Category Archives: Penal substitution

Questions about penal substitutionary atonement

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Taking I.H. Marshall’s suggestions in Aspects of the Atonement as our starting point, we set out some of the questions that need to be asked about the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement (PSA):-

  1. Is the doctrine of PSA taught in Scripture?  How does it cohere with scriptural teaching on related matters, such as the love of God, the Trinity, the nature of Old Testament sacrifices and meaning of expiation/propitiation?  And does it cohere (and if so, how) with the life, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ?
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Puritans on penal substitution

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In chapter 15 of The Atonement Debate (2008), Stephen Holmes gives an account of British evangelical accounts of the atonement, with special reference to the doctrine of penal substitution.

Holmes argues three points:-

  1. Evangelical preachers and writers have generally insisted upon substitutionary understandings of the atonement, but with much less emphasis on penal substitution.
  2. Evangelicals have usually taught penal substitution as one of a number of metaphors relating to the atonement.
  3. Evangelicals usually accepted penal substitution without controversy until about 1800. 
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Punishment in the NT

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‘Admittedly,’ (writes I.H. Marshall in Aspects of the Atonement) ‘the vocabulary of punishment does not figure all that prominently in the New Testament and those who would downplay the term “penal” understood in terms of punishment can point to this fact. A half-dozen is the sum total of references to divine punishment, and they are associated particularly with the day of judgment.  In the parabolic teaching of Jesus, wicked servants will be punished when the master returns (Matt.…

Questions about penal substitution

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I. Howard Marshall, in his book Aspects of the Atonement, helpfully sets out some of the questions that need to be asked about the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement:-

1. What is the place of penal substitution in the teaching of Scripture? There are four distinguishable views:

• The principle of penal substitution does not figure in the New Testament at all.
• It is there, but it is only one of the pictures/metaphors/analogies used in the New Testament to express the significance of the death of Jesus Christ.…

Can guilt be transferred?

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How can it be possible for guilt to be transferred from one person to another?  How can it be possible for Jesus Christ, the sinless one, to bear away the guilt of me, a sinner?

In his book Scandalous Don Carson reminds us of an illustration that is quite often used by preachers: a judge pronounces a guilty sentence on a criminal.  Then he steps down from the bench, takes off his robes, and takes the person’s place in prison or writes out a cheque to cover the fine.…

The logic of penal substitution

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There are three principal ways in which Christ’s death has been understood in the church:-

First, there is the type of account which sees the cross as having its effects purely on us: it reveals God’s love to us; it tells us how much God hates sin; it sets us a supreme example of godliness; it blazes a trail to God, which we may now follow.  The cross motivates us to seek God and it opens up the flow of divine life.  …

Must God punish sin?

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Few Christians are willing to do any sustained thinking about sin.  Of course, evangelical preachers will mention it from time to time.  After all, they need to convince their hearers that they are ‘sound’.  But they will feel under intense pressure from those same hearers to move quickly and as smoothly as possible from anything to do with sin and judgment to a positive and uplifting message about God’s love.

The fact is, that for most modern Christians the doctrine of the love of God has become the one great ‘givens’, the unargued and unarguable axiom. …

Propitiation

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How did the cross of Christ achieve its purpose?  In what ways did his death and resurrection usher in ‘the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:2)?

Just as several pictures, or metaphors, are needed to fill out the meaning of ‘church’ (bride, temple, household, and so on), so several are required to illustrate the salvation that Christ achieved.  Chief among these are the terms ‘propitiation’, ‘redemption’, ‘justification’, and ‘reconciliation’.  It is important to realise that these images are complementary to one another, for underlying them all is ‘the truth that God in Christ has borne our sin and died our death to set us free from sin’. …

Biblical foundations of penal substitution 6 – Romans

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Context

Paul teaches in Romans that the universal sinfulness of humankind provokes God’s righteous anger.  This has both a present (Rom 1:18) and a future (Rom 2:5) aspect.

Moroever, Rom 1-3 makes it clear that God’s wrath is personal and active, and not merely the impersonal outworking of some inevitable process of cause and effect, as C.H. Dodd and others have taught.  It is God’s wrath and it is from heaven (Rom 1:18).  It is God’s judgment, Rom 2:5f, 16; 3:5, and God’s verdict, Rom 2:26; 3:7; 3:19. …

Biblical foundations of penal substitution 4 – Mark

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Mark 10:45 – a ransom for many

Penal substitution is implied in the word lytron (‘ransom’), and suggested by an allusion to Isa 53 and the substitionary work of the Suffering Servant.  ‘The cup I drink’ (Mk 10:38) is, of course, the cup of God’s wrath (Mk 14:36; Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15f; Ezek 23:32-34; Hab 2:16).  This cup of wrath, according to the text just cited, is destined for the wicked, but is drunk by Jesus in their place, as ‘a ransom for many’. …