The Eternal Plan for Atonement

The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is often attacked with the charge of cosmic child abuse. In The Lost Message of Jesus Steve Chalk and Alan Mann ask us how Christians can believe that “at the cross this God of love suddenly decides to vent his anger and wrath on his own Son?”[1] The image of the cross which many see is similar to Abraham and Isaac’s three day journey to the mountain for Isaac’s sacrifice. That was an important prequal for Christ, but there are also some major differences. The major difference is that Abraham and Isaac were not “consulted” in the event. Abraham and Isaac’s heroic and submissive faith in the sovereign God is on display. This part of the story does not teach us about the interworking of the Trinity.

Atonement is necessary because of sin and God’s gracious love.

Sin separated God’s creation from him (Is. 59:1-2, 64:7). God’s gracious love demands that he restore his people back to his fellowship (Ps. 145:8; Ez. 18:32; 2 Pet. 3:9). Sinners stand in the position to receive God’s wrath (Eph. 2:1-3; Gen. 6:5-7; Rom. 1:18-20; 2:8). God demonstrated that the broken relationship between him and his creation would be restored through his own sacrifice which would cover their sin and pay the penalty due for their sin (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:15, 12:24). Atonement is offered in Christ alone. Colossians 2:13-14 teaches us that “You who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

The Harmonious and Inseparable Work of the Trinity

All that is done in the atonement is done according to the will of the Father, Son, and Spirit. There is no separation in their “wills” and all the divine actions in creation are brought about by the Trinity in perfect harmony without competition or division. Therefore, the cross could not be described as “divine child abuse.” It was the will and work of the entire Trinity to bring about the complete salvation of each of the redeemed.

Inseparable Operations

In order to understand theology in general, and the atonement now, we must go back to the essence of the eternal God and his eternal decrees. The Father, Son, and Spirit do nothing apart from one another. Whenever there is an act of God, the entire Trinity is involved in that work. There is no separation in their “wills” or actions. Barth summarized this: “it is always true that He who acts here is the Father and the Son and the Spirit. And it is true of all the perfections that are to be declared in relation to this work of God that they are as much the perfections of the Father as of the Son and the Spirit. [By appropriation] this act or this attribute must now be given prominence in relation to this or that mode of being in order that this can be described as such.”[2]

When God does anything, the entire Trinity is involved in perfect harmony though with different emphasis. 1 Peter 1:1-2 is helpful to see the combined efforts of the Trinity: “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” The entire Trinity is involved in giving life: John 3:6, 8; 5:21, 25-26; 40 6:33; 17:3. The entire Trinity indwells believers: John 14:17, 20, 23; 15:4-7; 17:23, 26. Our Triune God is a unity. There is no division in the Father, Son, and Spirit individually or corporately. There is perfect unity and harmony.

Since the Father, Son, and Spirit were/are in complete agreement and were together as the Divine impetus for the cross, the charge of “Cosmic Child Abuse” cannot be leveled. It was the will of the Father, but it was also equally and eternally the will of the Son and Spirit. Ontologically, the Trinity is fully equal so that “there is no subordination among the persons. Father, Son, and Spirit are equal; that is to say, they are equally God, equally divine.”[3] The Trinity relates to creation differently. As John Frame wrote, “the three persons of the Trinity take on a sort of division of labor with regard to creation and redemption: the Father plans, the Son executes, the Spirit applies. In this great drama the Son voluntarily becomes subordinate to the Father.”[4] Scott Swain described the situation this way: the external operations of the Trinity are ‘indivisible’ or ‘inseparable.’ This follows from the principle that who God is in himself (ad intra) determines the shape of God’s free actions outside of himself (ad extra).” The result of this is that the Trinity, which is simple (without parts or composition), must act indivisibly in their external actions. Swain said, “The three person do not merely ‘cooperate’ in their external works, as if each person contributed his distinctive part to a larger operational whole. All of God’s external works—from creation to consummation—are works of the three divine person enacting one divine power, ordered by one divine wisdom, expressing one divine goodness, and manifesting one divine glory.”[5]

The Will of the LORD at the Cross

The Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 53 is one of the most thorough descriptions of Calvary in the Scriptures. The Gospel writers simply say, “and they crucified him.” Only in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52-53 do we find lengthy descriptions of Jesus’ suffering at Calvary on behalf of his people. Through Isaiah, God provided gruesome descriptions of the cross which, perhaps, the witnesses were not able to recount. In these verses Isaiah pointed to the suffering which Jesus would endure and explicitly noted that it was at God’s hand. Jesus was “pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Is. 53:5). In Isaiah 53:10 we read, “It was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief.” By God’s design Jesus “bore the sin of many” (Is. 53:12).

