Lord’s Day 5
Q12. Since we deserve temporal and eternal punishment according to God's righteous judgment, how can we escape this punishment and be received back into favor?
God demands that his justice be satisfied. Therefore full payment must be made either by ourselves or by another.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Exodus 23:7
“Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.”
Romans 2:1–11
“Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.”
Isaiah 53:11
“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”
Romans 8:3–4
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Modernized Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
Having established in the first part of the Catechism that all people stand under eternal condemnation for failing to render the obedience God's law requires, we are now led to ask whether any way of escape or deliverance from this state of misery and death actually exists. The Catechism answers that deliverance is possible, provided that satisfaction is made to God's law and justice through a punishment sufficient to atone for the sin committed. The law binds everyone either to obedience or, where obedience is not rendered, to punishment; and the fulfillment of either constitutes the perfect righteousness that God approves wherever He finds it.
There are two ways of making this satisfaction through punishment. The first is by bearing it ourselves. This is the way the law teaches and God's justice demands: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the law to do them" (Gal 3:10). This is the legal way.
The second way of making satisfaction is through another person bearing it on our behalf. This is the method the gospel reveals and God's mercy allows: "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son..." and "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." (Rom 8:3; John 3:16). This is the evangelical way. It is not, admittedly, taught in the law itself, but neither is it anywhere condemned or ruled out. Nor is it contrary to God's justice, because if satisfaction is made on humanity's behalf through a punishment sufficient for our disobedience, the law is satisfied, and God's justice permits the offending party to be set free and restored to favor. That is the heart of the matter.