THE SATISFACTION OF GOD'S JUSTICE
Sermon by Steven R. Key

L.D. 5 Q/A 12-15

Scripture: Isaiah 53

We enter today into the second part of the Heidelberg Catechism. The Catechism, you remember, gives us instruction by leading us systematically through the truth of Scripture according to the three parts of knowledge that are necessary for us to know in order to enjoy our only comfort in life and death. The first part is that we must know how great our sins and miseries are. So for the past few weeks we have considered, albeit briefly, the seriousness of sin before the holy God, the devastating depravity that is ours, and the hopelessness of our state and condition apart from Christ. The third part, which comes only much later, has to do with the thankful life of the Christian. But in order for that thankfulness to come to expression, in order that there be seen in us true godliness, it is necessary that we understand spiritually the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ, the only Savior. So in this second section of the Catechism, we are led to Scripture to examine the wonderful truth of man's deliverance, with all that is implied in that general area of study.

The Catechism, in leading us to Christ, does so very slowly and deliberately. It does so for a reason. And that reason has become all the more important in our day. The instructors would show us exactly Who is our Savior. It would not let us live with a Christ of our own imaginations. And that is certainly possible. That becomes clear when in Lord's Day 11 we are pointed to those who "boast of Him in words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus the only deliverer and Savior." That has been a problem throughout history. Always there have been those who would cling to a savior of their own imaginations, who continuing in their sin and self-righteousness would form their own conception of a divine being who would bring them to a blessed state in the hereafter. That has always been the idolatry of sinful man. And at the time that the Heidelberg Catechism was written, it was the grave concern of the Reformers that the multitudes in the deformed body of the Roman Catholic Church not be lost to the corrupt conception of a savior that was nothing more than a graven image and an idol of the apostate church's making. Later, as the Reformed fathers at Dordt faced the heresies of Arminianism, it was their concern that the church not be lost to a Jesus of man's imagination, a Jesus who loves everybody but is powerless to save. So the Canons of Dordt were written as an expansion on the truths set forth in the Heidelberg Catechism and Belgic Confession. But also here the instructors take us very deliberately and carefully through Scripture, that we might not be mistaken about the identity of the only Savior. He alone it is Who can save. For He alone can satisfy the unbending justice of the Holy God.

The main concept in this fifth Lord's Day is that of satisfaction. You may be surprised to learn that the term satisfaction does not even appear in the Bible. Other words occur like redemption and reconciliation, even the word propitiation, which would be very closely related to the idea of satisfaction. But the word satisfaction never appears in Scripture. The word satisfied does appear more than 40 times, but rarely in any form such as we speak of it in this context. The one place where we find reference to the satisfaction of God's justice by the work of Christ our Savior is in Isaiah 53:10,11, where we read this: "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:—there you have it—by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." That is the one passage where there is reference to satisfaction with the very use of the term satisfied. But even though the term satisfaction is not found, and Isaiah 53 is perhaps the only passage where we find explicit reference to God being satisfied by Christ's offering of Himself for sin, the fact is that this truth is clearly taught in Scripture and is the main focus of the instruction found in Lord's Day 5. So I call your attention this morning to:

THE SATISFACTION OF GOD'S JUSTICE

I. NECESSARY

II. IMPOSSIBLE BY US

III. POSSIBLE ONLY BY GOD'S MEDIATOR

I. THE FIRST QUESTION AND ANSWER IN THIS FIFTH LORD'S DAY IS REALLY A TRANSITION BETWEEN THE PRECEDING THOUGHT AND WHAT FOLLOWS: "SINCE THEN, BY THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT OF GOD, WE DESERVE TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT, IS THERE NO WAY BY WHICH WE MAY ESCAPE THAT PUNISHMENT, AND BE AGAIN RECEIVED INTO FAVOR? ANSWER: GOD WILL HAVE HIS JUSTICE SATISFIED, AND THEREFORE WE MUST MAKE THIS FULL SATISFACTION, EITHER BY OURSELVES OR BY ANOTHER." (Q & A 12).

GOD'S JUSTICE MUST BE SATISFIED.

