The Penal Substitution Theory

Introduction

Illustration: I have this theory that how much you love someone is shown by what you’re willing to give up for that person. Not in an unhealthy they want to control your hobbies and social circle way, but if there was a good reason to give up something for someone would you be willing to give it up. The more the answer is yes the more that demonstrates how much you care for them.

If my theory is true then, what would be the strongest possible way to express love for someone? What is the ultimate sacrifice? Would it be to die for someone? What if we turned it up even more, what if you not only died for someone, but died in the most painful way you could imagine. Plus your death was also humiliating. You may have picked up on a subtle parallel between this example and something that really happened at this point. What greater love is there that to suffer and die for someone that you love? Well Jesus demonstrated that love for us on the cross.

Throughout the last few weeks in the lead up to Easter we’ve been taking a close look at the cross and what Jesus did for us by dieing on that cross. We’ve looked at how Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate example of what it means to live like Christ as Christians, serving as the Moral Example for all of us. We looked at how Jesus’ death on the cross paid the ransom to free us from slavery to sin and the devil. We looked at how Jesus’ death on the cross won Him the victory over the forces of evil and of death itself.

Today we’re going to look at the model of the atonement, in other words idea about what Jesus accomplished on the cross, which I think is the best short explanation for the cross that we have available. I think fully understanding Jesus’ death and resurrection takes into account all four of these theories and maybe even a few more, but if you had to pick just one I would say that the “Penal Substitutionary Theory” is the one that most accurately reflects what the Bible says about why Jesus had to die on that cross. The word “Penal” here is the now somewhat archaic word that means something to do with punishment, meaning that this theory is the basic idea that Jesus was the substitute for our punishment. He took the punishment that we deserved when He died on that cross.

We’re going to take a look more deeply on what that simple but profound statement means for the world and for us in particular, and how we can better be disciples by understanding the cross on this level. So then we will take a look at the three steps of the Atonement, the debt that we owe for our sins, the payment that Jesus made on the cross, and the reward that Jesus earned for His death on the cross.

The Debt

Illustration: Being in debt is not fun. Glad to announce we recently finished paying off the student loans.

Lots of people all over the world have debt. I wager to say that number has been going up in recent years. Yet as much as it’s stressful to think about it and deal with it the solution isn’t to ignore the problem. For a while in my life I was bouncing from low income job to low income job and applying for “repayment assistance” that made it so I could basically put off starting to pay for my loans, meaning that the massive number was still just hanging over me unchanging for a long time. In order to really deal with that problem we have to acknowledge it and then do something about it.

Now imagine the debt you’re in isn’t in the tens of thousands of dollars but more like in the millions or even the billions. Some amount of money beyond what you could ever feasibly repay is what I’m going for here. That’s starting to look more like the debt that we owe to God. Except this isn’t a financial debt actually, it’s not like we borrowed money from God and we need to pay Him back. This is more a debt the way a debt to society is a debt. God made the world a good and beautiful place and gave it to us but then we did wrong and brought evil to the world and we owe God’s Justice a debt for the crimes that we have committed.

So what do we owe for this debt? God gave the terms to Adam and Eve pretty clearly in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 2:16-17

Genesis 2:16–17 CSB

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

So God made it clear to Adam and Eve and to all of humanity through them that the penalty for sin is death. Why is that? If we look on the surface level it seems pretty harsh to punish Adam and Eve with death for eating a particular fruit, but it’s much bigger than that. Sin is at the deepest most foundational level rejecting God. It’s like a divine treason, where we decide that we should be in charge of ourselves instead of the God who made us. And if that’s not enough the sin of Adam and Eve is particularly serious because it is what started the sinfulness of mankind. We can see the result in Adams sons when we read just a few chapters away about Cain killing His brother Abel. Yet we are not all punished for Adams sins, but instead as Paul says in Romans 5:12

Romans 5:12 CSB

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

We can’t just blame Adam for our current state because we’ve all done wrong after him and have so earned that same death penalty for ourselves.

Romans 3:23 CSB

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

So that’s the debt hanging over the head of every person on earth for the sins that we have committed, the most serious of which is our rejection of God and the way that we try to take the place He should have in our lives and rule our own lives. That we would look up at the Father who created us and loves us and turn our back on Him and go our own way instead.

