Whom God hath forth to be a propitiation...

The effect and fruit of Christ's satisfaction, is our freedom, ransom, or deliverance from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins. Such was the dignily, value, and completeness of Christ's satisfaction, that in strict justice it merited our redemption and full deliverance; not only a possibility that we might be redeemed and pardoned, but a right whereby to be so. If He be made a curse for us, we must then be redeemed from the curse; so the apostle argues, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that God might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Rom. 3:25,26. Mark the design and end of God in exacting satisfaction from Christ; it was to declare his righteousness in the remission of sin to believers; and lest we should lose the emphatical word, he repeats it, "to declare, I say, his righteousness."

Everyone can see how his mercy is declared in remission; but he would have us take notice, that his righteousness and justice are vindicated in the justification of believers. Oh how comfortable a text is this! Doth Satan or conscience set forth thy sin in all its discouraging circumstances and aggravations? God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation. Must justice be manifested, satisfied, and glorified? So it is in the death of Christ, ten thousand times more than ever it could be in thy damnation.

We might repeat all that has been said, to establish the truth or fact of Christ's satisfaction; proving its reality; that it is not an improper, fictitious satisfaction, as some have called it; but real, proper, and full, and as such accepted of God. For his blood is the blood of a Surety, Heb. 7:22, and from him did the Lord exact satisfaction for our sins, and with the obedience of his Son, he is fully pleased and satisfied. God is totally satisfied with me in Christ.