Notice that the plan for substitutionary atonement at Calvary was made by the LORD. Since the Father, Son, and Spirit are in perfect and eternal unity in their will, this means that it was the will of the Father, Son, and Spirit to bring about Calvary. It was as much the Son’s plan as it was the Father’s plan. This is even more poignant when we remember that Jesus is described as “LORD” in the New Testament. The affirmations that “Jesus is Lord” in 1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11, and Romans 1:4, 10:9 are important for understanding who Jesus is and for understanding who “planned” the crucifixion. It was not just the Father’s plan. It was Jesus’ plan as well.

This understanding of God’s eternal plan is brought to the forefront as the eternal plan is brought about in creation. Jesus’ crucifixion was no accident. He was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). It was the will of the inseparable Trinity.

The Beauty of the Atonement in Jesus’ Flesh

The underlying presupposition behind the “Cosmic Child Abuse” theory is that the Father afflicted Jesus without his consent or that Jesus necessarily submitted to the Father’s will. This presupposition is the result of a faulty view of the Divine nature. Once the faulty view of the Divine nature is corrected, then the beauty of the atonement can be appreciated, and God can be praised for his act.

The cross of Christ cannot be said to be “Divine Child Abuse” because God the Father and God the Son share the same will. The Father is a Divine person and the Son is a Divine person, but they share the same will.[6] Augustine’s model for understanding the Trinity is helpful for us to understand how the cross could not be seen as abuse since it was the full will of the Trinity. Augustine described the Trinity saying, “Therefore the mind itself, and the love of it, and the knowledge of it, are three things (tria quædam), and these three are one; and when they are perfect they are equal.”[7]

As we apply this model to the crucifixion of Christ, we see that there is the conception of the event, the love of the event, and the knowledge of it. The conception, love, and knowledge was brought to fruition in creation at Calvary in the flesh of Jesus. Take a moment to marvel at the beauty of crucifixion in the mind of God. Since the cross is the divine plan, it is an eternal, perfect, beautiful, horrific, self-glorifying, redeeming plan shared by the Trinity and not the abuse of Jesus.

[1] Steve Chalk and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 182.

[2] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics I/1 (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 374-375, 394-395.

[3] John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 36.

[4] John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, 36.

[5] Scott Swain, “Pro-Nicene Theology: inseparable Operations” https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/common-places-pro-nicene-theology-inseparable-operations.

[6] “Augustine described the unity and equality of the Trinity: “those things are predicated specially in the Trinity as belonging severally to each person, which are predicated relatively the one to the other, as Father and Son, and the gift of both, the Holy Spirit; for the Father is not the Trinity, nor the Son the Trinity, nor the gift the Trinity: but what whenever each is singly spoken of in respect to themselves, then they are not spoken of as three in the plural number, but one, the Trinity itself, as the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; the Father good, the Son good, and the Holy Spirit good; and the Father omnipotent, the Son omnipotent, and the Holy Spirit omnipotent: yet neither three Gods, nor three goods, nor three omnipotents, but one God, good, omnipotent, the Trinity itself; and whatsoever else is said of them not relatively in respect to each other, but individually in respect to themselves. For they are thus spoken of according to essence, since in them to be is the same as to be great, as to be good, as to be wise, and whatever else is said of each person individually therein, or of the Trinity itself, in respect to themselves.” Augustine of Hippo, “On the Trinity,” in St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Arthur West Haddan, vol. 3, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 115.

[7] Augustine of Hippo, “On the Trinity,” in St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Arthur West Haddan, vol. 3, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 127.