Rejection of Errors about Christ’s Death and Redemption

Who teach that God the Father appointed His Son to death on the cross without a fixed and definite plan to save anyone by name, so that the necessity, usefulness, and worth of what Christ's death obtained could have stood intact and altogether perfect, complete and whole, even if the redemption that was obtained had never in actual fact been applied to any individual. For this assertion is an insult to the wisdom of God the Father and to the merit of Jesus Christ, and it is contrary to Scripture. For the Saviour speaks as follows: I lay down My life for the sheep, and I know them. And Isaiah the prophet says concerning the Saviour: When He shall make Himself an offering for sin, He shall see His offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. Finally, this undermines the article of the creed in which we confess what we believe concerning the church.

Who teach that the purpose of Christ's death was not to establish in actual fact a new covenant of grace by His blood, but only to acquire for the Father the mere right to enter once more into a covenant with men, whether of grace or of works. For this conflicts with Scripture, which teaches that Christ has become the guarantee and mediator of a better — that is, a new — covenant, and that a will is in force only when someone has died.

Who teach that Christ, by the satisfaction which He gave, did not certainly merit for anyone salvation itself and the faith by which this satisfaction of Christ is effectively applied to salvation, but only acquired for the Father the authority or plenary will to relate in a new way with men and to impose such new conditions as He chose, and that the satisfying of these conditions depends on the free choice of man; consequently, that it was possible that either all or none would fulfill them. For they have too low an opinion of the death of Christ, do not at all acknowledge the foremost fruit or benefit which it brings forth, and summon back from hell the Pelagian error.

Who teach that what is involved in the new covenant of grace which God the Father made with men through the intervening of Christ's death is not that we are justified before God and saved through faith, insofar as it accepts Christ's merit, but rather that God, having withdrawn His demand for perfect obedience to the law, counts faith itself, and the imperfect obedience of faith, as perfect obedience to the law, and graciously looks upon this as worthy of the reward of eternal life. For they contradict Scripture: They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ, whom God presented as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. And along with the ungodly Socinus, they introduce a new and foreign justification of man before God, against the consensus of the whole church.

Who teach that all people have been received into the state of reconciliation and into the grace of the covenant, so that no one on account of original sin is liable to condemnation, or is to be condemned, but that all are free from the guilt of this sin. For this opinion conflicts with Scripture which asserts that we are by nature children of wrath.

Who make use of the distinction between obtaining and applying in order to instil in the unwary and inexperienced the opinion that God, as far as He is concerned, wishes to bestow equally upon all people the benefits which are gained by Christ's death; but that the distinction by which some rather than others come to share in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life depends on their own free choice (which applies itself to the grace offered indiscriminately) but does not depend on the unique gift of mercy which effectively works in them, so that they, rather than others, apply that grace to themselves. For, while pretending to set forth this distinction in an acceptable sense, they attempt to give the people the deadly poison of Pelagianism.

Who teach that Christ neither could die, nor had to die, nor did die for those whom God so dearly loved and chose to eternal life, since such people do not need the death of Christ. For they contradict the apostle, who says: Christ loved me and gave Himself up for me, and likewise: Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ who died, that is, for them. They also contradict the Saviour, who asserts: I lay down My life for the sheep, and My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.