Calvin's Satisfaction Theory

John Calvin writes about what he believes on the satisfaction theory in his book the Institutes of the Christian Religion. He discusses this topic in chapter sixteen which focuses on Christ’s life and death. Calvin argues that God needs satisfying when it comes to his righteousness, wrath, and love and Jesus is the one who satisfies this for God. The satisfaction theory is where Jesus Christ went through suffering which ended with the crucifixion in order to substitute for the human sin but also satisfying God’s wrath. For Calvin though, he extends on this idea. Not only was Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice satisfying to God’s wrath but it also satisfied his righteousness and love. To start off we should discuss what Calvin points out first
and that is that Jesus is the Redeemer. Calvin mentions that our redemption would be imperfect if he did not lead us ever onward to the final goal of salvation. As we continue to look at Calvin’s opinion on the Redeemer he mentions shortly on how Jesus accomplishes salvation. He says that no one can descend into himself and seriously consider what he is without feeling God’s wrath and hostility toward him. Since this is the case, Jesus has to seek ways to reconcile God which then demands a satisfaction. As believers in God, we needed Jesus Christ’s sacrifice just as much as God did. What do I mean by this? We can look at the Scriptures to understand what I mean here. The passage I am talking about is Romans 5:10. In this verse, it says that God was men’s enemy until they were reconciled to grace by the death of Christ. Now by using this verse it is clear that for us as Christians we needed this sacrifice and so did God. In the end though we need this more than God because if Jesus wasn’t a sacrifice then we would be suffering immensely because we would have the all-powerful God as our enemy. With God as an enemy we would be constantly suffering and receiving God’s punishment. Calvin moves on and discusses the work of atonement and how it comes from the love of God.
While discussing the love of God when it comes to the work of atonement, Calvin goes on to use Augustine’s thought to defend his view on this. What Augustine goes on to say is that God’s love is incomprehensible and unchangeable. What is even more interesting is what Augustine goes on to say next. He says that for it was not until after we were reconciled to him through the blood of his Son that God began to love us. Augustine then goes on to mention God loved us even when we were sinning against Him and that in a marvelous and divine way He loved us even when He hated us. When it comes to God’s love we need to look at the sacrifice that He sent us and how the sacrifice went about.
God sent His one and only begotten Son to die for all of our sins but Jesus had to die in a way that no one else could even imagine.
Jesus had to die on a cross. Calvin discusses why Jesus had to die on the cross. The reason for this is that if Jesus had been murdered or killed by a mob then there would be no evidence of satisfaction according to Calvin. Jesus had to be “judged” like a criminal would be. He needed to be accused and condemned by a judge to die and with Jesus going through these events it then puts Him in the spot of us. He had to take on the role of what a guilty man would have to take. This was the only way according to Calvin that God could be satisfied and do have all of humanity avoid the wrath of God. For Calvin, he believes that all of the sin from humanity was transferred into the flesh of Jesus and that the Father destroyed the force of sin when the curse of sin was transferred to Christ’s flesh. Calvin brings up the cross and that it was a symbol and he quotes the Bible to support his thought here. The passage he quotes is Galatians 3:13-14 which says cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree/pole that in Christ the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles. Calvin finishes off his discussion on the crucifixion by saying that we couldn’t believe with assurance that Christ is our redemption, ransom, and propitiation unless he had been a sacrificial victim. Calvin needs to point out that Jesus descended into Hell to show the last part on how He
satisfied God.
Calvin states that if Jesus just dies a bodily death then his death wouldn’t have been effective. Jesus had to receive all of God’s vengeance in order to satisfy his wrath and judgment and so Jesus had to go into Hell and had to dread the everlasting death. Christ had to take on the entire punishment that we as humans were supposed to endure but Calvin mentions there was one exception to this punishment. The exception for Jesus was that he could not be held by the pangs of death. To finish off his point, Calvin says this, “the point is that the Creed sets forth what Christ suffered in the sight of men, and then appositely speaks of that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent in the sight of God in order that we might know not only that Christ’s body was given as the price of our redemption, but that he paid a greater and more excellent price in suffering in his soul the terrible torments of a condemned and forsaken man”.
The main argument for Calvin is that God needs satisfying when it comes to his righteousness, wrath, and love and Jesus is the one that satisfies God.
Jesus does this in four different ways according to Calvin. The first way is that Jesus’ obedient self-offering pleases God. The second way was that by Jesus’ death he receives God’s condemnation of guilt and God’s cursing of the guilty. What goes along with this way is that the act of communication that what is happening in creation is wrong. The third way is that in Jesus’ death he destroys death. We can see this in Hebrews 2:14-15. This passage talks about that by Jesus’ death he will break the power of the one who holds the power of death and that one is the devil. Lastly, the fourth way is that Jesus satisfies by his descent into hell. Jesus had to descend into hell otherwise it would’ve just been an ineffectual death and he wouldn’t have received the full vengeance of God. When it comes to these four ways on how Jesus satisfies God, I completely agree with Calvin but what I’m struggling with the most is that how can such a loving God, a God who loves all of his children, who are all sinners, need to be satisfied? I get that Jesus took the place of all of us in order for us not to receive the wrath of God but does a God this powerful need
satisfying?
When it comes to Calvin and his view on the satisfaction theory I agree with him and that Jesus is the one that satisfies all. I can’t really think of a new way to approach this idea or improve it, but what I do wish Calvin would’ve done is focus a little more on what happens as soon as Jesus took his last breath. What I am getting at is that I feel like when it comes to Jesus’ descent into hell, Calvin doesn’t really say much about this and I personally believe that this is a topic that should be focused on. Since Calvin uses Jesus’ descent into hell as a defense then why does he only say a little about this? He should talk more about why Jesus had to go into hell and why this is so important in satisfying God.