God’s Design in Jesus’ Death

Christ died in execution of the terms of an eternal Covenant of Redemption, formed between the Father and the Son. The conditions assumed by Christ on His part were that He should, in living and dying, by action and suffering, fulfil all the legal obligations of His people. The conditions promised by the Father were that Christ should “see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied” (Isa 53:11).

That there was such a covenant formed in eternity is plain. (1) God always acts on a plan, and there must therefore have been a mutual counsel and design on the part of the several persons of the Godhead distributing their several functions in the economy of redemption. (2) The Scriptures explicitly state all the elements of a true covenant in this relation, giving the mutual promises and conditions of the two parties. “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes...” (Isa 42:6-7). “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations” (Psa 89:3-4). “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: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great” (Isa 53:10-12). (3) Christ, while accomplishing His work on earth, makes constant reference to a previous commission He had received of the Father Whose will He has come to execute. “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (Joh 6:38). “This commandment have I received of my Father” (Joh 10:18). “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me” (Luk 22:29). (4) Christ claims the reward that had been conditioned upon the fulfilment of that commission. “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world…I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me” (Joh 17:4-6, 9). (5) Christ constantly speaks of those that believe as having been previously given Him by the Father. His Father had given them—“I lay down my life for the sheep” (Joh 10:15). They were given Him by the Father. He knows them. They hear His voice. They shall never perish. The reason that the reprobate⁶³ do not believe is because they are not His sheep (Joh 10:26). He prays not for the world: He prays only for those the Father had given Him out of the world. If He died in pursuance of a mutual understanding between Himself and the Father, if He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and if everyone that the Father gave Him in that covenant shall be saved, then surely those who are not saved are not those for whom He died.

The Scriptures habitually affirm that the motive that led the Father to give His Son, and the Son to die, was not a mere general philanthropy, but the highest, most peculiar, and personal love. Christ’s true purpose in dying can certainly have no more exact and complete expression than His outpourings of soul in the ear of His Father on the terrible night preceding His sacrifice, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. If ever the real design of His death was uppermost in His heart and speech, it must have been then. If ever the motives that led to His dying were in strong action, it must have been then. But all that He says of the world is that He does not pray for it. All the unutterable treasures of His love are poured forth upon those whom the Father gave Him out of the world. “For their sakes,” He said, “I sanctify myself”—that is, devote Myself to this awful service. “That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (Joh 17:13). “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Joh 15:13). “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:17-19). “Hereby perceive we the love of God…In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him…” (1Jo 3:16; 4:9-10.) This love of Christ for His Church has for its type the personal and exclusive love of the husband for the wife (Eph 5:25-27).

It is inconceivable that this highest and most peculiar love, which moved God to give His only-begotten and well-beloved Son to undergo a painful and shameful death, could have had for its objects the myriads from whom, both before and after Christ, He had withheld all knowledge of the gospel; or those to whom, while He gives them the outward call of the Word, He refuses to give the inward call of His Spirit. Can such love as the death of Christ expresses, welling up and pouring forth from the heart of the omnipotent God, fail to secure the certain blessedness of its objects? Paul expresses his opinion upon this precise point: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). Surely, it is a profane defamation⁶⁴ of this love to say that its effects may be measured in God’s providing a salvation for all men to accrue to them upon conditions known and intended in the case of most to be impossible. It is surely an abuse of Scripture to say that the elect and the reprobate, those appointed to honor and those appointed to dishonor (Rom 9:21), those who “before were of old ordained to this condemnation” (Jud 1:4) and those who were “ordained to eternal life” (Act 13:48), those whom God “hardeneth” and those upon whom He “hath mercy” (Rom 9:18), the “world” and those “chosen out of the world” (Joh 15:19) are all indiscriminately the objects of this amazing, this heaven-moving, this soul-redeeming love.

The Scriptures habitually represent the definite design of the death of Christ to be the saving of many, the redemption of His sheep, His Church, His people, His children, the elect. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” (Mat 1:21). “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep…I lay down my life for the sheep” (Joh 10:11, 15). “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it…That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:25-27). Christ is said to have died to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (Joh 11:51-52). “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:32-35).

Now, many plausible reasons may be assigned why, on the supposition of a personal and definite atonement, general terms should be used on some occasions to illustrate the fact that the redemption is suited for all, sufficient for all, [preached] to all; that the elect are chosen out of every family, tribe, and nation under heaven (Rev 5:9), and from every successive generation; and that finally the whole earth shall be redeemed from the curse, the gospel [shall] triumph among all nations, and the saints [shall] inherit the regenerated world! But we affirm that, on the contrary hypothesis⁶⁵ of a general and indefinite atonement, no plausible pretext can be given for the use of the definite language above quoted. If Christ loved the whole world so as to die for it, why say that the motive for His dying was that His sheep should be saved?

