"It is begun." VS. "it is finished."

R. Scott Clark, over at The Heidelblog has written yet another great entry about what our only comfort is. Here's a little of it:

"...has fully satisfied for all my sins..."

"In order to understand our confession we need to know a little about the history of the medieval church before the Reformation. Rome taught (and teaches) that Christ died to make salvation possible (by the way, does this sound familiar? Don't lots of evangelicals speak just this way about salvation?) The Reformed way of speaking about salvation is to say that Jesus accomplished salvation for us and applies it to us by his Spirit. According to Rome, however, Jesus' death makes it possible and the Spirit begins the process of sanctification and eventual justification in baptism. In the Roman scheme, our duty is to cooperate with grace toward eventual , final justification. When we sin, according to Rome, we are obligated to do penance.

... Not so in the Heidelberg Catechism. According to the Protestant view, Jesus has propitiated God's wrath and expiated our sins. He has satisfied for "all my sins." He has reconciled God to me and all believers. Rome says, "It is begun." Jesus says: "It is finished." He has redeemed me from all the power of the devil. It isn't just "underway." It's done. God is not propitiated, he is not reconciled, and I am not redeemed in any way by anything the Spirit does within me or anything I do in cooperation with grace. It's done for me. The only "condition," (instrument really) is this: "if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart" (HC 60). The whole Reformation can be said to have turned on the difference between two prepositions. When it comes to being right before God the Roman preposition is "in" and the Protestant preposition is "for." Thank God for that little preposition "for!" "