Divine retribution

“ In torment they are exhibiting the glorious holiness of the Almighty in his hatred of sin? Some may believe that, but, thank God, the number is not large.... No, penalty, remorse, despair, are only signs of the deep remedial force in the nature of things, which has always been at work and always will be, and which, unless counteracted, will result sometime in universal and immortal harmony.... Retribution is a natural law; it is universal in its sweep; it is at the same time a manifestation of the beneficence that pervades the universe. ”

“ On every gate of hell may be written. Wherever retribution is actual, salvation is possible, equivalent to the great maxim of jurisprudence: Ubi jus ibi remedium! So, even the dark door of retribution, when men will advance by no other way, leads them to thoughtfulness, regret, and a redemptive readjustment of their passions and acts. Thus it becomes the ultimate gate of heaven. ”

“ Satisfaction by substitution, and substitution by incorporation. The bloody sacrifice among the heathen expressed the consciousness that sin involves guilt; that guilt exposes man to the righteous wrath of God; that without expiation of that guilt there is no forgiveness; and that through the suffering of another who shares his life the sinner may expiate his sin.
Luthardt, Compendium der Dogmatik, 170, quotes from Nägelsbach, Nachhomerische Theologie, 338 sq.—“The essence of punishment is retribution (Vergeltung) , and retribution is a fundamental law of the world-order. ”

“ THE fall of our first parents incurred the penalty of death, upon the principle that "the wages of sin is death." God in his goodness extended mercy, yet there must be a vindication, as it were, of His own justice before He could grant the world’s redemption. Sin had caused all the trouble. God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. His justice requires the death of the sinner, while His mercy provides means of remission of sin and purification of the sinner in a way to spare the sinner and yet not defeat justice. Only Divine wisdom can blend together mercy and justice. ”

“ But this is only the original, ideal meaning, for with the intrusion of sin another element appears in sacrifice; and men attempt, by their offerings, to expiate their offences, to cover their sins, to wipe out their {280} guilt, to propitiate Divine wrath. ”

“ Let not those that receive mercy from God be thereby emboldened to sin, for the mercies they receive will aggravate their sin and hasten the punishment of it; yet let not those that are under divine rebukes for sin be discouraged from repentance, for their punishments are means of repentance, and shall not prevent the mercy God has yet in store for them. ”

“ Since we have not done God's will according to the first revelation and must be rejected and condemned by his eternal, unendurable wrath, in his divine wisdom and mercy he has determined, or willed, to permit his only Son to take upon himself our sin and wrath; to give Christ as a sacrifice for our ransom, whereby the unendurable wrath and condemnation might be turned from us; to grant us forgiveness of sins and to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts, thus enabling us to love God's commandments and delight in them. ”

“ Fly, O my soul, from obeying him who will give thee so evil a retribution! Turn for Christ's honour who created and redeemed thee, deceiving His enemy in this life, that he may not beguile thee in the other! ”

“ Only, dear friends, I do desire, if I could, to wake some of you to look realities for once in the face, and to be sure of this, that retribution is proportioned to light, and that the sin of sins is the rejection of Jesus Christ. Beneath the broad folds of that 'more tolerable' there lie infinite degrees of retribution. The same deed done by a group of men may be indefinitely varied in its culpability, according to the motives and the clearness of knowledge which accompany or prompt the doing of it. ”

“ And I for my part believe that the modern form of Christianity and the tendencies of the modern pulpit, influenced by some theological discussions, about details in the notion of retribution that have been going on of late years, have operated to make ministers of the Gospel too chary of preaching, and hearers indisposed to accept, the message of 'the terror of the Lord.' My dear friends! retribution cannot stop on this side of the grave, and if you are going yonder you are carrying with you the necessity in yourself for inheriting the results of your life here. ”

“ The gift of God is Jesus Christ, and that gift meets all our failures. I have spoken of the sense of guilt that rises from the consciousness of failure to keep the requirements of the divine law; and the gift of God deals with that. It comes to us as we lie wounded, bruised, conscious of failure, alarmed for results, sensible of guilt, and dreading the penalties, and it says to us, 'Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.' 'God requires of thee what thou hast not done. ”

“ His own transgressions can be adjusted by prayer and repentance. He conceives of divine mercy as infinite—there is no reaching the end of it; hence with unlimited credit he may draw on his account whenever he feels sinfully disposed. ”

“ In retribution lies the atoning power of punishment. This consciousness that the nature of sin demands retribution, in other words, this certainty that there is in Deity a righteousness that punishes sin, taken in connection with the consciousness of personal transgression, awakens the longing for atonement,”—which is expressed in the sacrifice of a slaughtered beast. The Greeks recognized representative expiation, not only in the sacrifice of beasts, but in human sacrifices. ”

“ Now our Saviour Christ suffered only for those sins, which he meant to breake off by framing the sinners to repentance, and therfore it was no way necessary for the satisfying of divine justice, that he should endure eternall punishment. ”

“ Their sacrifices must cease to be distinguished by the shedding of blood and by acts of impurity, and for the future they must represent acts of submission and gratitude to the Deity, the source of all good, not clumsily-contrived means of working upon the Divine will, and propitiating it for the obtainment of gross and selfish objects. ”

“ Mercy, therefore, is mingled with the stern judgment of the prohibition.
outlines and suggestive comments.
We often speak of retribution as if it always lay beyond the grave, and the day of grace as extending through the whole life of man; but such is not the fact. Retribution begins with many men here. The day of grace terminates with many men before the day of death. There are those who reach an unconvertible state, their characters are stereotyped and fixed as eternity. The things that belong to their peace are hid from their eyes. ”

