Lord’s Day 15
Q37. What do you understand by the word suffered?
That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ bore in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race. This he did in order that, by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might set us free, body and soul, from eternal condemnation, and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Isaiah 53:4–5
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
1 Peter 2:24
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
1 Peter 3:18
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”
Romans 3:25
“Whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”
Hebrews 10:14
“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
1 John 2:2
“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Romans 8:1–4
“therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 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.”
Galatians 3:13
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Romans 3:24–26
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth 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, , at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
Modernized Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
Explaining this question is necessary because of both ancient and modern heretics who have denied, and continue to deny, that Christ's flesh was taken from the substance of the Virgin. The Eutychians argued: Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit; therefore, Christ's flesh was produced from the substance of the Divinity, or from the essence of the Holy Spirit, and by this means the divine nature was changed into the human. This argument fails because it misuses a figurative way of speaking. The terms "by," "from," or "of" the Holy Spirit do not indicate a material cause, but an efficient one, referring to power and agency. This matters for several reasons.
2. Because God cannot undergo any change, and therefore cannot be changed into flesh.
3. Because the Word assumed flesh, but was not changed into it.