this digression.