3. “The internal moving cause of Christ’s satisfaction for us, was his obedience to God, and love to us. That it was an act of obedience is plain from Philippians 2:8 “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Now obedience respects a command, such a command Christ received to die for us, as himself tells us, John 10:18, “I lay down my life of myself; I have power to lay it down, and power to take it again: this commandment have I received of my Father.” So that is was an act of obedience with respect to God, and yet a most free and spontaneous act with respect to himself. And that he was moved to it out of pity and love to us, himself assures us: Galatians 5:2 “Christ loved us, and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God.” Upon this Paul sweetly reflected, Galatians 2:20, “who loved me and gave himself for me.” As the external moving cause was our misery, so the internal was his own love and pity for us.”
4. “The matter of Christ’s satisfaction was his active and passive obedience to all the law of God required. This twofold obedience of Christ stands opposed to a twofold obligation that fallen man is under; the one to do what God requires, the other to suffer what he hath threatened for disobedience. We owe him active obedience as his creatures, and passive obedience as his prisoners. Suitably to his double obligation, Christ comes under the commandment of the law to fulfill it actively Matthew 3:15, and under the malediction of the law, to satisfy it passively.
5. The effect and fruit of this his satisfaction, is our freedom, ransom, and deliverance for the wrath and curse due to us for our sins. Such was the dignity, value, and completeness of Christ’s satisfaction, that in strict justice it merited our redemption and full deliverance; not only a possibility that we might be redeemed and pardoned, but a right whereby to be so. If he be made a curse for us, we must then be redeemed from the curse, according to justice; so the gospel argues, Romans 3:25,26 “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that God might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” Mark the design and end of God in exacting satisfaction from Christ, it was to declare his righteousness in the remission of sin to believers; and lest we should lose the emphatical word, he doubles it, to declare, I say, his righteousness. Everyone can see how his mercy is declared in remission: but he would have us take notice, that his justification for believers is an act of justice; and that God, as he is a just God, cannot condemn the believer, since Christ hath satisfied his debts. This attribute seems to be the main bar against remission; but now it is become the very ground and reason why God remits.
“Christ’s satisfaction is real, proper, and full, and as such accepted by God. For his blood is the blood of a Surety, Hebrews 7:22, who came under the same obligations of the law with us, Galatians 4:4, and though he had no sin of his own, yet standing before God as our Surety, the iniquities of us all were laid upon him, Isaiah 53:6, and from him did the Lord, with great severity, exact satisfaction for our sins, Romans 8:32, punish them upon his soul, Matthew 27:46, and upon his body, Acts 2:23, and with this obedience of his Son, is fully pleased and satisfied, Ephesians 5:2, and hath in token thereof raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand, 1 Timothy 3:16, and for his righteousness sake acquitted and discharged believers, who shall never more come into condemnation, Romans 8:1,34. All this is plain in scripture; and our faith in the satisfaction of Christ, is not built on the wisdom of man, but the everlasting sealed truth of God: yet such is the perverse nature of man, and the pride of his heart, that whilst he should be humbly adoring the grace of God, in providing such a Surety for us, he is found accusing the justice, and diminishing the mercy of God, and raising all the objections which Satan and his own heart can invent, to overturn that blessed foundation upon which God hath built his own honour, and his people’s salvation.” ~ John Flavel
*Works of John Flavel, Volume 1, pages 180-182
