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SECOND HEAD OF DOCTRINE
CHRIST'S DEATH AND MAN'S REDEMPTION THROUGH IT
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ARTICLE 1
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THE PUNISHMENT WHICH GOD'S JUSTICE REQUIRES
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Ex 34:6,7
Rom 5:16
Gal 3:10
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God is not only supremely
merciful but also supremely just. And as He Himself has
revealed in His Word, His justice requires that our sins,
committed against His infinite majesty, should be punished
not only in this age but also in the age to come, both in
body and soul. We cannot escape these punishments unless
satisfaction is made to the justice of God. |
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ARTICLE 2
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THE SATISFACTION MADE BY CHRIST
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Jn 3:16
Rom 5:8
2 Cor 5:21
Gal 3:13
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We ourselves, however, cannot
make this satisfaction and cannot free ourselves from God's
wrath. God, therefore, in His infinite mercy has given His
only-begotten Son as our Surety. For us or in our place He
was made sin and a curse on the cross so that He might make
satisfaction on our behalf. |
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ARTICLE 3
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THE INFINITE VALUE OF CHRIST'S DEATH
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Heb 9:26,28
Heb 10:14
1 Jn 2:2
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This death of the Son of God
is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for
sins, of infinite value and worth, abundantly sufficient to
expiate the sins of the whole world. |
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ARTICLE 4
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WHY HIS DEATH HAS INFINITE VALUE
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Heb 4:15
Heb 7:26
1 Jn 4:9
Mt 27:46
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This death is of such great
value and worth because the person who submitted to 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 with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for these
qualifications were necessary for our Saviour. Further,
this death is of such great value and worth because it was
accompanied by a sense of the wrath and curse of God which
we by our sins had deserved. |
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ARTICLE 5
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THE UNIVERSAL PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL
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Jn 3:16
1 Cor 1:23
Mt 28:19
Acts 2:38
Acts 16:31
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The promise of the gospel is
that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish
but have eternal life. This promise ought to be announced
and proclaimed universally and without discrimination to
all peoples and to all men, to whom God in His good
pleasure sends the gospel, together with the command to
repent and believe. |
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ARTICLE 6
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WHY SOME DO NOT BELIEVE
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Mt 22:14
Ps 95:11
Heb 4:6
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That, however, many who have
been called by the gospel neither repent nor believe in
Christ but perish in unbelief does not happen because of
any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice of Christ
offered on the cross, but through their own fault. |
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ARTICLE 7
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WHY OTHERS DO BELIEVE
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2 Cor 5:18
Eph 2:8,9
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But to those who truly
believe and by the death of Christ are freed from their
sins and saved from perdition, this benefit comes only
through God's grace, given to them from eternity in Christ.
God owes this grace to no one. |
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ARTICLE 8
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THE EFFICACY OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST
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Jn 17:9
Eph 5:25 to 27
Lk 22:20
Heb 8:6
Rev 5:9
1 Jn 1:7
Jn 10:28
Eph 5:27
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For this was the most free
counsel of God the Father, that the life-giving and saving
efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should
extend to all the elect. It was His most gracious will and
intent to give to them alone justifying faith and thereby
to bring them unfailingly to salvation. This means: God
willed that Christ through the blood of the cross (by which
He confirmed the new covenant) should effectually redeem
out of every people, tribe, nation, and tongue all those,
and those only, who from eternity were chosen to salvation
and were given to Him by the Father. God further willed
that Christ should give to them faith, which, together with
other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, He acquired for them
by His death; that He should cleanse them by His blood from
all sins, both original and actual, both those committed
after faith and before faith; and that He should guard them
faithfully to the end and at last present them to Himself
in splendour without any spot or wrinkle. |
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ARTICLE 9
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THE FULFILMENT OF GOD'S COUNSEL
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Mt 16:18
Jn 11:52
1 Kings 19:18
Eph 5:25
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This counsel, proceeding from
eternal love for the elect, has from the beginning of the
world to the present time been powerfully fulfilled, and
will also continue to be fulfilled, though the gates of
hell vainly try to frustrate it. In due time the elect will
be gathered together into one, and there will always be a
church of believers, founded on the blood of Christ. This
church shall steadfastly love and faithfully serve Him as
her Saviour (who as bridegroom for His bride laid down His
life for her on the cross) and celebrate His praises here
and through all eternity. |
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REJECTION OF ERRORS
Having explained the true doctrine of the death of Christ
and the redemption of man by this death, Synod rejects
the following errors:
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1. Error:
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God the Father has ordained
His Son to the death of the cross without a specific and
definite decree to save any. What Christ obtained by His
death might have been necessary, profitable, and valuable,
and might remain in all its parts complete, perfect, and
intact, even though the redemption He acquired had actually
never been applied to any person.
