Penal Satisfaction

Pastor Martin completes his exposition of the essence of Christ's sacrifice with the words 'penal' and 'satisfaction.' He explains that Christ's sufferings were not merely calamity or chastisement but legal punishment that fully met the demands of God's law against sin. Drawing on the triangular realities of the nature of the law, the nature of God, and the nature of man, he shows from Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:22-23, and Colossians 2:14 that Christ bore the curse of the law as the God-man, and he closes with John Owen's beautiful imagery of the sinner as Noah's dove finding rest only in the ark of Christ.

Pastor Martin opens the negative side of the catechism's statement of the ground of justification: 'not for anything done by them.' He establishes from Romans 3-4, Ephesians 2, Philippians 3, and Titus 3 that no human performance - whether before, at, or after effectual calling - contributes any thread to the ground of justification. He then applies the truth to those holding a damning confidence in their own works and to true Christians battling the conflicting witnesses of conscience and the gospel.