Christ’s work as High Priest is one work, accomplished in all its parts with one design and with one effect, and having respect to the same persons. The work of the high priest…included sacrifice or oblation⁶⁶ and intercession.⁶⁷ I proved also (a) that the work of the ancient priest secured the actual and certain remission⁶⁸ of the sins of all for whom he acted, and that it bore a definite reference to the persons of all those whom he represented and to none others; (b) that the ancient priest offered intercession for precisely the same persons—for all of them and for none others—for whom he had previously made expiation⁶⁹…It will answer our purpose to notice,

(1) The Scriptures declare that the ancient priest was in all these respects a type of Christ. Our Lord, having made expiation in the outer court, went within the veil to make intercession. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us… For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 9:12, 24; 7:25).

(2) But Christ interceded only for His sheep. This is certain, (a) because it is always effectual. He intercedes as “a priest upon his throne” (Zec 6:13). He says His Father “heareth him always” (Joh 11:42). His form of intercession is, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (Joh 17:24). (b) He expressly declares the fact that He intercedes only for the elect: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me” (Joh 17:9). “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (Joh 17:20). “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (Joh 10:16).

(3) But if Christ makes intercession for the elect only, He can, of course, have died for them alone. As proved before, the ancient priest made intercession for all for whom he made expiation. The priestly work was one in design and effect in all its parts. It is simply absurd to suppose that the priest acted as a mediator for one party when He made the oblation and for another when he made the intercession. This is the view certainly that Paul took of the matter: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?...Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:35). Here it is plain that the argument establishes the security of the elect. The ground upon which that security rests is that Christ died for them and intercedes for them. Plainly the dying and the intercession have one and the same personal object.

(4) This is rendered more certain by the very nature of that perpetual intercession that Christ offers in behalf of His elect. For us it is now perfected in heaven; it is not a humble dejection⁷⁰ of Himself, with cries, tears, and supplications; nay, it cannot be considered as vocal by the way of entreaty, but merely real by the presentation of Himself, sprinkled with the blood of the covenant before the throne of grace in our behalf. “But by His own blood…now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:12, 24)—so presenting Himself that His former oblation might have its perpetual efficacy until the many sons given Him are brought to glory. And herein His intercession consisteth, being nothing, as it were, but His oblation continued. He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). Now, His intercession before His actual oblation in the fullness of time being nothing but a presenting of the engagement that was upon Him for the work in due time to be accomplished, certainly that which follows it is nothing but a presenting of what, according to that engagement, is fulfilled; so that it is nothing but a continuation of His oblation in postulating,⁷¹ by remembrance and declaration of it, those things that by it were procured.⁷² How, then, is it possible that the one of these should be of larger compass⁷³ and extent than the other? Can He be said to offer for them for whom He doth not intercede? His intercession is nothing but a presenting of His oblation in the behalf of them for whom He suffered and for the bestowing of those good things that were purchased by it.

The relation that this question sustains to the doctrine of election is self-evident. The…doctrine that God of His mere good pleasure has from eternity infallibly predestinated certain persons out of the mass of fallen humanity to salvation and to all the means thereof, and that in so doing He has sovereignly passed over the rest of mankind and left them to the natural consequences of their sin, necessarily settles the question as to the design of God in giving His Son to die. It is purely unthinkable that the same mind that sovereignly predestinated the elect to salvation and the rest of mankind to the punishment of their sins, should, at the same time, make a great sacrifice for the sake of removing legal obstacles out of the way of those from whose path it is decreed other obstacles shall not be removed.

Our view has the capital advantage of agreeing with and harmonizing all the facts of the case and of representing Christ as having designed to accomplish by His death precisely what in the event is accomplished and nothing else. We believe that He designed to accomplish by [the Son’s] death the following ends: (1) Evidently as the end to which all other ends stand related as means, the only end that affords any adequate reason for what He did, He purposed to secure certainly the salvation of His own people, those whom the Father had given unto Him; (2) to secure that end, He designed to purchase for them, and then efficaciously to communicate to them, faith and repentance and all the fruits of the Spirit.

From The Atonement, in the public domain.

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Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823-1886): American Presbyterian theologian; son of Charles Hodge; born in Princeton, Mercer, New Jersey, USA.