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Refutation:
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This doctrine is offensive to
the wisdom of the Father and the merits of Jesus Christ and
is contrary to Scripture. For our Saviour says: I lay
down My life for the sheep, and I know them, Jn
10:15, 27. And the prophet Isaiah says concerning the
Saviour: When He makes Himself an offering for sin, He
shall see His offspring, He shall prolong His days; the
will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand, Is 53:10.
Finally, this error contradicts the article of faith
concerning the catholic Christian church. |
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2. Error:
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It was not the purpose of
Christ's death that He should confirm the new covenant of
grace by His blood, but only that He should acquire for the
Father the mere right to establish once more with man such
a covenant as He might please, whether of grace or of
works.
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Refutation:
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This militates against
Scripture, which teaches that Christ has become the Surety
and Mediator of a better, that is, a new covenant, and that
a will takes effect only at death, Heb 7:22, 9:15, 17. |
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3. Error:
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By His satisfaction Christ
did not really merit for anyone either salvation itself or
faith by which this satisfaction of Christ to salvation is
effectually made one's own. He acquired for the Father only
the authority or the perfect will to deal again with man,
and to prescribe new conditions as He might desire. It
depends, however, on the free will of man to fulfil these
conditions. Therefore it was possible that either no one or
all men would fulfil them.
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Refutation:
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Those who teach this error
think contemptuously of the death of Christ, do not at all
acknowledge its most important fruit or benefit, and bring
back out of hell the Pelagian error. |
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4. Error:
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The new covenant of grace
which God the Father, through the mediation of the death of
Christ, made with man, does not consist herein that we are
justified before God and saved by faith, inasmuch as it
accepts the merit of Christ. It consists in the fact that
God has revoked the demand of perfect obedience of the law
and regards faith as such and the obedience of faith,
though imperfect, as the perfect obedience of the law. He
graciously deems it worthy of the reward of eternal
life.
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Refutation:
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This doctrine contradicts
Scripture: They are justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God
put forward as an expiation by His blood, to be received by
faith, Rom 3:24, 25. Those who teach this error
proclaim, as did the ungodly Socinus, a new and strange
justification of man before God, against the consensus of
the whole church. |
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5. Error:
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All men have been accepted
into the state of reconciliation and into the grace of the
covenant, so that no one is liable to condemnation on
account of original sin, and no one shall be condemned
because of it, but all are free from the guilt of original
sin.
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Refutation:
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This opinion is in conflict
with Scripture, which teaches that we are by nature
children of wrath, Eph 2:3. |
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6. Error:
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As far as God is concerned,
He wished to bestow equally upon all people the benefits
acquired by the death of Christ; however, some obtain the
pardon of sin and eternal life and others do not. This
distinction depends on their own free will, which applies
itself to the grace that is offered indifferently, and not
on the special gift of mercy which so powerfully works in
them that they rather than others apply this grace to
themselves.
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Refutation:
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Those who teach this, misuse
the difference between the acquisition and the application
of salvation and confuse the minds of imprudent and
inexperienced people. While they pretend to present this
distinction in a sound sense, they seek to instil into the
minds of people the pernicious poison of Pelagianism. |
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7. Error:
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Christ could not die, did not
need to die, and did not die for those whom God loved in
the highest degree and elected to eternal life, since these
do not need the death of Christ.
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Refutation:
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This doctrine contradicts the
apostle, who declares: The Son of God loved me and gave
Himself for me, Gal 2:20. Likewise: Who shall bring
any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies;
who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, Rom
8:33, 34, namely, for them. And the Saviour assures us:
I lay down My life for the sheep, Jn 10:15. And:
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends, Jn 15:12,
13. |
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