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Chapter 3Dort.1.3

Caput II: De Morte Christi, et Hominum per eam Redemptione

God's Justice Demands Satisfaction

God's perfect justice and mercy meet in the demand that sins against infinite majesty be punished, yet satisfaction is required to escape that judgment.

God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. His justice demands — as he himself revealed in his word — that our sins, committed against his infinite majesty, be punished not only with temporal but also with eternal punishments, both of the soul and of the body: and we cannot escape these punishments unless God's justice is satisfied.12

The Son Given as Our Guarantor

Out of immense mercy, God gave his only-begotten Son as our guarantor, who became sin and a curse for us on the cross.

Since we ourselves can't satisfy God's justice or free ourselves from God's wrath, out of his immense mercy God gave us his only-begotten Son as our guarantor. To make satisfaction on our behalf, he was made sin and a curse for us on the cross, in our place.✦✦34

The Infinite Worth of Christ's Death

The death of the Son of God is the one perfect sacrifice for sins, of infinite worth and abundantly sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.

This death of the Son of God is the one and most perfect sacrifice and atonement for sins, of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world.

Why His Death Is So Precious

Christ's death is of such great value because the one who suffered is both perfectly holy man and eternal Son of God, and because he bore the full weight of God's wrath and curse on our behalf.

This death, then, is of such great value and worth because the one who underwent it is not only a true and perfectly holy man, but also the only-begotten Son of God, of the same eternal and infinite essence as the Father and the Holy Spirit — which is exactly what our Savior had to be. Next, his death was bound up with the experience of God's wrath and the curse that we had earned through our sins.

The Gospel Promised to All

The promise of eternal life to all who believe in Christ crucified must be proclaimed to all peoples without distinction, together with the call to repentance and faith.

Moreover, the promise of the Gospel is this: whoever believes in Christ crucified will not perish but will have eternal life.✦ This promise should be proclaimed and offered to all peoples and to all people, to whom God in his own good pleasure sends the Gospel, without distinction or partiality, together with the call to repentance and faith.5

Unbelief Is Our Own Fault

That many who are called through the Gospel perish in unbelief is not due to any defect in Christ's sacrifice but to their own fault.

That many are called through the Gospel yet do not repent, and do not believe in Christ, but perish through unbelief — this is not due to any defect or insufficiency in Christ's sacrifice offered on the cross, but to their own fault.

Grace Alone Preserves the Believers

All who truly believe are freed and preserved from sin and destruction through Christ's death, by God's grace alone, which was given to them in Christ from eternity.

All who truly believe, and are freed and preserved from sins and destruction through the death of Christ — to them this benefit falls, from God's grace alone, which is owed to no one, and which was given to them in Christ from eternity.6

God's Eternal Redeeming Purpose

God's most free counsel was that Christ would effectively redeem all and only the elect — granting them faith, cleansing them from all sins, guarding them to the end, and presenting them glorious without spot or stain.

For this was the most free counsel of God the Father, and his most gracious will and intention: that the life-giving and saving power of his Son's most precious death might exert itself in all the elect — that they alone, by faith that justifies, might be granted to salvation and through it be infallibly brought to safety. That is, God willed that Christ, through the blood of the cross (by which he confirmed the new covenant), from every people, tribe, nation, and language, would effectively redeem all and only those who from eternity were chosen for salvation and given to him by the Father; that he would grant them faith (which, like other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he acquired for them by his own death), cleanse them from all sins — both original and actual, committed both before and after faith — with his own blood, faithfully guard them to the very end, and at last present them glorious before himself, without any spot or stain.78

The Church Founded on His Blood

From the beginning of the world to the present, God's eternal love for the elect has been powerfully at work, gathering a Church founded on Christ's blood — a bride for the Bridegroom who laid down his life on the cross.

This purpose, flowing from eternal love for the elect, has been powerfully at work from the beginning of the world right up to the present moment — the gates of hell straining against it in vain — and it will go on being fulfilled: the elect will be gathered into one in their own times, and there will always be some community of believers, a Church founded on the blood of Christ, that steadfastly loves, perseveringly honors, and forever praises in this life and into all eternity that Savior of hers who, like a bridegroom for his bride, laid down his life for her on the cross.✦✦✦910

Read the original Latin

Deus non tantum est summe misericors, sed etiam summe justus. Postulat autem ejus justitia (prout se in verbo revelavit), ut peccata nostra, adversus infinitam ejus majestatem commissa, non tantum temporalibus, sed etiam æternis, tum animi, tum corporis, pœnis puniantur: quas pœnas effugere non possumus, nisi justitiæ Dei satisfiat.

Cum vero ipsi satisfacere, et ab ira Dei nos liberare non possimus, Deus ex immensa misericordia Filium suum unigenitum nobis Sponsorem dedit, qui, ut pro nobis satisfaceret, peccatum et maledictio in cruce pro nobis, seu vice nostra, factus est.

Hæc mors Filii Dei est unica et perfectissima pro peccatis victima et satisfactio, infiniti valoris et pretii, abunde sufficiens ad totius mundi peccata expianda.