The trouble is that this is a debt that we cannot repay. We cannot just do enough good to balance the budget. We continue to sin and build debt and our attempts at doing right are flawed and often selfish. Isaiah 64:6

Isaiah 64:6 CSB

All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

So if we all owe God a debt of justice, if we are standing in His court accused and condemned for crimes we truly did commit, what are we to do? What can you do except plead for mercy to the judge, ask Him to take pity on us and help us in our time of need. Thankfully we serve a God who is described in Psalm 145:8

Psalm 145:8 CSB

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.

So we recognize that we can’t make up for the sins we’ve committed and instead we turn to God and ask Him for mercy and to make a way. And He did.

The Payment

Illustration: Have you heard the famous illustration of the judge who takes the punishment for his son?

The problem with this metaphor is that it breaks down in a lot of places. Metaphors are pretty much always imperfect, but there’s some key issues with representing Jesus’ atoning death this way that I think can help us understand the cross better if we look into them. It’s really all about the nature of the relationship between God the Father and Jesus, and the importance of Jesus having a human nature and a divine nature.

The problem with that image is that in real life a person can’t just take the punishment for another person’s crime. That’s not a thing. It’s unjust to punish someone for the crime of another. So if God is going to punish someone for the sin of humanity than it needs to be a human being. Yet the debt racked up by millions of people sinning over millions of years is incredible and even insurmountable. So what ordinary human being could pay a price large enough to pay for the just punishment owed to all of humanity? Only God Himself. So then the price for humanity had to be paid by someone who was both God and man. This of course was always the plan of God to send His son for us, shown by the fact that even in the middle of the sentencing for sin God predicted that there would be a savior in Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 CSB

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

And hundreds of years before Jesus was born on earth as a man God inspired Isaiah to write this beautiful explanation of the atonement of the cross in Isaiah 53:4-6

Isaiah 53:4–6 CSB

Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

God punished Jesus for our iniquity. That was the only way to preserve God’s Justice while still making a way for us to be forgiven and inherit eternal life. The sacrifice had to be a human being, and He had to be God Himself. Otherwise God would be punishing someone else for our sins and that would be other-sacrificing, not self-sacrificing. So because Jesus is God than God Himself could remain just and also “justify” us, as Paul says in Romans 3:21-26

Romans 3:21–26 CSB

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

So when we come to God knowing our helplessness to pay the debt that we owe because of our sin God made a way by sending His perfect Son who is both fully God and fully man so that He could be punished on the cross for us. So that He could be the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that we can be made right with God and enjoy Him forever. This is the good news that Jesus brought to us. This is the whole reason that He was born on earth. This is the climax of His ministry and the accomplishment of our salvation. This is why Penal substitutionary atonement is the most complete theory for understanding what Jesus did on the cross, because John basically just says it directly in 1 John 2:1-2

1 John 2:1–2 CSB

My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.

He is the atoning sacrifice. God taught the Israelites through the animal sacrifices the fact that blood needed to be spilled in order to atone for, in other words to make payment for, the debt owed because of sin. All this was so that when Jesus died for us we would know what it meant. That we would know He was paying the payment that we should have paid for our sins. When He suffered and died He carried the weight of all of our sins on His shoulders, causing Him to cry out “why have you forsaken me?” at the pain of becoming sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Because Jesus did this for us that means we don’t need to do it for ourselves, not that we ever could have. That means we don’t have to work hard in fear that we won’t be good enough. We don’t need to pray a certain number of hours and perform enough good deeds. We don’t need to donate a certain amount to the church or preach the gospel to a certain number of people. All we need to do is put our trust in Jesus. He already did the work on that cross. All He asks in return is for faith, which I have argued many times simply means active trust. To trust that He is who He says He is and that He has done for us what He has done for us.

The Reward

Illustration: Have you ever helped someone move and they didn’t have pizza?

