8.5 Section V

    Section V.—The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him.

Exposition This section relates to the ends gained, or the effects accomplished, by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ. It is affirmed—

1. That he hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father. Retributive justice is essential to God, as a moral governor; and the exercise of it, upon the entrance of sin, was indispensably necessary. Christ, as the surety of those whom the Father had given unto him, made a true and proper satisfaction to divine justice, by enduring in their stead the very punishment which their sins deserved. "He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." "He finished transgression, made an end of sins, and made reconciliation for iniquity." "He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."—Heb. ix. 26; Dan. ix. 24; Gal. iii. 13

"Our Lord’s sufferings, as our surety, possessed everything requisite to a true and proper satisfaction for sin; he suffered by the appointment of God, who alone had a right to admit of the death of a surety in the room of transgressors; he suffered in the same nature that had sinned; his sufferings were voluntary and obediential, and therefore possessed a moral fitness for making reparation to the injured honours of the divine law; he was Lord of his own life, and had a right to lay it down in the room of others; and his sufferings were, from the dignity of his person, of infinite value for the expiation of our sins." That the sacrifice of Christ was fully satisfactory to divine justice, cannot be questioned. An apostle testifies, that the sacrifice which he offered up was "for a sweet-smelling savour unto God."—Eph. v. 2. Christ himself announced that the satisfaction was complete, when, on the cross, he proclaimed, "It is finished." And we have a most decisive proof of the satisfactory nature of his sacrifice, in his resurrection from the dead, and his glorious exaltation in heaven.

2. He purchased reconciliation for his people. This necessarily flows from the former; for if justice is fully satisfied, God’s judicial displeasure must be turned away. It is sin which separates between God and sinners; and, therefore, Christ made reconciliation by satisfying divine justice for sin—the cause of the separation. God was not merely rendered reconcilable, but fully reconciled, by the death of Christ. If God were only reconcilable, then some acts of our own must be the proper ground of our reconciliation. But such a sentiment is subversive of the gospels which everywhere declares, that Christ made reconciliation by his death.—Rom. v. 10. From this, however, it will by no means follow, that the elect are in a state of actual reconciliation, either from the time of Christ’s death, or from the first moment of their own existence. The Scripture represents them as being "by nature children of wrath, even as others." A sure foundation for their reconciliation was laid by the death of Christ; but they are only actually reconciled to God when, by that faith which is of divine operation, they accept of pardon and peace as obtained by Christ, and freely exhibited to them in the gospel. "We joy in God," says an apostle, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement," or rather the reconciliation.—Rom. v. 11.

3. He purchased for his elect an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. Christ not only sustained the full infliction of the penalty of the law, to obtain for his people deliverance from condemnation, but also perfectly fulfilled its precept, to procure for them a title to the eternal inheritance. Indeed, his endurance of the penalty, and his obedience to the precept of the law, though they may be distinguished, cannot be separated, and constitute that one righteousness which is meritorious of their complete salvation. "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord."—Rom. v. 21. "By Christ’s satisfaction," says the accurate Witsius, "deliverance from sin, and all the happy effects of that immunity, were purchased at once for all the elect in general ".