“ The sacrifice which Christ made was one of obedience to his Father's will; it does not free us and elevate us above the curse of a broken law, for, in a certain sense, the law has never been broken to the [Pg 530] extent that the evangelicals claim, nor does eternal punishment harmonize with enlightened and liberal notions of Divine mercy. ”

“ These two remedies are both of absolute necessity, for it is impossible that we should be delivered from the guilt of our actual sins without a sincere repentance; and it is impossible for us to repent as we ought without the assistance of Divine grace; and though we have a sincere repentance, that alone cannot deliver us from our sins without the infusion of sanctifying grace into our souls. So that the grace of our Saviour is the great remedy which alone can heal the wounds which the soul receives from sin, and wash away its guilt ”

“ Complete atonement thou hast made, And to the utmost farthing paid Whate'er thy people owed; How then can wrath on me take place, If sheltered in thy righteousness And sprinkled with thy blood? Turn, then, my soul, unto thy rest; The merits of thy great High-priest Speak peace and liberty; Trust in his efficacious blood, Nor fear thy banishment from God, Since Jesus died for thee!”
Justification, however, is not eternal in the past. We are to repent unto the remission of our sins (Act 2:38) . Remission comes after repentance. Sin is not pardoned before it is committed. ”

“ Need only to permit man freely to follow his own inclinations! "The wrath of man would thus be made to praise God;" and the designs of mercy be accomplished! The greatest good be occasioned by the greatest evil! God glorified, and sinners saved!
The mystery of redemption was veiled, till atonement had been made for sin. That satisfaction was to be made to divine justice, by the sufferings of a divine person, remained a hidden mystery, till explained by the event. This was necessary. Had the enemy been able to penetrate the design, these things would not have been done. ”

“ Let us, then, suppose the case of one who is alarmed by the Divine threatenings; who, conscious of his guilt, sees as it were the gulf of perdition yawning beneath his feet; but is deterred, by a sense of the heinousness of his sins, from seeking the pardon which he despairs of obtaining. How is he to be addressed? The love and mercy of God, as shewn towards a guilty and perishing world, in the mysterious, but most gracious, plan of redemption, p. 35through the Saviour, must be pointed out, and largely dwelt upon. ”

“ The idea of a forgiving and tender mercy in the Supreme Being, exercised towards a creature whom justice would send to eternal retribution, nowhere appears in the best pagan ethics. And why should it? What evidence or proof has the human mind, apart from the revelations made to it in the Old and New Testaments, that God will ever forgive sin, or ever show mercy? In thinking upon the subject, our reason perceives, intuitively, that God must of necessity punish transgression ”

“ If a man or a woman steal, cut off their hands,87 in retribution for that which they have committed; this is an exemplary punishment appointed by God; and God is mighty and wise. But whoever shall repent after his iniquity, and amend, verily God will be turned unto him, for God is inclined to forgive and be merciful. Dost thou not know that the kingdom of heaven and earth is God's? He punisheth whom he pleaseth, and he pardoneth whom he pleaseth; for God is almighty. ”

“ And when you sin against Jesus Christ you have got to make that restitution to him which is necessary to gain forgiveness. When you sin against the Holy Ghost you have got to make the atonement to him. And as we do to others, so it will be done to us, and the nation and the government that we look to for our rights. ”

“ That is the course to take; and how do you expect to get a remission of your sins, and be forgiven by the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Ghost, so that you can have the Holy Ghost rest upon you, unless you repent and make restitution or restoration, and make atonement for the sins that you may have committed? ”

“ All this, as we shall see hereafter, has been most gloriously accomplished by the death and sufferings of Christ. God can now be just, and yet the justifier of him that believes. The great obstacles which the administrative justice of God interposes to the forgiveness of sin, having been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross, that unbounded mercy from which the provision of such a Saviour proceeded, can now flow down upon a lost and ruined world in all the fulness and plenitude of its pardoning and sanctifying power. ”

“ Blessed for ever, then, and praised be the most merciful and tender Heart of our Divine Redeemer, Jesus Christ He from its very origin imparted to His Holy Catholic Church the power to grant to us, and to us the capability to receive, a portion of this treasure of Holy Indulgences, by means of which we are enabled with lightest burden to ourselves to pay to the justice of God even to the last farthing all we owe Him of temporal penalty after the eternal penalty of sin and its guilt have been remitted. ”

“ And so to us all who, by our sinfulness, have brought down upon our heads exposedness to that retribution, which, in a righteously governed universe, must needs follow sin, and to that death which the separation from God—the necessary result of sin—most surely is, there is proffered in that great Sacrifice shelter from the destroying sword. ”

“ I firmly purpose never again to fall into sin, to shim all occasions of offending thee, to confess my sine, to perform the penance that shall be enjoined me, and to make restitution and satisfaction wherever it shall be due from me. For the tare of thee, I forgive ail my enemies; to thee I offer up my life, my action, and my sufferings, in satisfaction for my Sins; and I trust in thy infinite goodness and mercy, that thou wilt forgive me, through the merits of thy Precious Blood and Passion, and that thou wilt also give me grace to amend my life, and to persevere in thy service unto my death. ”

“ On the contrary, we believe the prayer of humble and contrite guilt to be never rejected: but, be it remembered, at the same time, that repentance is the gift of God, and that those who long trifle with their day of grace, and by silencing the admonitions of conscience, resist the Spirit, may be visited with the fearful punishment of judicial blindness and final impenitence. ”

“ The penitent permit the proofs of divine goodness and grace to lead them to repentance and salvation; but the impenitent harden themselves more and more against the grace of God, and so become ripe for the judgment of damnation. The very same manifestation of the mercy of God leads in the case of the one to salvation and life, and in that of the other to judgment and death, because he hardens himself against that mercy. ”