THE VICARIOUS SATISFACTION OF CHRIST

Part E 

His substitutionary, expiatory death in that He gave His life “a ransom for many.”

The Bible teaches that Christ is not only the victor over sin but that he fully appeased God’s wrath for sin and satisfied the demands of divine justice.  Christ “gave Himself a ransom for all.”⁴⁵ John wrote that Christ “has paid for our sin, and not for ours only but for the whole world.”⁴⁶ Isaiah wrote that “He was wounded for our transgressions.”⁴⁷

Footnotes

45 I Tim. 2:6.

46 John 2:2.

47 Isaiah 53:4-6.

Modern liberals only teach that Christ somehow conquered the power of sin, death, and the power of the devil, but they reject the real doctrine of the vicarious satisfaction of Christ. The Bible, however, clearly teaches that Christ is not only the victor over sin but that he also fully appeased God's wrath for sin and satisfied the demands of divine justice. God is both a holy and a loving God. Since he is holy, he cannot tolerate sin in his sight. All men have sinned and no man can wipe away the guilt of his own sin (Psalm 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1:8). God had decreed that because man had sinned he would perish in everlasting damnation (Romans 6:23). But then God in his great love sent his Son to suffer and die in the place of all men. Christ satisfied the demands of divine justice by his perfect obedience to the Law (Active Obedience) and by his death on the cross (Passive obedience).

Christ, who is expressly called "Priest" both in the Old Testament (Psaim110:4: "Thou art a Priest forever;" Zechariah 6:13; "a Priest upon His throne") and in the New ("a Priest forever," Hebrews 5:6) has in the state of humiliation reconciled the whole world to God. 2 Corinthians 5:19: "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself."

Christ reconciled the world to God by offering Himself as Propitiation to God for the sins of mankind. Paul declared that Christ "gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6). John wrote that Christ “has paid for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world" (1 John 2:2). William Beck correctly comments in a footnote on this verse in his translation of the New Testament: "His sacrifice wipes out our sins and changes God’s anger to love.” Isaiah prophesied concerning the coming Messiah: "Surely he hath borne our grief’s, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:4-6)." Otten, op. cit., p. 20.