Zwingli:

1) However, note on the other hand how wisely God has taken care of all our sins in Christ Jesus [cf. Isa. 53:4].

1. Christ was humbled even to the humiliating death of the cross as we read in Philippians 2:8, and he through whom we were created, bore it for our sake. Thus we are redeemed by the Wisdom of God through whom we are created and against whom Adam sinned.

2. Christ did not have the guilt of any transgression in himself [Hebrews 4:15), for as 1 Peter 2:22 says, “he never did any sin and there was not found any un loyalty in his mouth:’ He also had no sinful weakness of the corrupted nature in him, for he was not conceived in the sin and stain of Adam, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the pure body of the Virgin Mary. Therefore, as he through whom we were created gave himself for us, so does he pay the divine righteousness for the burdensome death of the fail of weakness and disfavor of God, and makes his believers cheerfully take on bodily death for his sake.

3. He obtained eternal salvation for all people for they were all created as well as redeemed through him. And since he is eternal God he is sufficient and worthy enough to take upon himself the sin of all people for eternity and to lead us into eternal salvation, according to Hebrews 9 and 10. Huldrych Zwingli’s “A Short Christian Instruction,” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed., James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 1:18. [Italics original and underlining mine.] [Credit to Marty Foord for this find.]

2) In short, the word “sacrifice” in the Old Testament stands for a gift that one has brought to God. The priest then took the gift, lifted it onto the altar and burned it, or raised it up, or moved it back and forth–in accordance with the type of sacrifice. This was done for the purification of their sin. Now all this was but an image saying that Christ, the true priest, would come, and would offer for the sins of all the world not an animal nor an imperfect sacrifice. but a pure unstained sacrifice. No person in all humanity could have been found to do this except Christ himself. Therefore he offered up himself as he suffered the death on the cross for us. By this one death he purified and paid for the sins of the whole world for eternity. This true meaning one finds grounded in the letter to the Hebrews, especially chapters 6 to 10. Now since Christ has suffered only once the death on the cross, thus he also has been sacrificed only once. His dying is his sacrifice for us, and his sacrifice is his dying. His sacrifice is the purification of our sin and his death is also the purification of our sin. Therefore as he has died only once as Romans 6:10 states, so also has he suffered death only once and has been sacrificed only once. And, therefore, where one finds in the Scripture that Christ’s death has taken away our sin and finds in addition that his sacrifice has taken away our sin, and his shedding of his blood has taken away our sin, as Colossian 1:22 says, then they all together have only one meaning, namely, that Christ has saved us and paid for our sin, because he has given and sacrificed himself for us in the death of the cross. As he died only once, thus has he been sacrificed only once Huldrych Zwingli’s “A Short Christian Instruction,” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed., James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 1:35-36. [Italics original and underlining mine.]

[Dennison’s biographical note:

The Zurich Einleitung von 1523, actually Ein kurtze und Christenliche inleitung, was written by Huldrych Zwingli after the second Zurich disputation (October 26-28, 1523). It is dated November 17 and is addressed as a letter to the Zurich clergy in an attempt to persuade them
that images and statues are contrary to the Word of God. Zwingli also adds an attack upon the Mass (c.f. section 8). The city council responded so positively to the comments of Zwingli’s Instruction that they endorsed the text as binding upon the clergy and hence a ‘confessional’ document for the Zurich Reformation. In fact, the Zurich Einleitung becomes the first official confessional document of the Swiss Reformation (with its emphasis on evangelical faith and practice). The effect of Zwingli’s offering was to advance his triumph after the October 1523 disputation. From an outline of the fundamental Protestant gospel Zwingli applies that liberation to the vexed questions in dispute. When the third disputation was held the following January, Zwingli’s full triumph was assured. Images were gradually removed from the churches of Zurich and the Mass was officially abolished April 13, 1525.

Our text is from the English translation by E. J. Furcha in Huldrych Zwingli Writings. Volume Two. In Search of True Religion: Reformation, Pastoral and Eucharistic Writings (1984), 48 -75. I want to acknowledge the permission of the publishers Wipf & Srock of Eugene, Oregon ro reprint the Furcha translation here. Muller prints the German text (7-29). The German text is also in Busch 1/ 1, 108 -51. Furcha’s original is based on Huldreich Zwinglis Samtliche Wcrke, ed. by Emil Egli, in the Corpus Reformatorum (1983 reprint) 89:626- 63. p., 9.]

[For more Zwingli on the Death of Christ, see here.]

Anglican Catechism of 1553:

Master. All these foundations that you have laid are most true, Now, therefore, let us go forward to His works, wherein lies our salvation and conquest against that old serpent.

