J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1993), 134: "Atonement means making amends, blotting out the offense, and giving satisfaction for wrong done; thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disrupted relationship."
John M. Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2013), 901: "Jesus’ atoning sacrifice fulfills the OT sacrifices of bulls, goats, lambs, doves, flour, wine, and oil. In the OT, God used those sacrifices to teach the people what Jesus was later going to do. So we can learn from those sacrifices about the meaning of Jesus’ atonement."
Greg R. Allison, The Holy Spirit’s Crucial Role in Penal Substitutionary Atonement:
1. The atonement is grounded in the holiness of God who, being
perfectly holy, hates and punishes sin.
2. A penalty for sin must be paid.
3. People cannot pay the penalty for their sins and live; rather, the
penalty is death.
4. Only God can pay the penalty for sin, but he must partake of human
nature to pay for human beings.
5. By his death, the God-man, Jesus Christ, atoned for human sin.
6. The atonement had to be accomplished in this way (“penal
substitution theory”).
GotQuestions, What is the doctrine of penal substitution?: "In the simplest possible terms, the biblical doctrine of penal substitution holds that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the punishment we ought to suffer for our sins. As a result, God’s justice is satisfied, and those who accept Christ can be forgiven and reconciled to God."
Jeremy Treat, The Atonement: An Introduction, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), 49: "God is a good King who loves his creation and is, therefore, opposed to that which violates its goodness. Because of his love (not in spite of it), God responds to sin... God’s response to sin, therefore, is judgment (2 Cor. 5:10), punishment (2 Thess. 1:9), wrath (John 3:36), a curse (Deut. 11:28), exile (2 Kings 17:6–7), and ultimately death (Rom. 6:23). This is the penalty of sin."
J. I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 40–41: "God’s wrath is his righteousness reacting against unrighteousness; it shows itself in retributive justice. But Jesus Christ has shielded us from the nightmare prospect of retributive justice by becoming our representative substitute, in obedience to his Father’s will, and receiving the wages of our sin in our place."
John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), 143, 148: "It is clear from Old Testament usage that to 'bear sin' means... specifically to endure its penal consequences, to undergo its penalty... The sinless one was 'made sin for us,' which must mean that he bore the penalty of our sin instead of us, and he redeemed us from the law’s curse by 'becoming a curse for us,' which must mean that the curse of the law lying upon us for our disobedience was transferred to him, so that he bore it instead of us."
Garry J. Williams, Penal Substitution: A Response to Recent Criticisms, JETS 50/1 (March 2007) 71-86: "To state what ought to be obvious: he punished the sin that had been transferred to Christ, not Christ regarded in and of himself, with whom in this very act he was well pleased."
Rory Shiner, In My Place Condemned He Stood: Penal Substitutionary Atonement: "What is the just punishment for our rebellion against God? The Bible’s answer is death. God gave us life. To take his gift and reject the giver is treason. It is a capital offence. 'The wages of sin is death' as Paul says in Romans 6... The truth that Christ in his death took the penalty for my sins is something that fills out hearts even as it exercises our minds."
Simon Gathercole, The Cross and Substitutionary Atonement, SBJT 11/2 (Summer 2007) 64-73: "Statements about Christ’s death for our sins, on the other hand, mean taking the consequences of our sins. The biblical assumption is that death is the consequence of sin, and therefore Christ takes that consequence even though the sin is not his own. In his death, Christ receives the penalty that was due to us."
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life" (Lev 17:11).
Jeremy Treat, The Atonement: An Introduction, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), 39: "He took what was ours because of sin and gave us what is his by grace. Jesus lived the life we could not live, died the death we should have died, and rose so that we can have life in him. The King became a servant to bring us into his kingdom. And it all hinges on substitution."
J. I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 37-38: "Blood, as we hinted earlier, is a word pointing to the violent death inflicted in the animal sacrifices of the old covenant... Along with the other New Testament writers, Paul always points to the death of Jesus as the atoning event and explains the atonement in terms of representative substitution—the innocent taking place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God’s judicial retribution."
John M. Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2013), 904: "First, Scripture teaches that sacrifice is required to receive God’s forgiveness: without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). As we have seen, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23; cf. Ezek. 18:4). Second, on this view, God demonstrates the severity of his law by putting to death an innocent man. But unless Jesus is a substitute for us, his death is a demonstration of injustice, not justice."
John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), 68. Stott offers a fourfold theory to explain the cross, without which he claims the cross remains unintelligible: "that Christ died for us, for our good; that the 'good' he died to procure for us was our salvation; that in order to procure it he had to deal with our sins; and that in dying for them it was our death that he died."
