Exposition

Since, then, we are not able of ourselves to make satisfaction to God for our sins, but must have some other satisfier or mediator in our place, we must enquire further, What sort of a deliverer must he be? To this we may reply, that he must of necessity be merely a creature, or merely God, or both. A mere creature, however, he cannot be, for the reasons already assigned. Merely God he could not be, because man, and not God, had sinned; and also because it behooved the mediator to suffer and die for the sins of man. But God, in himself, can neither suffer nor die. It follows, therefore, that such a mediator is required who is both God and man. The reasons for this will be assigned in the questions immediately following.