Alan Dale Gross
Active Member
CHRIST’S PENAL WORK
Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)
"SCRIPTURE plainly teaches that God is both holy and righteous and that “justice and judgment”—not “love and pity”—are the establishment of God’s “throne” (Psa 89:14).
"Thus, there is that in the Divine Essence that abhors sin for its intrinsic 37 sinfulness, both in its respect of pollution and in its aspect of guilt. The perfections of God are therefore displayed by both forbidding and punishing the same.
"He has pledged Himself that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:4).
"Therefore, in order for a full satisfaction to be rendered unto God, sin must be punished; the penalty of the Law must be enforced. Consequently, as Savior of His Church, Christ had to suffer vicariously the infliction of the Law’s curse.
"What we shall now seek to show is that the sufferings and death of Christ were a satisfaction to Divine justice on behalf of the sins of His people. In case any shoul behalf of the sins of His people d object against our use of the term satisfaction, let us point out that this very word is found in our English Bibles, being given by the translators as the equivalent for the Hebrew word that is ordinarily rendered atonement:
“Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction38 for the life of a murderer, 12 which is guilty of death: but he shall surely be put to death. And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest” (Num 35:31-32).
"The deep humiliation to which the Son of God was subjected in taking upon Him the form of a servant and being made “in the likeness of sin’s flesh,” was a judicial infliction imposed upon Him by the Father, yet voluntarily submitted to by Himself.
"The very purpose of His humiliation, His obedience, and His sufferings makes them pe-nal, 39 for they were unto the satisfying of the claims of God’s Law upon His people.
"In being “made under the law” (Gal 4:4), Christ became subject to all that the Law enjoins: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law” (Rom 3:19), which means the Law calls for the fulfillment of its terms.
“Christ, in our room and stead, did both by doing and suffering satisfy Divine justice…the legislatory, the retributive, and the vindictive40 in the most perfect manner, fulfilling all the righteousness of the Law, which the Law otherwise required of us in order to impunity 41 and to our having a right to eternal life.”42
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust” (1Pe 3:18).
"The reference here must not be restricted to what Christ endured at the hands of God while He hung upon the Cross, nor to all He passed through during that day and preceding night. Beware of limiting the Word of God! No. The entirety of His humiliation is here included.
"The whole life of Christ was one of sufferings. Therefore was He designated “the Man of sorrows,” not simply, “sorrow.” From His birth to His death, suffering and sorrow marked Him as their legitimate Victim. While yet an infant, He was driven into exile to escape the fury of those who sought His life. That was but the prophetic forerunner of His whole earthly course. The cup of woe, put to His lips at Bethlehem, was never removed until He Drained its bitter dregs at Calvary."
37 intrinsic – belonging to something as a basic and essential feature of what it is.
38 satisfaction – Hebrew = kopher.
39 penal – subject to punishment under the law.
40 legislatory…retributive…vindictive – the legal, punishing, vengeful aspects of justice.
41 impunity – freedom from punishment.
42 Herman Witsius (1636-1708), The Economy of the Covenants
between God and Man, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Thomas Turnbull), 207.
Other areas covered in this article;
He experienced every variety of suffering. He tasted . poverty in its severest rigor. Born in a stable, owning no property on earth, depend-ent upon the charity of others (Luk 8:3), oftentimes being worse sit-uated than the inferior orders of creation (Mat 8:20). He suffered reproach in all its bitterness. The most malignant43 accusations,
the vilest aspersions,44 the most cutting sarcasm were directed against His person and character. He was taunted with being a glutton, a winebibber,45 a deceiver, a blasphemer, a devil. Therefore do we hear Him crying, “Reproach hath broken my heart” (Psa 69:20). He experienced temptation in all its malignity...."
