PART 1: WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT?

Introduction

I don't believe in Penal Substitution. There - I've said it. My cards are on the table; my neck is on the line; my evangelical credentials are up for dispute. Some will say I've gone soft on sin or that I'm playing down the wrath of God for some fuzzy sentimental notions of the love of God. But I don't believe I'm doing any of those things, as I hope you will see if you dare to read on.

Let me be clear - I believe in the cross of Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement without which I could never be reconciled to God because of my sinfulness. I just don't believe it is true to say that the Father poured out His wrath on His Son; or that Jesus took the punishment I deserve in order for me to be forgiven. In fact, I don't believe any of the eighteen statements listed in the last chapter to accurately represent Biblical truth - or at least not without qualification. This in spite of the fact that all eighteen are in common evangelical parlance. Two of them are lines taken from hymns, one ancient and one modern, that we regularly sing.

I'm with Greg Boyd when he says:

'The cross certainly expresses God’s judgment on sin. But I have a number of unsettling questions about the idea that God had to vent his wrath on Jesus in order to forgive us.'1

There are differing accounts of what exactly is meant by Penal Substitution and it may be that your understanding of it is different from mine. So please bear in mind that when I use the term, I am referring to the understanding of the atonement that was outlined in the introduction and that centres on the idea that God punished Jesus instead of punishing me. It is to the problems associated with this understanding of the atonement that I will be referring in this section. 

Before we begin, it might help you to know from the outset what the thesis of this book will be. What is the alternative to Penal Substitution that I intend to suggest? It is this:

When Jesus died on the cross He was not being punished in my place; He was making atonement on my behalf.

We will not get to this properly until section 4 because in sections 1-3 we will be looking at what I believe to be the problems with Penal Substitution. Only then will we consider this alternative and what difference it might make to our understanding of the atonement. Nevertheless, if you keep in mind that this is where we are going it might help to make sense of what follows and why the alternative to be explored in section 4 is to be preferred.

So what is wrong with the doctrine of Penal Substitution? In this section I will draw on a number of sources to outline the main objections that I and others have to it. To be fair, proponents of Penal Substitution would say that some of these objections are based on a misunderstanding of the doctrine rather than on the doctrine itself - and in some cases that may be true. And it may be that by using better language and illustrations we can help to avoid such misunderstandings.

Many of them would also argue that Penal Substitution is simply one facet of the doctrine of the atonement. The New Testament presents the cross as a multi-faceted diamond. To appreciate it in all its beauty we need to consider all its facets together and it may be that by doing so we will achieve a more Biblically balanced understanding, which will help to answer many if not all of the objections raised below. Nevertheless, taken together, it seems to me that these objections form a strong case against Penal Substitution.

Of course, as always the really important question is - what does the Bible teach? And so in section 2 we will examine Biblical concepts such as God's holiness, justice and wrath to assess whether or not they require Penal Substitution in the way that proponents of the doctrine often argue. And then in section 3 we will examine what the Bible actually says about the cross to assess whether or not this is consistent with the doctrine of Penal Substitution.

But for now, taking a deep breath, we will begin in this section by considering the main objections that I and others have to Penal Substitution.

Notes

1. https://reknew.org/2015/12/10-problems-with-the-penal-substitution-view-of-the-atonement