“The theory of penal substitution is the heart and soul of an evangelical view of the atonement.” So says Thomas Schreiner in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views (67).
And historically, Schreiner is right.
This is how I was raised as an evangelical fundamentalist in California, and many others all across the USA.
I learned how to share the gospel according to the Romans Road and the Bridge Illustration. Every sermon I heard ended with a call to remember the Cross of Christ. Every communion service was a memorial pointing us back to the sacrifice of Jesus.
But not only is penal substitution the “heart and soul”, the “anchor and foundation”, and the “foundation and heart” of the evangelical view of the atonement.
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But It Is More!
Schreiner makes an even strong claim.
Schreiner’s goal is to “demonstrate from the Scriptures themselves that penal substitution is the heart and soul of God’s work in Christ” (72).
And this is where I disagree with Schreiner (which I’ll explain tomorrow). While being raised to see penal substitution as the center (really, as the only “gospel”), I have learned that this is not the case biblically.
But because the penal substitutionary view of the atonement is so common, and so commonly misconstrued as “divine child abuse”, I want to listen to Schreiner and lay out his view.
I want to listen to Schreiner (and others) because I don’t want to criticize a caricature or a straw man distortion (which is cheap and lazy, even if it feels compelling and rhetorically fulfilling).
The 3 Elements of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA)
This is Schreiner’s definition of penal substitution:
“The Father, because of his love for human beings, sent his Son (who offered himself willingly and gladly) to satisfy God’s justice, so that Christ took the place of sinners. The punishment and penalty we deserved was laid on Jesus Christ instead of us, so that in the cross both God’s holiness and love are manifested” (p. 67).
According to Schreiner, this view of the atonement assumes three elements:
- 1) The sinfulness and guilt of humanity
- 2) The holiness of God
- 3) The sacrifice of Christ
The Sinfulness and Guilt of Humanity
The first building block is that humanity is guilty before God because of sin.
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10).
This sin came into the world through the actions of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3), and spread to everyone, who also commits their own sins. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
God the Lawgiver
Within this framework of understanding salvation, God is first and foremost a Lawgiver who properly orders the world.
God gave Adam and Eve one law. They broke it.
God gave Israel (in the Old Testament) the Law. But they broke it.
Before God’s law, all of humanity is guilty.
This is the first element.
The Holiness of God
And what is God going to do in light of human guilt because of sin?
Sin cannot stand before God’s presence.
As the seraphim call out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts
the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:1–3).
Exodus 15:11 asks, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
1 Samuel 2:2 declares, “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.” (ESV)
And how does Isaiah respond before God’s holiness? ““Woe is me! yFor I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).
Because of his sin, and because of the sin of his people, Isaiah feared for his life in God’s holy presence.
The holiness of God requires that sin be removed from God’s presence.
And God’s holiness is the basis for the ethics of God’s people: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.'” (1 Peter 1:14-16) (Lev. 11.44, 45; 19.2; 20.7, 26; 21.8; 22.32)
God the Judge and the Punishment of Sin
According to the penal substitution view, the way to remove sin is to punish sin. Schreiner calls this the retributive justice of God.
So God is first a lawgiver.
And God is the judge.
As a holy judge, God must punish sin because otherwise God would not be holy. The punishment of sin, not just the exclusion of sin from God’s presence, is part of God’s holiness according to the penal substitution view.
God’s Personal Wrath
Not only is God a holy judge. But God is personally involved. God is personally angry with sin, and the sinner who sins.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness” (Rom. 1:18). Also God’s wrath against his rebellious people (Exodus 32:11; Deuteronomy 9:7).
“But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).
For Schreiner (and those in this tradition), this anger is expressed through the metaphor of adultery and harlotry. I.e. humanity is cheating on God with other gods, and by being lawless in the process (just see Ezekiel 16).
The Sacrifice of Christ
Because of human sinfulness, and because of God’s holiness and wrath against sin, someone must receive the holy punishment for sin (otherwise God will no longer be holy and just).
The Old Testament sacrificial system was a stopgap for the problem of human sin before a holy God. The Old Testament sacrifices were offerings of death substituting for humanity and offering forgiveness.
As the Bible says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22) and that “the life of a creature is in the blood, and I [God] have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Lev. 17:11).
But in the sacrifice of Jesus something new, and permanent has happened. The perfect sacrifice has been offered, and therefore never has to be offered again.
“But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect[i] tent[j] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation),12 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9: 11-12).
A passage like Romans 3:23-25 gathers this all together:
“Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”
Substitution of Jesus
Jesus has become our substitute. He takes our sin, death, penalty. We receive, by faith, his righteousness, life, and forgiveness.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:14-21).
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13).
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11)
Summary
The penal substitutionary theory of the atonement states that Jesus has taken our sins and received our penalty as a substitute. And by that substitution we are forgive and made righteous before God.
This has been the evangelical doctrine of the atonement.
But is it as biblical as people claim that it is?
And is this view really the heart and soul of God’s work in Christ?
I would say, NO. It isn’t
I’ll explain in tomorrow’s post.
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If you want to know all my thoughts on the sacrifice of Jesus, especially the parts we are likely to forget, check out The Forgotten Sacrifice of Jesus.
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