We do the things we do for some kind of reward most of the time, wouldn’t you agree? Maybe it’s not something so self focused as delicious pizza, but the reward of knowing you did the right thing, or of making someone you love happy. It’s not wrong to want a reward, the Bible even talks about there being rewards in heaven. In fact even Jesus did what He did for the sake of a reward. That reward is what Hebrews calls the joy set before Him in Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12:2 CSB

keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So the question becomes, what is the joy set before Jesus that He endured the cross for? Considering the severity of what He faced on that cross it must have been a pretty great reward, wouldn’t you say? And the payment for our sins in itself is no reward, it’s the means. There must be a reason that Jesus wanted to pay for our sins, right? Well the answer to that is in one of the most famous verses of the Bible,

John 3:16–17 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

It’s not “so that our sins would be paid for,” but so that we will have eternal life. That’s the reward for the cross. A reward that’s focused on us I will point out, just like sometimes in life the best of us will do things for the sake of those we love Jesus did these things for our sake. Like I said the forgiveness of sins is not in itself what Jesus is after, but what is necessary for what Jesus is after, which is eternal life for all of us.

But not just any kind of eternal life, but a righteous eternal life. Righteous meaning good and holy. Meaning living the way that God wants us to live, doing the things God asks us to do and avoiding the things God asks us to avoid, and to live this sort of righteous life forever. This Peter says in

1 Peter 2:21–25 CSB

For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Whenever we see the words “SO THAT” in the Bible we’re about to here the answer to a “why?” question. Why did Jesus bear our sins in His body on the cross? So that we might live for righteousness. So we aren’t talking normal immortality like you might see in science fiction and fantasy where we live for ourselves forever, but a life lived for God and with God forever. Let me repeat that, a life lived for God and WITH God forever.

1 Peter 3:18 CSB

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God.

That’s the whole point. That’s why Jesus did what He did. That’s why He endured the cross, why He took on the weight of all of our sins and received torture and violent death for our sakes. SO that He might bright us to God. He is God, and He loves us so much that He could not bear to let us live forever without Him, which is what Hell is. Whatever else Hell is or isn’t, it is certainly living forever without being in relationship with God. That is not what God wanted. So for the sake of His love for us and His desire to be with us forever He did whatever it took to bring us back to Him.

The best part? His reward is also our reward. The reward that Jesus gets for enduring the cross is basically that we get rewarded. Jesus did all of the work and we receive the benefit. We get to live forever with God in paradise. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Some hear the idea of paradise and are tempted to think it’s boring, but I think that’s just because we can’t fathom how amazing it will be to fully experience God’s presence in perfection forever. That’s what’s waiting for us. There’s also talk of gardening in the New Earth, so there’s that to look forward to.

This is the invitation that God gives to everyone. For those of us who are following Jesus this is the hope we need to share with everyone we meet. Hope of a life lived in perfect joy and peace with our loving Father forever. That’s good news! The best news!

Conclusion

And that’s all because of what Jesus did on that cross. When we look at all these different models of the atonement we remember the all surpassing worth of Jesus’ sacrifice. It can be understood from many angles because it is such a monumentally important event so deep that it takes multiple images to fully understand it. Yet I think the most essential one to understanding the Christian faith is understanding that Jesus died on that cross as the substitute to take our punishment. Because we earned a just punishment of death from God because we reject Him and love sin instead. But Jesus died on that cross, taking on our sins in Himself so that by His death those who believe in and follow Him will be saved. The reward? Living in eternal fellowship, friendship, with the perfect loving God who made us. That’s what Easter is all about, what the cross is all about.

So for those of us who already put our trust in Jesus and are living for Him let us remind ourselves to never take the life we live in Him for granted, but always appreciate what Jesus did for us on that cross. Remind ourselves not just every year on Easter, and not even just every Sunday when we take communion, but every single day that the Eternal Righteous Life in Relationship with Jesus that we get to enjoy is only because of what Jesus suffered for our sakes.

And for any who may be hearing this sermon who haven’t put their trust in Him and followed Him than I plead with you to look to the cross and what our savior did for us and to put your faith in Him. It’s the only way to truly know God and live forever with Him in paradise, and I want everyone to know Him and the peace and love that He gives me and everyone else who follows after Him.

As we continue to celebrate this season let us go in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit knowing that we do so because of the cross, where all our hope is found.