Ideo autem hæc mors tanti est valoris et pretii, quia persona, quæ eam subiit, non tantum est verus et perfecte sanctus homo, sed etiam unigenitus Dei Filius, ejusdem aeternæ et infinitæ cum Patre et Spiritu S. essentiæ, qualem nostrum Servatorem esse oportebat. Deinde, quia mors ipsius fuit conjuncta cum sensu iræ Dei et maledictionis, quam nos peccatis nostris eramus commeriti.

Cæterum promissio Evangelii est, ut quisquis credit in Christum crucifixum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam æternam. Quæ promissio omnibus populis et hominibus, ad quos Deus pro suo beneplacito mittit Evangelium, promiscue et indiscriminatim annunciari et proponi debet cum resipiscentiæ et fidei mandato.

Quod autem multi per Evangelium vocati non resipiscunt, nec in Christum credunt, sed infidelitate pereunt, non fit hoc hostiæ Christi in cruce oblatæ defectu, vel insufficientia, sed propria ipsorum culpa.

Quotquot autem vere credunt, et per mortem Christi a peccatis, et interitu liberantur ac servantur, illis hoc beneficium, ex sola Dei gratia, quam nemini debet, ab æterno ipsis in Christo data, obtingit.

Fuit enim hoc Dei Patris liberrimum consilium, et gratiosissima voluntas atque intentio, ut mortis pretiosissimæ Filii sui vivifica et salvifica efficacia sese exereret in omnibus electis, ad eos solos fide justificante donandos, et per eam ad salutem infallibiliter perducendos: hoc est, voluit Deus, ut Christus per sanguinem crucis (quo novum fœdus confirmavit) ex omni populo, tribu, gente, et lingua, eos omnes et solos, qui ab æterno ad salutem electi, et a Patre ipsi dati sunt, efficaciter redimeret, fide (quam, ut et alia Spiritus Sancti salvifica dona, ipsis morte sua acquisivit) donaret, ab omnibus peccatis, tum originali, tum actualibus, tam post, quam ante fidem commissis sanguine suo mundaret, ad finem usque fideliter custodiret, tandemque absque omni labe et macula gloriosos coram se sisteret.

Hoc consilium, ex æterno erga electos amore profectum ab initio mundi in præsens usque tempus, frustra obnitentibus inferorum portis, potenter impletum fuit, et deinceps quoque implebitur: ita quidem ut electi suis temporibus in unum colligantur, et semper sit aliqua credentium Ecclesia in sanguine Christi fundata, quæ illum Servatorem suum, qui pro ea, tanquam Sponsus pro sponsa, animam suam in cruce exposuit, constanter diligat, perseveranter colat, atque hic et in omnem æternitatem celebret.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩2Cor.5.21 — God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
  2. ↩Gal.3.13 — Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree."
  3. ↩John.3.16 — For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.
  4. ↩Eph.5.25 — Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.
  5. ↩Matt.16.18 — And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
  6. ↩Eph.1.4-Eph.1.5 — just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love Eph.1.5 — He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The parenthetical (prout se in verbo revelavit) is rendered as an em-dash parenthetical to preserve the subordinate, explanatory force without disrupting the main clause's flow.
  2. 2 ↩The ut after prout is read as a result/consecutive clause ('so that... be punished') rather than a purpose clause, given the context of divine justice; this fits the doctrinal argument that sin against infinite majesty proportionally demands eternal punishment.
  3. 3 ↩Sponsorem (guarantor/surety): the Son is given as the one who undertakes the debt and obligation we could not fulfill; the term carries substitutionary and covenantal weight.
  4. 4 ↩peccatum et maledictio factus est — 'was made sin and a curse' echoes 2 Cor 5:21 and Gal 3:13; rendering keeps the substitutionary sense of the Latin rather than paraphrasing into general suffering-language.
  5. 5 ↩cum resipiscentiæ et fidei mandato is rendered as 'together with the call to repentance and faith' (mandatum as authoritative charge/commission); an alternative reading is 'with the command of repentance and faith' (mandatum as divine command).
  6. 6 ↩The ablative absolute 'ab æterno ipsis in Christo data' could mean either that the grace was given 'from eternity' (timelessly, in God's decree) or that it was given 'from eternity' to them personally; the translation preserves both possibilities. 'Obtingit' (rare) rendered as 'falls to them' in the sense of 'accrues to their lot.'
  7. 7 ↩The Latin is a single long periodic sentence; broken into readable English clauses while preserving the explanatory 'hoc est' expansion and the nested relative clauses.
  8. 8 ↩fide justificante rendered 'by faith that justifies' to preserve the participial-theological force; 'efficaciter redimeret' rendered 'effectively redeem' to keep the efficacy language.
  9. 9 ↩The Latin period is a single long sentence; broken into readable English clauses while preserving the logical flow of impletum fuit / implebitur and the result clause introduced by ita...ut.
  10. 10 ↩anima rendered as 'life' in the idiom 'lay down his life' (animam suam exposuit), not 'soul', following the lexeme policy's life/self allowance for idioms.

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