Matt Slick, What is the penal substitutionary atonement theory?: "His sacrifice was substitutionary in that the judgment that was due to us, he bore... [T]he death that we deserve (Rom. 6:23), he experienced (1 Pet. 3:18) on the cross. It was there that He became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) and offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father (Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:14) so that we might be justified by faith (Rom. 3:26, 28)."
"Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit" (1 Pet 3:18).
Louis Berkhoff, Systematic Theology, 3.4, The Nature of the Atonement: "There are several passages in Scripture which speak of our sins as being "laid upon" Christ, and of His "bearing" sin or iniquity, Isa. 53:6,12; John 1:29; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Heb. 9:28; I Pet. 2:24. On the basis of Scripture we can, therefore, say that our sins are imputed to Christ. This does not mean that our sinfulness was transferred to Him — something that is in itself utterly impossible — but that the guilt of our sin was imputed to Him."
Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, 2nd. Ed., (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 631: "His preceptive and his penal obedience, then, particularly as the latter came to expression in his cross work, is the ground of God's justification of sinners (see Rom. 5:9), by which divine act they are pardoned (because their sins were charged to Christ who obediently bore the law's sanctions against them) and accepted as righteous in God's sight (because Christ's preceptive obedience or perfect righteousness is imputed to them through faith)."
Jarvis Williams, For Whom Did Christ Die?: "In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul teaches that Jesus’s death actually achieved the benefits of salvation for those for whom he died. Paul does not present Jesus’s death as hypothetically accomplishing the salvation of all people without exception, but as actually accomplishing salvation for all for whom he died."
Roger Nicole, The Case For Definite Atonement: "Particular redemption is an inevitable implicate of a recognition of the penal substitutionary nature of the atonement... If we do hold that Christ died substitutionally for all mankind bearing the divine penalty for the sins of all men, it would appear that at the day of judgment there will remain nothing to be punished, and consequently all men should be saved."
David Schrock, The Cross in Colossians: Cosmic Reconciliation through Penal Substitution and Christus Victor: "Christ died to atone for the sins of his 'chosen ones' ([Col] 3:9), that is, his people, and in keeping with CV, his death defeated his enemies and put them to open shame. In other words, through a theological reading of Colossians 1:15-2:15... together PSA and CV are the twin means by which Christ’s death brings peace to the cosmos (Col 1:20)."
Greg R. Allison, The Holy Spirit’s Crucial Role in Penal Substitutionary Atonement: "Because God is triune, the work of the second person is never separated from the work of the first and third persons... So also here, the three persons acted indivisibly in the divine work of atonement... [T]he incarnate Son underwent his act of penal substitutionary atonement, upheld to the end by the Holy Spirit... Jesus 'through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God.' [Heb 9:14]"
"For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place." (1 Cor 5:7).
"who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself." (Heb 7:27).
"so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." (Heb 9:28).
"we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Heb 10:10).
"but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb 10:12).
"For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." (Heb 10:14).
"you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God" (Rom 7:4).
Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans. 2nd ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 443: "A few interpreters have thought... believers are put to death to the law by belonging to the church, the body of Christ. Others suggest that Paul may be connoting the solidarity of believers with Christ in his death. But Paul has laid no groundwork in Romans for this application; he must be referring to the physical body of Christ, put to death on the cross for us."
"he has reconciled [you] in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him" (Col 1:22).
"we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb 10:7).
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds" (1 Pet 2:24).
A. M. Stibbs, The Meaning of the Word 'Blood' In Scripture, (London: Tyndale, 1948): "To speak, therefore, of Christ's shed blood is to acknowledge the amazing fact that He, the sinless Son of God, actually as Man died the kind of death which only sinners ought to die. All our references to 'Christ's blood' ought therefore to involve the significant recollection that His human life in this world came to an end by the violent rending of His flesh; and that, as though He Himself were a sinner, He died the sinner's kind of death (i.e., a blood-shedding death); and it is because He died the kind of death that sinners ought to die, that sinners can by faith in Him and Him crucified be saved from sin and all its dire consequences."
"Take heed, therefore, to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28).
Darrell L. Bock, Acts, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 630: "The picture is like what Abraham had been willing to do with Isaac (Gen. 22), only here God does carry out the offering so that others can benefit from the sacrifice ('purchased' in Isa. 43:21; Ps. 74:2). Thus the acquiring of the church had as its basis a substitution of God's own for those God would bring to eternal life."
"being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance" (Rom 3:24-25).
Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans. 2nd ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 250-251: "In Paul's day, 'redemption' often referred to a transaction whereby prisoners of war, condemned criminals, and (especially) slaves were able to purchase their freedom... Paul is... presenting Christ's death as a 'ransom,' a 'payment' that takes the place of that penalty for sins 'owed' by all people to God."
"Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him" (Rom 5:9).
"In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:7).
"you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ." (Eph 2:12-13).
"For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross." (Col 1:19-20).
"But Christ having come as a high priest... through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption." (Heb 9:11-12).
"how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb 9:14).
"that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood" (1 Pet 1:2).
"knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ" (1 Pet 1:18-19).
"But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin" (1 Jn 1:7).
"Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth... who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood" (Rev 1:4-5).
"They sang a new song, saying, 'You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation, and made us kings and priests to our God; and we will reign on the earth.'" (Rev 5:9-10).
"and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it" (Eph 2:16).
"and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross" (Col 1:20).
"He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col 2:13-15).
"unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24).
"For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom 5:6).
"But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).
"For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life" (Rom 5:10).
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3).
"He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again" (2 Cor 5:15).
"You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him" (Col 1:21-22)
"For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him" (1 Thes 5:9).
"But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone" (Heb 2:9).
"Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb 2:14-15).
"For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" (Heb 9:15).
James Benjamin Green, A Harmony of the Westminster Presbyterian Standards, (Richmond: John Knox, 1951), 65-66: "As prophet he meets the problem of man's ignorance, supplying him with knowledge. As priest he meets the problem of man's guilt, supplying him with righteousness. As king he meets the problem of man's weakness and dependence, supplying him with power and protection."
"Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him." (Deut 18:15).
"'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, 'Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" (Lk 4:18-21).
"Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem." (Lk 13:33).
"For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.’" (Acts 3:22).
"Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.'" (Ps 110:4).
"Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus" (Heb 3:1).
"Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let’s hold tightly to our confession. For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin." (Heb 4:14-15).
"So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, 'You are my Son. Today I have become your father.' As he says also in another place, 'You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.'" (Heb 5:5-6).
"as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." (Heb 6:20).
"For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself." (Heb 7:26-27).
"Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man." (Heb 8:1-2).
"For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever." (Isa 9:6-7).
"He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath: 'Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.'" (Ps 2:4-6).
"Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows." (Ps 45:6-7).
"Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.” Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule among your enemies." (Ps 110:1-2).
"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom." (Lk 1:32-33).
"Jesus answered, 'My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.' Pilate therefore said to him, 'Are you a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.'" (Jn 18:36-37).
"But of the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.'" (Heb 1:8).
"For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." (2 Pet 1:11).
"He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, 'KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.'" (Rev 19:16).
Michael J. Vlach, Penal Substitution in Church History, TMSJ 20/2 (Fall 2009) 199-214: "The evidence showing that the early church believed and taught penal substitution is impressive and as Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach have put it, 'quite overwhelming.' Those who hold to the doctrine of penal substitution can be encouraged that their belief has been clearly articulated throughout church history."
Derek Rishmawy, Calvin’s Multi-Faceted Atonement: "Of course, Calvin clearly taught a legal theme in Christ’s work of atonement. In ourselves, we stand condemned before the bar of God’s justice, under the curse, and liable to God’s just wrath. Christ, though, obeyed and fulfilled the law, stood under no curse himself, but on our behalf suffered judgment that we might go free."
Robert Kolb, Christus Victor: "By defeating the evil powers that oppose God, Jesus Christ rescued his people from Satan and established himself as the rightful king of the cosmos. This view is not exclusive to the penal substitutionary view, as can be seen by the presence of both in the writings of figures such as Martin Luther and John Calvin."
1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith:
Chapter 8. Of Christ the Mediator
1. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain
the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made
between them both, to be the mediator between God and man;1
the prophet,2 priest,3 and king;4
head and savior of the church,5 the heir of all things,6
and judge of the world;7 unto whom He did from all eternity
give a people to be His seed and to be by Him in time redeemed,
called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.8
(1. Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 1:19-20 2. Acts 3:22 3. Hebrews 5:5-6 4.
Psalms 2:6; Luke 1:33 5. Ephesians 1:22-23 6. Hebrews 1:2 7. Acts
17:31 8. Isaiah 53:10; John 17:6; Romans 8:30).
4. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake,21
which that He might discharge He was made under the law,22
and did perfectly fulfill it, and underwent the punishment due to us,
which we should have born and suffered,23 being made sin
and a curse for us;24 enduring most grievous sorrows in His
soul, and most painful sufferings in His body;25 was
crucified, and died, and remained in the state of the dead, yet saw no
corruption:26 on the third day He arose from the dead27
with the same body in which He suffered,28 with which He
also ascended into heaven,29 and there sits at the right
hand of His Father making intercession,30 and shall return
to judge men and angels at the end of the world.31
(21. Psalms 40:7-8; Hebrews 10:5-10; John 10:18 22. Galatians 4:4;
Matthew 3:15 23. Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 3:18 24. 2
Corinthians 5:21 25. Matthew 26:37, 38; Luke 22:44; Matthew 27:46 26.