Man having allowed himself to be overcome by Satan, Man having allowed himself to be overcome by Satan, God has by a just sentence o be overcome by Satan, God has by a just sentence God has by a just sentence delivered him up as a slave to delivered him up as a slave to his tyranny. Therefore was it necessary that Christ his tyranny. , as His sinful people’s Substitute, should be exposed to the harrassings of the Devil, that in this respect also He might satisfy Divine justice. Most assuredly Satan and his agents could never have assailed Christ had He not been so (legally) charged with the guilt of our crimes that God righteously exposed Him to injuries from them (Act 2:23). The elect themselves, as sinners, were subject to Satan’s power (Col 1:13), and that by the righteous sentence of the Judge of all the earth. Therefore were they not only the “prey of the mighty,” but also were “lawful captives” (Isa 49:24). Therefore, as Christ came here as Surety in their room, He, by virtue of God’s sentence, also became subject to the buffetings of Satan...."
The Scriptures speak of the satisfaction of Christ. When the Scriptures speak of the satisfaction of Christ, they a tures speak of the satisfaction of Christ, they as rist, they ascribe it to His sufferings in general. cribe it to His sufferings in general. cribe it to His sufferings in general. “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa 53:4), that is, He suffered all the pains and sorrows due to us from sin. It is to be most carefully noted that the inspired declaration “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6) comes before “He was oppressed” and before “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”
"It was at the commencement of His public ministry, and not while He hung upon the Cross, that God moved one of His servants to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29). Christ was brought “to the slaughter” before the three hours of darkness, yet even then “affliction” lay upon Him; and our iniquity was exacted of Him. So too this very chapter (Isa 53) ascribes our “healing” to the stripes that He received from men as plainly as other passages attribute our being delivered from the curse of the Law through God’s visiting Him with its curse...."
See next post: https://www.baptistboard.com/thread...to-us-the-penal-nature-of-jesus-death.131554/
From:
Free Grace Broadcaster
Published by Chapel Library . 2603 West Wright St. . Pensacola.
SUBSTITUTION #207
Contents
The Heart of the Gospel 1
Christ’s Federal Work 5
The Great Exchange Explained 7
Christ’s Penal Work 11
An Entire Pardon 16
Satisfaction and Substitution Outlined 20
God’s Wisdom in Christ’s Substitution 23
Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)
"SCRIPTURE plainly teaches that God is both holy and righteous and that “justice and judgment”—not “love and pity”—are the establishment of God’s “throne” (Psa 89:14).
"Thus, there is that in the Divine Essence that abhors sin for its intrinsic 37 sinfulness, both in its respect of pollution and in its aspect of guilt. The perfections of God are therefore displayed by both forbidding and punishing the same.
"He has pledged Himself that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:4).
"Therefore, in order for a full satisfaction to be rendered unto God, sin must be punished; the penalty of the Law must be enforced. Consequently, as Savior of His Church, Christ had to suffer vicariously the infliction of the Law’s curse.
"What we shall now seek to show is that the sufferings and death of Christ were a satisfaction to Divine justice on behalf of the sins of His people. In case any shoul behalf of the sins of His people d object against our use of the term satisfaction, let us point out that this very word is found in our English Bibles, being given by the translators as the equivalent for the Hebrew word that is ordinarily rendered atonement:
“Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction38 for the life of a murderer, 12 which is guilty of death: but he shall surely be put to death. And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest” (Num 35:31-32).
"The deep humiliation to which the Son of God was subjected in taking upon Him the form of a servant and being made “in the likeness of sin’s flesh,” was a judicial infliction imposed upon Him by the Father, yet voluntarily submitted to by Himself.
"The very purpose of His humiliation, His obedience, and His sufferings makes them pe-nal, 39 for they were unto the satisfying of the claims of God’s Law upon His people.
"In being “made under the law” (Gal 4:4), Christ became subject to all that the Law enjoins: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law” (Rom 3:19), which means the Law calls for the fulfillment of its terms.
“Christ, in our room and stead, did both by doing and suffering satisfy Divine justice…the legislatory, the retributive, and the vindictive40 in the most perfect manner, fulfilling all the righteousness of the Law, which the Law otherwise required of us in order to impunity 41 and to our having a right to eternal life.”42
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust” (1Pe 3:18).
