Owen's Double Jeopardy Argument

[Spatula]

Hello list,

I've been thinking about Owen's double jeopardy argument and I'm not very clear on what it means. Could someone explain?

If Christ appeased God's wrath against the elect by substitutionary atonement, how could they ever have been children of wrath as Ephesians 2:3 says? Wouldn't that be a kind of double jeopardy where the unbelieving elect personally experience the wrath of God before they are saved because of their sins, and then Christ experiences God's wrath for the same sins when he goes to the cross? So the punishment is dished out twice for the same sins, right?

Thanks.

-Spatula

[Calvinator]

Hello list,

I've been thinking about Owen's double jeopardy argument and I'm not very clear on what it means. Could someone explain?

If Christ appeased God's wrath against the elect by substitutionary atonement, how could they ever have been children of wrath as Ephesians 2:3 says? Wouldn't that be a kind of double jeopardy where the unbelieving elect personally experience the wrath of God before they are saved because of their sins, and then Christ experiences God's wrath for the same sins when he goes to the cross? So the punishment is dished out twice for the same sins, right?

Thanks.

-Spatula

Read Ephesians 2:3 very carefully. It does not say that we were children of wrath, but it says that our nature was as the children of wrath and just as deserving the wrath of God as anyone else. Our nature was the same as those that are children of wrath. Jesus is our perfect savior and He does not fail at what ever He does or purposes to do. So we were never in danger of His eternal wrath, therefore it was a done deal before the foundation of the world.

[Spatula]

So we were never in danger of His eternal wrath . . .

What are we saved from then? Not God's wrath since we are never in danger of it.

-Spatula

[Calvinator]

What are we saved from then? Not God's wrath since we are never in danger of it.

-Spatula

From His wrath and the reason that we were never in danger of it is because He is sufficient and complete in His work. If you will go back one chapter, you will see that we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world and that was before Adam.

[Brandan Kraft]

Eph 2:4, (NASB), But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

[Saint Nicholas]

What are we saved from then? Not God's wrath since we are never in danger of it.

-Spatula

Romans 5:20 "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, [the elect's sin nature], grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"

To answer your question. We are saved from our sinful human nature. That is why we need a new nature. The elect are born of incorruptable seed at the new birth. Grace exceeds all of our sins, even if they numbered in the trillions x trillions x trillions. We were always seen by God the father as righteous in Christ from the foundation of the world. Try not to confound the legal with the moral aspects of our Salvation.

I hoped this has helped,
Nicholas

[Robert R. Higby]

'Children of wrath' refers to a seed of internal wicked seething rage and hatred (the sinful nature) that God has saved us from in His grace. It does not mean that we used to be children of GOD'S wrath. The elect were loved in Christ from eternity.