Acts 13:37 27. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 28. John 20:25, 27 29. Mark 16:19;
Acts 1:9-11 30. Romans 8:34; Hebrews 9:24 31. Acts 10:42; Romans
14:9-10; Acts 1:11; 2 Peter 2:4).
5. The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of
Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit once offered up to God,
has fully satisfied the justice of God,32 procured
reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the
kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father has given unto
Him.33
(32. Hebrews 9:14, 10:14; Romans 3:25-26 33. John 17:2; Hebrews 9:15).
6. Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by
Christ until after His incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and
benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages,
successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those
promises, types, and sacrifices wherein He was revealed, and signified
to be the seed which should bruise the serpent's head;34
and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,35
being the same yesterday, and today and for ever.36
(34. 1 Corinthians 4:10; Hebrews 4:2; 1 Peter 1:10-11 35. Revelation
13:8 36. Hebrews 13:8).
8. To all those for whom Christ has obtained eternal
redemption, He does certainly and effectually apply and communicate
the same, making intercession for them;38 uniting them to
Himself by His Spirit, revealing to them, in and by His Word, the
mystery of salvation, persuading them to believe and obey,39
governing their hearts by His Word and Spirit,40 and
overcoming all their enemies by His almighty power and wisdom,41
in such manner and ways as are most consonant to His wonderful and
unsearchable dispensation; and all of free and absolute grace, without
any condition foreseen in them to procure it.42
(38. John 6:37, 10:15-16, 17:9; Romans 5:10 39. John 17:6; Ephesians
1:9; 1 John 5:20 40. Romans 8:9, 14 41. Psalms 110:1; 1 Corinthians
15:25-26 42. John 3:8; Ephesians 1:8).
9. This office of mediator between God and man is proper only
to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God;
and may not be either in whole, or any part thereof, transferred from
Him to any other.43
(43. 1 Timothy 2:5).
10. This number and order of offices is necessary; for in
respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of His prophetical
office;44 and in respect of our alienation from God, and
imperfection of the best of our services, we need His priestly office
to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God;45 and
in respect to our averseness and utter inability to return to God, and
for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need
His kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and
preserve us to His heavenly kingdom.46
(44. John 1:18 45. Colossians 1:21; Galatians 5:17 46. John 16:8;
Psalms 110:3; Luke 1:74-75).
Chapter 11. Of Justification
1. Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely
justifies,1 not by infusing righteousness into them, but by
pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as
righteous;2 not for anything wrought in them, or done by
them, but for Christ's sake alone;3 not by imputing faith
itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to
them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ's active
obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for
their whole and sole righteousness by faith,4 which faith
they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.5
(1. Romans 3:24, 8:30 2. Romans 4:5-8, Ephesians 1:7 3. 1 Corinthians
1:30-31, Romans 5:17-19 4. Philippians 3:8-9; Ephesians 2:8-10 5. John
1:12, Romans 5:17).
2. Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his
righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification;6
yet is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with
all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love.7
(6. Romans 3:28 7. Galatians 5:6, James 2:17, 22, 26).
3. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the
debt of all those who are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of
himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the
penalty due to them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to
God’s justice in their behalf;8 yet, in as much as he was
given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction
accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in
them,9 their justification is only of free grace, that both
the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the
justification of sinners.10
(8. Hebrews 10:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Isaiah 53:5-6 9. Romans 8:32; 2
Corinthians 5:21 10. Romans 3:26; Ephesians 1:6-7, 2:7).
4. God did from all eternity decree to justify all the
elect,11 and Christ did in the fullness of time die for
their sins, and rise again for their justification;12
nevertheless, they are not justified personally, until the Holy Spirit
in time does actually apply Christ to them.13
(11. Galatians 3:8, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 Timothy 2:6 12. Romans 4:25 13.
Colossians 1:21-22, Titus 3:4-7).
5. God continues to forgive the sins of those that are
justified,14 and although they can never fall from the
state of justification,15 yet they may, by their sins, fall
under God’s fatherly displeasure;16 and in that condition
they usually do not have the light of his countenance restored to
them, until they humble themselves, beg pardon, and renew their faith
and repentance.17
(14. Matthew 6:12, 1 John 1:7, 9 15. John 10:28 16. Psalms 89:31-33
17. Psalms 32:5, Psalms 51, Matthew 26:75).
6. The justification of believers under the Old Testament was,
in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of
believers under the New Testament.18
(18. Galatians 3:9; Romans 4:22-24).