THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
– A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith,
Article XX
God Has Manifested His Justice
and Mercy in Christ
We believe that God, who is perfectly merciful and just, sent His Son to
assume that nature in which the disobedience was committed, to make satisfaction
in the same, and to bear the punishment of sin by His most bitter passion and
death. God therefore manifested His justice against His Son when He laid our
iniquities upon Him, and poured forth His mercy and goodness on us, who were
guilty and worthy of damnation, out of mere and perfect love, giving His Son
unto death for us, and raising Him for our justification, that through Him we
might obtain immortality and life eternal.
The balance of
God’s love and God’s justice is only manifested in Christ and points
perfectly to the necessity of Christ being fully man and fully God. Calvin
maintained this balance of sovereignty and justice in contrast to God’s love
and mercy. Luther leaned to the grace and love of God while Zwingli was much
more legalistic and focused on the sovereignty of God. We see more of
Zwingli’s approach in the Westminster documents than other confessions. After
Calvin and during the so-called enlightenment and age of textural criticism we
will not find any single theologian hold the balance of God’s sovereignty and
grace as well as Calvin. In each sector of the reformation we do however find
two or more primary theologians each presenting each element clearly and there
is an overall balance. Often it is what are now considered liberal theologians
that held the side of grace in place (Barth as an example).
God’s
sovereignty demands God’s justice. A perfect justice has to be perfectly
satisfied. We must not focus on the passion of Christ at this point. The
suffering in the flesh by Christ is not to be denied or set aside lightly but
the focus is on the second death. All men can and according to the Bible will
die. Yet no man can satisfy the justice of God because the death mentioned is
the complete separation from God. Man is separated from God but has the perfect
sacrifice as atonement in Christ. This atonement however must be received by
faith and that demands life. Yet Christ fully man said from the cross, “my
God, My God why have you forsaken me?” For
that moment at least the impossible happens and Christ is feeling not the pain
in the flesh but in his soul the pain being in total darkness separated from
God. Then what man cannot do for
himself Christ does, Christ returns from the dead speaking both of the flesh and
of the spiritual or second death. Why and how can this be?
In the flesh Christ knew no sin and His blood was the prefect atoning
sacrifice for the sins of others that were laid upon Him. God in the Old
Testament had previously declared His flesh would not see corruption. Second is
that the sacrifice being acceptable to God, the resurrection was also from
prophecy of old. The sect of the
Pharisees taught the resurrection and after life of believers before Christ was
born. None understood how God was going to do this to include the angels. Christ
then made the justice of God as well as God’s mercy manifest to men. It is
interesting to note that Christ being fully God says no man takes His life but
that He lays it down willingly and that He is able to take it up again. This is
a reference to the human nature since Christ being God and fully spirit cannot
die. We also read Christ was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit and here we
read that He was raised by God. Not a contradiction but pointing to the triune
nature and perfect unity within the Trinity.
We are dealing
with a metaphysical event and terms here that we have trouble with because they
defy nature and logic, as we know it. Much like the hypostatic union or perfect
union of essential existence of being we discussed earlier. These are not events
we can recreate and examine forensically and must be received by faith because
God says this is how it is. Thus we indeed see God’s justice satisfied and
God’s mercy revealed, both in Jesus Christ the Son of God.
