Lecture 17: The Penal Substitution Theory

Today we are looking at another answer to the question:

How is what Jesus did through His death and resurrection 200 years ago, able to save and forgive me of my sins today?

Last week we looked at the Ransom answer, and i think we can say that its not a very convincing suggestion.

So let us look today at an answer that, by and large, is universally accepted as the best explanation of the biblical data:

This doctrine of the atonement is founded upon the theory of justice.

This view holds that retributive justice (or what he called punitive justice) is essential to God’s nature.

That means, like i said last week, God’s power or ability cannot be separated from God’s character.

On God’s character:

There are two principal virtues in God: justice and goodness.

Goodness is that by which he [God] is conceived as the supreme good and the giver of all good.

So God is supremely good and determines what is good.

But justice is that by which God is in himself holy and just and has the constant will of giving to each his due.

Justice gives to every person what he deserves.

If a person deserves punishment then it is essential to God to punish that person’s sin and to mete out justice.

Therefore justice is necessary for the remission of sins.

4 arguments in favor of the view that God must exercise punitive justice in order to remit sins.

1. Scripture teaches that God detests sin and is a just judge.

Psalm 5:5 NASB 2020

5 The boastful will not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do injustice.

Sin is not just something that God doesn’t want to put up with; he hates it.

This represents the very character and nature of God that he is opposed to and detests sin.

2. Conscience and the universal consent of mankind testify to the necessity of the punishment of evil.

Romans 2:14–15 NASB 2020

14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law instinctively perform the requirements of the Law, these, though not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

This just says that as moral creatures created in God’s image, even we as fallen and sinful still maintain a core belief in justice.

This shows that the very concept is embedded in creation.

3. If sins could be put away simply by God’s will, then it is not true (as the Scriptures say) that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

Hebrews 10:4 NASB 2020

4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Well, if justice is not essential to God’s nature that statement is not true.

God could have willed that through these animal sacrifices he would remit people’s sins.

He didn’t need any sacrifices indeed in order to remit people’s sins.

Yet the Scriptures says it is impossible for these animal sacrifices to take away sins which suggests that it is impossible for God not to punish sin.

4. Apart from the necessity of the satisfaction of divine justice no lawful reason could be given for God’s subjecting his Son to such an accursed and cruel death.

This is based on an understanding of what we today call a miscarriage of Justice.

“A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit.”

Jesus is perfectly innocent. Amen?

But we know that Jesus was punished for our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB 2020

21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So Jesus suffered our penalty.

Now given the absolute innocence of Jesus. If another means of atonement were possible but God neglected it and chose to punish Jesus, then God would be guilty of a miscarriage of Justice.

He would be unnecessarily punishing an innocent person.

This answer also makes an interesting analysis of sin: Sin can be thought of in three ways:

1. It can be thought of as a debt which we owe to God.

Colossians 2:13–14 NASB 2020

13 And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, 14 having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

This is a debt of divine justice that we owe to God. We are in debt to him by owing him the fulfilment of our moral obligations which we have not fulfilled, and therefore we find ourselves in debt to God and to his justice.

2. Sin could also be viewed as a kind of mutual enmity between us and God.

We know that sin has resulted in enmity or hostility:

Romans 8:7 NASB 2020

7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

Now whether or not this hostility is mutual or one sided is up for debate.

We know that WE are hostile TO God, but has our sin also caused God to be hostile towards us?

I think it does. Verses like:

John 3:36 NASB 2020

36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

There is on God’s side his divine wrath upon sin that needs to be appeased. There is on our side our sinful rebellion against God.

3. Sin can be regarded as a crime which we have committed and which carries with it the punishment of eternal death.

So we find ourselves criminally liable before the supreme judge and ruler of the world.

Romans 2:22–23 NASB 2020

22 You who say that one is not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who loathe idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?

What is the biblical definition of sin?

1 John 3:4 NASB 2020

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

And a person who breaks the law is a criminal.

So the idea of sin as a crime is perfectly biblical.

In Summery:

So satisfaction for sin must therefore involve payment of the debt, an appeasement or propitiation of the enmity to achieve reconciliation, and punishment for the crime.

Does Jesus fully meet this concept?

Christ as the provision for our sin on God’s part plays a three-fold role as well in dealing with sin.

1: Insofar as sin is a debt we owe to God, Christ is our surety. That is to say, he is the one who pays the debt for us. We can’t pay it, but Christ makes good on our obligations. He serves as the surety for our debt.

2: With respect to sin as mutual enmity, Christ is the mediator between God and man removing the enmity between us and God.

3: Insofar as sin is thought of as a crime, Christ is the priest and victim who, by his sacrificial death, pays the punishment or penalty due for our crimes.

Conclusion:

So Christ achieves reconciliation with God by being a surety who pays our debt, by being a mediator who takes away the enmity between us and God and reconciles us to God, and as a priest and a victim who substitutes himself in our place and bears the punishment that we were due as a result of our crimes.

Since Christ obviously fulfilled all of these conditions, it was not unjust for Christ to substitute himself in our place.

Turretin writes, “For thus no injury is done to anyone,” not to Christ himself, nor to God, nor to the sinner, nor to the law, nor to the government of the universe. Therefore, this voluntary substitution on Christ’s part was entirely consistent with God’s justice.