Our God does not, cannot, wink at sin. He receives no excuses, not one. That is the truth of Scripture clearly set before us in the past few weeks, and indeed as long as we have heard the true preaching of the gospel. Whoso sins against a single commandment, sins against the whole law of God. The one who fails just once to continue in all things which are written in God's precepts is cursed. So we read in Galatians 3:10. Joshua, who stood before God's people as God's representative, pointed them to the Messiah as their only salvation, when He said, "(Jehovah) is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins." You and I cannot possibly go to God and plead for pardon, thinking that He will just set aside our sins. That is impossible. That is why, if you are one in whose heart the gospel lives, if you are one who loves the Lord, you cannot be at ease in sin. It is impossible for one in whom the Spirit of Christ lives to have a lackadaisical attitude toward holiness, to have a care less attitude toward sin. It is impossible for one in whom Christ lives to seek to excuse his own sin. A humble heart, a regenerated heart, is one that is deeply conscious of the great offense that his sins bring against the perfectly Holy God. Who is the man who shall stand before God in the day of judgment and say, "Lord, I couldn't help it; this is the way I was born"? Who is that man? Would you dare approach God in that way, excusing your sin? "God will have his justice satisfied." He must. He is the holy God.

God's justice. What is it? We touched on this last Sunday morning. You will remember that I defined justice very simply as that particular virtue of God according to which He rewards good with good; and by which He punishes evil with evil. That justice of God, as spoken of in the Bible, is simply the realization of God's righteousness in relation to man. He rewards perfectly the good with good; and He punishes sin by the evil of everlasting death and damnation. His righteousness, therefore, upholds His own holiness. Anything less than strictest justice would destroy God's own character. If you and I were to become more important than Himself, He would no longer be God.

"But, aren't there sins that are simply too small to be rewarded with everlasting damnation?!" We sometimes take that attitude, don't we. I mean from a practical point of view. There are some sins that just don't rank very high on our list of matters that might qualify as sins. There are some things that we might rather not even call "sins". There are some actions that we might like to say, "Aren't right; but they're nothing to be too concerned about." I say, that is our attitude sometime, isn't it, beloved. But that is wrong, dead wrong. While there is forgiveness with God through Jesus Christ for even those sins that are great in the eyes of the world, the fact is that even that which the world would not recognize as sin, or at most, the least sin, unrepented of and continued in, is a sin that brings everlasting damnation. Sin cannot be tolerated by the holy God. Sin must find its reward in everlasting punishment of body and soul. And although our initial reaction may be, "That's far too severe!," the fact is our sin against God is far more serious than any effects that sin may have had among men. Sin, don't forget, is committed against the most high majesty of God. Man is only secondary. And the punishment of sin must be equal, not to the limitation of the sinner, but to the offense against God's majesty. God will have His justice satisfied.

SO WE COME TO THE MATTER OF SATISFACTION.

The Catechism addresses the question of whether or not God's justice may be satisfied in such a way that we may escape His punishment and be again received into His favor. We may look at it this way, beloved: By our sins we have incurred a debt with God. Scripture uses that language too. You remember in the Lord's Prayer we are taught to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Our failure to pay that which was owed God—that is, perfect and wholehearted love—has made us debtors. God requires everything that we owe. The debt must be paid off, fully satisfied. And, don't forget, God demands the payment of love to Him right now, for this very moment, and for every moment. It is as if we stand before the store owner, and come to the counter asking him what we owe for the goods in our hands. Only, remember, if we use that earthly illustration to speak about our relationship to God, He is the One from Whom we have everything. The very life you live, the very air you breathe and the lungs functioning to take in that air and to purify it for your existence; all your talents, everything you have, comes from God. We owe Him for everything. Oh, we live sometimes as if God didn't even exist, as if I am my own man. We live as if our life and being is our own, as if we can do what we want, say what we will, think whatever we feel like. We take that which is in our possession, as spend as if God didn't have any place in our life. But the fact is, you have nothing that didn't come from God. And everything you have, including your very breath and functioning heart, you owe Him for! "Love Me," He says, "With all your heart and soul and mind. This very moment, Love me!" That is your debt, your unending debt to God.

Now, suppose—going back to the illustration of the store owner—you have foolishly incurred a debt which you have not been paying. You have abused the credit which he has given you, and shown yourself a thief by your failure to pay what you owe. So the store owner has no alternative but to say to you, "I will extend no more credit to you. You have shown yourself untrustworthy by your failure to pay that to which you agreed. From now on you will have to pay cash." Now suppose further that from that time on, that is exactly what you do. Every time you go into that store, you pay cash for whatever you buy. Did that reduce your debt even by one penny? Of course not! The debt is still there!

