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.]