‘“ Jesus Christ, who, when we were enemies, on ac- count of his great love wherewith he loved us, merited justification for us by his most sacred passion on the tree, and satisfied God the Father for us.”{ “The first and most excellent satisfaction is that by which whatever is due by us to God, on account of our sins, has been paid abundantly, although he should deal with us according to the strictest rigour of his justice. This is said to be that satisfaction which we say has appeased God and rendered him propitious to us; and for it we are in- debted to Christ the Lord alone, who, having paid the price of our sins on the cross, most fully satisfied God.’’§
* Book vy. 2 3. { Council of Trent, sess. 6, chap. vii. t Winer, p. 86. 2 Catechismus Romanus, 2, 5, 63.
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[E.] Luther and Calvin, and the fully pronounced cuavrer Creeds of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, all teach = the full doctrine embraced in the statement given wn the a he second chapter of this book, to the effect that the Satisfac- hy tion rendered by Christ includes both his active and his tionstrom passive obedience, and mfallibly secures for the believer ye 0 alike remission of the penalty inewrred by his sins and and Re- a title to the covenanted rewards of obedience. Churches.
‘Another principal part of our reconciliation with calvin. God was, that man, who had lost himself by his disobe- dience, should by way of remedy oppose to it obedience, satisfy the justice of God, and pay the penalty of sin. Therefore our Lord came forth very man, adopted the person of Adam, and assumed his name, that he might in his stead obey the Father; that he might present our flesh as the price of satisfaction to the just judgment of God, and in the same flesh pay the penalty which we had incurred.’”’* )
“When it is asked, then, how Christ by abolishing sin removed the enmity between God and us, and pur- chased a righteousness which made him favourable and kind to us, it may be answered generally, that he accom- plished this by the whole course of his obedience. .
In short, from the moment in which he assumed the form of a servant, he began, in order to redeem us, to pay the price of deliverance. Scripture, however, the more cer- tainly to define the mode of salvation, ascribes it peculi- arly and specially to the death of Christ. . . . Still there is no exclusion of the other part of obedience which ' he performed in life.” +
— “A man will be justified by faith when, excluded from the righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and, clothed in it, appears in the sight of God, not as a sinner, but as righteous.
* Calvin’s Institutes, book ii., chap. xii. 28. ft Ibid., chap. xvi. 25.
CHAPTER XIX.
The Heidel- berg Cate- chism.
The Second Helvetic Confes- sion.
270 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
Thus we simply interpret justification as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favour as if we were righteous ; and we say that this justification consists in the forgiveness of sins, and the imputation of the righteous- ness of Christ.”* ‘“ Hence when God justifies us through the intercession of Christ, he does not acquit us on a proof of our own innocence, but by an imputation of righteousness ; so that, though not righteous in ourselves, we are deemed righteous in Christ.” +
“By which the apostle means that we are accepted in his [Christ’s] name by God, because he has expiated our sins by his own death, and his obedience is imputed to us for righteousness. For since the righteousness of faith consists in the remission of sin, and gratuitous acceptance, we attain both through Christ.” {
The Heidelberg Catechism—one of the most generally adopted of all the Reformed Confessions, composed in 1563 by Ursinus and Olevianus—in answer to Question 60, ‘ How art thou justified in the sight of God?” says : “Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil, notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed, any sin; yea, as if I had fully accom- plished all that obedience which Christ hath accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believ- ing heart.”
The Second Helvetic Confession— composed by Bul- linger in 1564, and of very high authority among the Reformed Churches—says:§ ‘“ For Christ has taken
* Calv. Inst., book iii., chap. xi., ? 2. { Commentary on 1 Cor. i. 80. t Ibid., 2 3. 2 Chap. xv., De Vera Justificatione.
HISTORY OF OPINION. 271