Needed: satisfaction for sin

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‘With God all things are possible’ (Matthew 19:26).  ‘Nothing is impossible with God’ (Luke 1:37)

So why doesn’t God simply forgive sinners, without need of any atonement?  Why can’t he just let bygones be bygones?

After all, he can do anything, can’t he?

Well, setting aside the obviously absurd (God cannot create a two-sided triangle), we note with Puritan Thomas Brooks that there are three things that God cannot do:- he cannot die; he cannot lie; and he cannot deny himself.…

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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How the resurrection accounts fit their 1st century setting

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The Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus are sometimes thought to be hopelessly inconsistent with each other.  Thus, their historical accuracy is doubted.

One profitable line of enquiry is to how the various account line up with what is know about burial practices in the 1st century.

Ian Paul gives a few examples:-

‘Only the family tombs of the relatively wealthy would have disk-like round stones closing the entrance which need to be rolled away (and there are more and more examples of these being excavated year by year); the entrances are often quite low, so you would indeed need to stoop down to see the inside (John 20.5) and the space (unlike a modern ‘tomb’) can indeed be ‘entered’ (Mark 16.5).

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Six aspects of the gospel

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Six aspects of the gospel stand out in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:-

1. It is Christological. It centres on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: these emphases are ‘of first importance’, v3.  Christianity is Christ: and it is Christ crucified and risen.

2. It is biblical. The work of Christ was achieved ‘according to the Scriptures, v3,4. Cf. Lk 24:25-27,44-46; Acts 2:25-31. ‘The first Christian evangelists made much of the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus were corroborated by two witnesses – the prophets and the apostles, or, as we would say, the Old Testament and the New Testament.’…

The offence of the gospel

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You might have heard it said that the faithful preaching of the gospel will inevitably cause offence.  In fact, if your evangelism does not cause offense, you’re probably not doing it properly.  You might as well measure your faithfulness to the gospel by the number of people who hate you.  Count it as a badge of honour.

About this assertion I shall say nothing at the present time, except that any truth that might reside in the first of these claims is utterly negated by the attitude which it expresses.…

Proclaiming the gospel

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In Acts 2, Peter ‘focused on Christ and told his story in six stages.’

      1. ‘he was a man, though divinely attested by miracles;
      2. he was put to death by wicked hands, though according to God’s purpose;
      3. he was raised from the dead, as the prophets had foretold and the apostles had witnessed;
      4. he was exalted to God’s right hand, and from there poured out the Spirit;
      5. he now gives forgiveness and the Spirit to all who repent, believe and are baptized; and
      6. he thus adds them to his new community.’
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Divine retribution in the New Testament

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It is often asserted that divine judgement is restorative, and not retributive.  But this is a false dichotomy, and one that flies in the face of the testimony of Scripture.

Andrew Atherstone notes that the concept of divine retribution (punishment administered by God in return for wrong that has been committed) is not frequently encountered in the New Testament, but that it is present nonetheless:-

‘For example, after Jesus healed an invalid at the Pool of Bethesda he warned the man, ‘Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you’ (John 5:14).…

Richard Rohr’s ‘Universal Christ’

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The Universal Christ (London: SPCK, 2019)

Richard Rohr’s latest offering will, as with his previous books, delight some and perplex others.  His many fans will love his fresh, imaginative, free-association, experientialist approach.  His critics will be distressed by what they see as his careless irrationality.  Count me among the latter; one of those ‘who value plodding virtues such as accuracy and attention to what the scriptures and teachers of the tradition have actually said, [and] will find difficulty with the sweeping generalisations, questionable assertions, and Aunt Sallys that Rohr frequently sets up, so as then to be able, triumphantly, to knock them down’

(Edward Dowler, writing in the Church Times).

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Contending for the faith

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‘Contending for the faith’, writes Lee Gatiss in Evangelicals Now, is a phrase often used by Christians, but not always with a clear sense of its meaning.

Gatiss offers a helpful, if hard-hitting, summary of ‘the biblical doctrine of contending’:-

1. Contending is not a worldly exercise

  • We do not contend against flesh and blood, but against demonic powers.
  • We do not merely contend against something but for the faith, for the gospel.
  • We do not contend in a violent way for Jesus’s kingdom as if it were an earthly kingdom.
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Three levels of sermon application

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In his book Teaching Acts David Cook writes about three kinds, or levels, of preaching application:-

1. The necessary application.  This comes directly from the meaning of the text, and demonstrates how the text applies to all hearers at all times.  For example, some beliefs and attitudes are always wrong and are therefore to be repented of, while others are always right and are therefore to be adopted and nurtured.

2. The impossible application.  It can be helpful, says Cook to show what sorts of application do not flow from the text. …