Now apply this little illustration to the debt that we owe to God. Suppose it were possible—it isn't, of course; but for sake of illustration suppose it were possible that from this day forward we would do the will of God perfectly, loving Him with all our heart and soul and mind, giving ourselves to Him entirely and perfectly, in obedience to every one of His precepts. Suppose we did that. We would still go to hell. Do you believe that? If from this day forward we lived in perfection before God, that still would not pay the debt of all our guilt from the time of our conception, and all our sins that have piled up as a huge mountain of offense against the Holy God.

II. AND SO THE CATECHISM POINTS OUT THAT THIS NECESSARY SATISFACTION OF GOD'S JUSTICE IS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO FULFILL. THE TRUTH IS: NOT ONLY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO PAY THE DEBT THAT WE OWE GOD, "BUT ON THE CONTRARY WE DAILY INCREASE OUR DEBT."

Now that puts us in a terrible predicament, you understand. You see, we not only are failing to pay our back debt towards the satisfaction of God's justice; but to the contrary, we are continuing to increase our indebtedness, our guilt, before God! Do you know why that is so? Understand now, the instructor does not merely point to the wicked when he says that. In the answer to the 13th question, where he speaks about this daily increase of our debt, he isn't even speaking about the natural man any more. He is speaking about you and me right now. To go back to that illustration that I used, he is speaking now about you and me who are paying cash all along. It doesn't matter if a man has the new life in him, being born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, he still carries with him his old sinful nature, what Paul refers to as the "flesh." You and I in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells now indeed fight against that sinful nature. We cannot rest in our sins. And if we are growing in grace as we ought to be, and as is normal with the aging of the Christian, then we are more and more hating sin and cleaving to God's Word and more and more growing in sanctification. But the fact remains, we never totally succeed in this world. Later, we will confess in Lord's Day 44 that even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience which God requires of us. Yet—and don't forget that; for this is no excuse—yet with a sincere resolution they begin to live, not only according to some, but all the commandments of God.

But the point here is that even our best works are tinged with evil—our best works. As Isaiah puts it, Even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Because, you see, God judges much more than just the outward act. And while I may do something that appears to you to be a very good work, it is only good in the sight of God when it comes out of a pure heart and is not corrupted by sinful flesh. And the result is that even the best of our works are corrupted by that old, sinful nature. So daily, rather than reducing our debt with God, and making satisfaction of His justice, we continue to increase our debt. Even as God's people we do that. You confess that, don't you. You don't go before God and lay claim to performing meritorious religious acts, do you? Is your claim to salvation the claim that your parents brought you up in the church, or that you attend church regularly, or that you are so bad as other men are? Oh no, no, no! If you have been born again by the Spirit, if you have the beginning of the new life in you, you know that there is nothing you can bring to God, but that you only daily increase your guilt. And you say, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." That is the reality. I don't speak some human philosophy or psychology, beloved. This is the truth revealed in Scripture, the reality as we stand before the all-glorious God. So our salvation cannot in any sense be of us. That's impossible.

STILL MORE, THAT JUSTICE IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO SATISFY, BECAUSE IT IS CLEAR FROM SCRIPTURE THAT GOD REQUIRES THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS.

The wages of sin is death. Death is owed God because of our debt. Now you might get the impression, with a superficial view of the Old Testament, that God's justice could be satisfied by the death of animals. After all, in His law He called for Israel to offer sacrifices as an atonement for sins. As soon as man sinned, in fact, God taught him that blood must be shed to cover his sins. So God killed an animal, shedding its blood, in order that its skin might cover our first parents. The whole Old Testament system or order was one of blood. Many were the sacrifices shed for the remission of sins. And in Hebrews 9:22 we read that without shedding of blood is no remission. But make no mistake, that animal blood itself brought no remission of sin. God made that clear repeatedly. I say a superficial reading of the Old Testament might lead to the thought that God's justice could be satisfied by the blood of animals. But nothing is further from the truth. And you are left without excuse, if you take God's Word so superficially. That is really the viewpoint of phariseeism. The Pharisees brought their gifts and sacrifices to the temple, and performed all the outward ceremonies of the law and claimed that all that they did satisfied God's justice. The gifts that they brought and the sacrifices they offered made satisfaction before God for any of their sins. Phariseeism was exactly that. And you know why? Because they had such a low view of God's holiness and such a little view of sin. God was not in all their thoughts, you see. But that attitude is inexcusable. For God said repeatedly, "Sacrifices and offerings I do not desire, but a contrite heart." That is, God demanded those offerings in the Old Testament. But He demanded that they be offered as an act of faith, the faith of a contrite heart, which lays hold of the promise. Those Old Testament animal sacrifices, all that shedding of blood, pointed to the cross.