"The reference here must not be restricted to what Christ endured at the hands of God while He hung upon the Cross, nor to all He passed through during that day and preceding night. Beware of limiting the Word of God! No. The entirety of His humiliation is here included.
"The whole life of Christ was one of sufferings. Therefore was He designated “the Man of sorrows,” not simply, “sorrow.” From His birth to His death, suffering and sorrow marked Him as their legitimate Victim. While yet an infant, He was driven into exile to escape the fury of those who sought His life. That was but the prophetic forerunner of His whole earthly course. The cup of woe, put to His lips at Bethlehem, was never removed until He Drained its bitter dregs at Calvary."
37 intrinsic – belonging to something as a basic and essential feature of what it is.
38 satisfaction – Hebrew = kopher.
39 penal – subject to punishment under the law.
40 legislatory…retributive…vindictive – the legal, punishing, vengeful aspects of justice.
41 impunity – freedom from punishment.
42 Herman Witsius (1636-1708), The Economy of the Covenants
between God and Man, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Thomas Turnbull), 207.
Other areas covered in this article;
He experienced every variety of suffering. He tasted . poverty in its severest rigor. Born in a stable, owning no property on earth, depend-ent upon the charity of others (Luk 8:3), oftentimes being worse sit-uated than the inferior orders of creation (Mat 8:20). He suffered reproach in all its bitterness. The most malignant43 accusations,
the vilest aspersions,44 the most cutting sarcasm were directed against His person and character. He was taunted with being a glutton, a winebibber,45 a deceiver, a blasphemer, a devil. Therefore do we hear Him crying, “Reproach hath broken my heart” (Psa 69:20). He experienced temptation in all its malignity...."
Man having allowed himself to be overcome by Satan, Man having allowed himself to be overcome by Satan, God has by a just sentence o be overcome by Satan, God has by a just sentence God has by a just sentence delivered him up as a slave to delivered him up as a slave to his tyranny. Therefore was it necessary that Christ his tyranny. , as His sinful people’s Substitute, should be exposed to the harrassings of the Devil, that in this respect also He might satisfy Divine justice. Most assuredly Satan and his agents could never have assailed Christ had He not been so (legally) charged with the guilt of our crimes that God righteously exposed Him to injuries from them (Act 2:23). The elect themselves, as sinners, were subject to Satan’s power (Col 1:13), and that by the righteous sentence of the Judge of all the earth. Therefore were they not only the “prey of the mighty,” but also were “lawful captives” (Isa 49:24). Therefore, as Christ came here as Surety in their room, He, by virtue of God’s sentence, also became subject to the buffetings of Satan...."
The Scriptures speak of the satisfaction of Christ. When the Scriptures speak of the satisfaction of Christ, they a tures speak of the satisfaction of Christ, they as rist, they ascribe it to His sufferings in general. cribe it to His sufferings in general. cribe it to His sufferings in general. “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa 53:4), that is, He suffered all the pains and sorrows due to us from sin. It is to be most carefully noted that the inspired declaration “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6) comes before “He was oppressed” and before “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”
"It was at the commencement of His public ministry, and not while He hung upon the Cross, that God moved one of His servants to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh 1:29). Christ was brought “to the slaughter” before the three hours of darkness, yet even then “affliction” lay upon Him; and our iniquity was exacted of Him. So too this very chapter (Isa 53) ascribes our “healing” to the stripes that He received from men as plainly as other passages attribute our being delivered from the curse of the Law through God’s visiting Him with its curse...."
See next post: https://www.baptistboard.com/thread...to-us-the-penal-nature-of-jesus-death.131554/
From:
Free Grace Broadcaster
Published by Chapel Library . 2603 West Wright St. . Pensacola.
SUBSTITUTION #207
Contents
The Heart of the Gospel 1
Christ’s Federal Work 5
The Great Exchange Explained 7
Christ’s Penal Work 11
An Entire Pardon 16
Satisfaction and Substitution Outlined 20
God’s Wisdom in Christ’s Substitution 23
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