Scholar. It shall be done, good Master. After Christ Jesus had delivered that charge to His apostles, that most joyful and in all points heavenly doctrine, i.e., the gospel, which in Greek is called evangelion, in English “good tidings”; and had as by sealing established the same with signs and miracles innumerable, whereof all his life was full; at length was he sore scourged, mocked with potting. scorning, and spitting in His face; last of all His hands and feet were bored through with nails and He fastened to a cross. Then He truly died and was truly buried, that by His most sweet sacrifice He might pacify His Father’s wrath against mankind; and subdue him by His death, who had the authority of death, which was the devil; forasmuch not only the living, but also the dead, were they in hell or. elsewhere, all felt the power and force of this death: to whom lying in prison (as Peter says) Christ preached, though dead in body, yet relieved in Spirit. The third day after, He rose again, alive in body also and with many notable proofs, in the space of forty days, He abode among His disciples, eating and drinking with them. In whose sight He was conveyed away in a cloud, up into heaven, or rather above all heavens where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father being made Lord of all things in heaven or in earth; King of all kings, our everlasting and only high bishop, our only attorney, only mediator, only peacemaker between God and men. Now since He has entered into His glorious majesty, by sending down His Holy Spirit to us (as He promised), He enlightens our dark blindness, moves, rules, teaches, cleanses, comforts, and rejoices our minds; and so will He still continually do till the end of the world.

“Anglican Catechism (1553),” in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed. James T. Dennison, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2010), 2:23.

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1552 Book of Common Prayer:

Catechism, that is to say, an Instruction to be learned of every child before he be brought to be confirmed of the Bishop.

Question. What is your name?
Answer. N. or M.

Question. Who gave you this name?
Answer. My godfathers and godmothers in my baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

Question. What did your godfathers and godmothers then for you?
Answer. They did promise and vow three things in my name. First, that I should forsake the devil, and all his works and pomps, the vanities of the wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. Secondly, that I should believe all the articles of the Christian faith. And thirdly, that I should keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.

Question. Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe, and to do as they have promised for thee?
Answer. Yes, verily; and by God’s help so I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Savior. And I pray God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life’s end.

Question. Rehearse the articles of thy belief.
Answer. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, which was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Ponce Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence shall he come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church ; the communion of saints ; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Question. What dost thou chiefly learn in these articles of thy belief?
Answer. First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me and all the world.
Secondly, in God the Son, who hath redeemed me and all mankind.
Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifies, me, and all the elect people of God.

The Two Books of Common Prayer, Set Forth by Authority of Parliament in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth, 3^rd edition, ed., Edward Cardwell, (Oxford: At the University Press, 1852), 345-346. [Some spelling modernized; textual notes in original footnotes not included; and underlining mine.]

[Thanks to Marty Foord for assistance in finding this.]

Poullain:

Why Christ was subject to death.

Moreover although this Jesus Christ was thus pure, holy and just, and therefore free and exempt from all charge of sin, to which we are all by nature exposed: nevertheless after that He had taken upon Him our flesh with all its infirmities, save only sin, He willingly made Himself also subject to death. But since there was in Him no stain or charge of sin, and He Himself was the Son of God, yea, God also: this man, being filled with the substance of the Godhead, and with every grace of the Holy Spirit, could not be vanquished by sin, as Adam was; He could not even be holden of death itself. Nay though He submitted to death itself in the flesh, yet being quickened by the Spirit He procured for us eternal redemption before the throne of God’s justice and mercy, for all the elect who had believed or should believe in Him. 111erefore it came to pass, that in like manner as Adam by his trespass corrupted, ruined and destroyed together with himself his whole posterity, which were born of him after the flesh: so Christ restores anew His whole family, to wit, all the elect that are born again of His own seed by the spiritual power of the Holy Ghost, and makes them fit to enter into immortality.

Therefore I profess and believe that Jesus Christ, the true and eternal Son of God according to the divine nature that is in Himself, and likewise the true son of Mary, born in time, according to the human nature that He took upon Him, appeared and came into the world in our flesh, to make satisfaction for the sins of all, and to earn for all life eternal.

‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified.’

And this He accomplished fully when by the judgment of Pontius Pilate He underwent a cruel and dreadful death, shameful, yea accursed (albeit by the same judgment the judge himself pronounced Him just and innocent), and was crucified like some malefactor; to the end that He Himself in His own body might bear the curse that was awaiting us, and having taken it wholly upon Himself might consume and destroy it. Finally in order that all men might have the greater certainty of His death, His lifeless body was openly taken down from the cross and laid in the sepulcher.

‘Dead, and buried, He descended into hell.’

And lest peradventure there should seem to be lacking aught of our curse that He had not taken upon Himself, He descended also into hell. For when He was dying He endured all the sharpness of death, with the weight of God’s wrath, like unto a sinner; wherefore He cries out upon the cross that He also had been forsaken of God. But when He was dead, although in the body He lay in the sepulcher, His soul was in hell, that is, in the state of the dead, being truly separated from the body.

‘The third day He rose again from the dead.’

But when He had undergone all things to which by God’s just judgment we had been condemned, in order that God’s justice should be satisfied completely: by His own power He returned to life on the third day, taking again His body, which though laid in the sepulcher could not suffer corruption, even as His soul could not be kept in hell. Thereby He openly showed that He is truly God, and hath power over death, sin, and hell; and finally, that He is Lord over all. And I for my part acknowledge, confess and believe Him.

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