So blood must be shed. And that blood must be the blood of the guilty one. The wages of sin is death. But those wages are ours. Not an animal's. Not an angel's. Those wages are ours. If God's justice will be satisfied, the blood of the guilty ones must be shed. Not only so, but it must be shed as an act of perfect obedience. The satisfaction of God's justice can only take place by the guilty one taking a willing walk through the valley of death under the wrath of God, all the while saying, "I love thee, O God." And so it is impossible for us to make such satisfaction. Impossible. For one thing, you and I don't actively enter death. Death is cast upon us. We are the victims of God's wrath. It is impossible for us in obedience to God to offer ourselves upon the altar of death, and to take upon ourselves the wrath of God, while walking in perfect obedience to Him. That is impossible. Yet that is what is required for the satisfaction of God's justice.

"Can there be found anywhere one, who is a mere creature, able to satisfy for us? None; for, first, God will not punish any other creature for the sin which man committed; and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin, so as to deliver others from it." You see? No mere creature can bear the punishment of God that has to be borne completely, to the very end, in an act of perfect love. No mere creature can possibly go through that punishment and live. No mere creature can possibly give us life and restore us to the fellowship of God.

III. THE ONLY POSSIBILITY THAT GOD'S JUSTICE BE SATISFIED, THE ONLY WAY IN WHICH THE SINNER CAN POSSIBLY BE SAVED, IS THAT GOD PROVIDE A MEDIATOR.

AND SO THE CATECHISM LEADS US ONCE AGAIN TO THE CONFESSION OF OUR ONLY COMFORT IN LIFE AND IN DEATH, NAMELY, THAT WE BELONG TO OUR FAITHFUL SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

The Catechism doesn't say that directly. It isn't ready to do that, because, as I said earlier, the Catechism wants to be sure that we understand Who that Mediator is. Our Savior will not be someone or something of our own making or our own imagination. He will be the Redeemer sent from God, indeed God in the flesh.

What sort of a mediator do we need? We must have One Who will take our place before the judgment seat of God and make satisfaction for us. He must have the right, therefore, to be a substitute for us, a representative on our behalf. That means, for one thing, that He must be a man; for man has sinned. As I also pointed out, He must be able to bring willingly the sacrifice necessary for our redemption. And in doing so He must be able to sustain the full burden of God's eternal wrath.

AND SO THE CATECHISM PUTS US BEFORE THE QUESTION: "WHAT SORT OF A MEDIATOR AND DELIVERER THEN MUST WE SEEK FOR? FOR ONE WHO IS VERY MAN, AND PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS; AND YET MORE POWERFUL THAN ALL CREATURES; THAT IS, ONE WHO IS ALSO VERY GOD."

As all Scripture makes plain: Salvation will not come from you or me, not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Only God can provide such a Mediator. For that Mediator, as you heard, must not only be a man. He must indeed be that. He must be very man. But He must also be perfectly righteous. And He must be more powerful than all creatures. That is, He must be very God! That is the only Mediator, the only Savior, Who can possibly save us. If there is no one who is at the same time very man and perfectly righteous; if there is no one who is at the same time true man and God at the same time and in the same Person, there is no salvation possible. But thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift! God became flesh and lived among us. The Eternal "took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." The perfectly Righteous One took our place before the judgment seat of God. He died the Guilty One. Yes He did. But His guilt was ours, not His. He had no sin. He died for His people. In perfect love for God, He died and satisfied God's justice that we might be saved. And He died, not merely to make salvation possible. But He accomplished His purpose.

And therefore with the Apostle Paul I also proclaim the call of the gospel. "As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Cor. 5:20,21).      Amen.

Preached: 1) Randolph PRC 9/1/96 (am)

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