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Enjoying God Blog

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In the on-going debate about the nature of Christ’s atoning death, some have insisted that penal substitution is only one model among many others. My contention has always been that it is more than one of many models and is in fact the central and controlling foundation for everything the atonement accomplished on behalf of sinners. Continue reading . . .

In the on-going debate about the nature of Christ’s atoning death, some have insisted that penal substitution is only one model among many others. My contention has always been that it is more than one of many models and is in fact the central and controlling foundation for everything the atonement accomplished on behalf of sinners. Without it, there is no gospel and there is no salvation. I was pleased to come across this statement by J. I. Packer in which he affirms precisely the same point.

Packer proceeds to explain how penal substitution theologically explains everything else regarding the saving efficacy of Christ’s death. Note the following sequence.

“What did Christ’s death accomplish? It redeemed us to God – purchased us at a price, that is, from captivity to sin for the freedom of life with God (Tit 2:14; Rev 5:9). How did it do that? By being a blood-sacrifice for our sins (Eph 1:7; Heb 9:11-15). How did that sacrifice have its redemptive effect? By making peace, achieving reconciliation, and so ending enmity between God and ourselves (Rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18-20; Eph 2:13-16; Col 1:19-20). How did Christ’s death make peace? By being a propitiation, an offering appointed by God himself to dissolve his judicial wrath against us by removing our sins from his sight (Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). How did the Savior’s self-sacrifice have this propitiatory effect? By being a vicarious enduring of the retribution declared due to us by God’s own law (Gal 3:13; Col 2:13-14) – in other words, by penal substitution” (416, "The Atonement in the Life of the Christian").

The inescapable fact is that if Christ’s death was not of the nature of a penal substitutionary sacrifice, we simply have nothing in the way of good news to share with a lost and dying world.

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Romans 8:32 is also a very relevant text: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" In this context, "all things" (everything necessity in the redemptive process) must necessarily be true of the "all" for whom He died. Also makes a powerful corollary for John 3:16.

Good stuff. Several passages in Hebrews also seem to make PSA (penal substitutionary atonement) essential to the Gospel. I have in mind Hebrews 7:25:

"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God lthrough him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."

And Hebrews 10:14:

"For by a single offering he [Jesus, our high priest] has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

The inescapable inference from 7:25 is as follows: Those for whom Christ is now interceding must be identical to those for whom he died. Since the will of the Son and the Father are harmonious, there is no chance that Jesus would intercede for anyone of whom the Father would not approve. Conversely, there is no chance the Father would refuse to answer the intercessory prayer of the Son.

This forces the conclusion that everyone for whom the Son intercedes will be "saved to the uttermost." That is, the high priest's work on the cross becomes the basis for his intercession at God's right hand.

It is also inescapable, in light of 10:14, that the offering that is offered accomplishes its intended purpose, namely, to perfect forever those for whom it is offered. This categorically rules out the possibility that such a sacrifice was offered for anyone who is now, or ever will be in hell.

PSA, therefore, entails particular redemption/definite atonement. Christ neither died for, nor intercedes for those who are finally lost. Conversely, he perfectly saves those for whom he died and now intercedes.

The Good News is that Christ cannot fail to save those for whom he has given his life as a ransom and for whom he is now interceding.

Thank you Jesus!

If there is one book that all Christians today would benefit from reading, it would John Owen's "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ."

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