Forgiveness Was Earned

If God's wrath is to be taken from me and I am to attain grace and forgiveness, this blessing must be earned from Him by someone. For God cannot be kind and gracious to sin, and cannot remove punishment and wrath, unless sin has been paid for and satisfaction has been rendered.

Now no one (not even an angel in heaven) was able to do away with the eternal, irreparable damage and the eternal wrath of God, which we had earned by our sins, except the eternal Person of God's Son Himself. And this He did by stepping into our place, taking our sins upon Himself, and answering for them as if He were guilty of them Himself.

Source: Quoted in Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, A Practical In-home Theology for the Active Christian. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1959 Edition, 10th Printing (1994), p. 516.