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
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
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