LBCF 1689 Reflections. Part 113

Reflections on the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689

23 Aug 14 began a perhaps unbroken, orderly, and personal journey through my favorite written confession of faith. This will be my personal reflections on this beloved written codification of the Christian Faith which is according to a Baptist flavor.

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Section 11, paragraph 3: “Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf; yet, inasmuch 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, 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.”

He “fully discharged” my sin debt. There is a freedom in Christ that I now have. This enlivens my soul in sure grace. His grace doesn’t give me the slightest bit of license to sin, even in my sin. It beckons me to the light. What a grace! What a perfect grace. Like Jesus, I too now walk out from under the jurisdiction of the Law. It never had claim to him; it now, because I have him, has no claim to me anymore. He didn’t “partially” discharge my debt. That’d be nothing worth singing about. He removed it. Colossians 2:14.

Penal substation or penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) is the certain doctrine of Jesus, as God, appeasing the wrath of God the Father (and his own wrath) that was due to sinners on his Cross. It does not divide their intentions. It cannot, when fully articulated, present the Father as having a will different than the Son in the least. This is “their” plan.

PSA (theologically inserting the Persons) is Isaiah 53:10:

“But the LORD [The Father] was pleased

To crush Him [The Son], putting Him [Son] to grief;

If He [Son] would render Himself as a guilt offering,

He [Son] will see His [Son] offspring,

He [Son] will prolong His [Son] days,

And the good pleasure of the LORD [the triune God] will prosper in His [The Son’s] hand.”

From the inspired views of Isaiah and Peter, it is Acts 2:23:

“This Man [The Son], delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” The Son was in perfect concert with both the Father and the Spirit to bring about the salvation of God’s elect. To willingly lay aside his dignity, and to come to die. We are not the end game. God is the end game in all this.

Jesus’ atonement was not offered randomly. It was for his elect. He does not merely intercede for the lost, so as to continue saving men, but he intercedes for the redeemed. 1 John 2:1-6. He lives in that intercession. That’s great news for saints with sins. (See 15 Apr 18 sermon here for more on this great news.

It is Jesus’ precious life and his precious death that he did to purchase me from sin and death. To present me to God. He made me alive together with him. He obtained the redemption of the elect on the Cross. Hebrews 9:12. In no logical view can it all be any less fixed regarding us.

God satisfies justice, since it is due to him alone, by allowing the weight of the Son’s glorious goodness and righteousness to be shared with criminals. So much so that it is his righteousness alone whereby I can stand.