Retribution or Restoration?
Have you ever had a hard time reconciling the Love of God and the Wrath of God? Many have.
Today I’m beginning a discourse of thought into the the Penal Substitutionary Theory of Atonement because it’s one that I think gets the dichotomy of Love and Wrath WRONG. There, I said it.
For those who may not know what Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory is or PSA for short, I’ll tell you after a quick search on the old Google net…
“Penal substitutionary atonement is a theological view that Jesus Christ, as a substitute, took the punishment for our sins on the cross, satisfying God's justice and enabling forgiveness and reconciliation for those who believe.”
Thanks, AI, for that perfect little summary.
What this means is that God’s justice begins from a place of punishment. That punishment (wrath) satisfied is the only means of forgiveness by God, and Jesus was punished instead of those who were guilty. It’s an atonement theory because that word atonement is understood in the Western world as an appeasement.
I don’t know about you but its just a little…off. Hopefully I can refute my challenge to this theory well.
Wrath is not where we begin
I personally think it’s a perfect example of foolish darkened thinking to have any theology that says Gods position toward the entire human race begins in, and is summed up in wrath, and that the Good News of the Gospel necessitates that position of wrath. Talk about making God into the image of man! To hold that the supreme power in the universe needs to defend his own position of perfection is silly. To hold that THE source of love and life toward humanity is anti-human by nature because of human’s nature is absurd!
To be clear, God has wrath. God may even have as much wrath as he does love, but logically, He cannot direct love and wrath toward the same object at the same time. Those actions are the opposite sides of the same coin.
I suggest he directs love and life and blessing to the human race at ALL times as a starting place.
However, as humans choose to turn from him in their darkened understanding and deceived thinking, they deny that love and walk in the wrath of God instead, like Adam they hide in the bushes believing God doesn’t like them and never did.
Is the gospel even that good news in this wrath theology, if Jesus is protecting us from God as a basis of his relationship to us?
Is God even good if his basis for salvation is a satisfaction of punishment, a punishment that an innocent accepts to appease his anger over a race of people he can’t stand the sight of? This is where that theology leads to. Do I want to spend eternity in the presence of a god who didn’t like me because of sin but will accept me because of deal Jesus bartered with him?Who would really want to?
However if we see that as rubbish we can understand God better.
That God, beginning with love, freedom, patience and grace, through Jesus, saved us from deception of sinful thinking and therefore, sinful living. He saved us from permanent death and decay, and reunited our hearts and minds back to the arms of a waiting Father. Eternity is forever hearing and believing the Father’s heart toward us as love and life.
That sounds like Good News! That God’s wrath is actually directed onto that which hinders and corrupts humanity and creation, toward ways of being, not human beings(Rom1:18). Because God sees beyond the failure. He sees the child he knit together in every womb. He sees the unsurpassable power of Christ to heal and redeem and save every soul. His wrath is directed at powers and principalities and rulers of darkness in the heavenly realms(Ephesian 6:12). His wrath is directed at Sin and Death and the Grave (Revelations 20:14). Wrath from God that lands on human beings is connected with Grief. It’s not his desire that ANY should perish by it but all would be saved (2Peter3:9). That all would choose to stay in his love. That all would choose this day Him to serve, to choose life that they might live! (Deut.30:19)
(Surely, humans experience the Wrath of God, but it only felt when they subject themselves to it by walking away from His love and act in disobedience to his blessing. He lets us choose how we live and will not rob of us our harvest, whatever we plant.)
We have got to do better with our teaching of the word (2 Timothy 2:15)
(PSA) Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory Stinks!
Any atonement theory that acts on God implies that God can and will change his mind for the right reason. God is not a man that he should change!* (1 Samuel 15:29)
Rather…
Christs death did pay a price/ransom (Mark10:45) to free humanity from sin (Roman 8:21, 6:22) and the power of Satan (Acts 26:18). It changed our domain (Col 1:13). It cancelled our debt (Col2:14). God acted upon the system (he set up) through an unforeseen divine loophole to beat the system
Christs death was a victory over the power of sin and death and Satan too (Acts2:24). God raised up Christ as victor from the dead (Rom6:9) and gave him authority over all creation (Col1:15). It’s changed our eternity as copies of his own resurrection and eternal life.
Christs life and death was an example to us of what is possible (Matt 5:48). We are changed by his steadfastness and acted upon by his Holy Spirit (Her) 10:14
Christs death was the ultimate atonement goat for azazel/ scapegoat fulfillment. The world took Christ and acted upon his body according to his plan.(1 Cor 2:8) He became sin on the cross (2 For 5:21) and was “cast outside the camp” removing our sin from us. His flesh could facilitate such a concept in his humanity so it could produce Our change.
Christs torture and death provided healing of the human condition. He changed our nature and cured the disease of corruption. (1 Peter 2:24)
Christs death provided the ultimate form of insulation to wrap humanity in life and righteousness. Giving humans the new spiritual nature, and (someday) new physical nature. Glorification of spirit and body. Christs human body changed upon resurrection toward glory so that We change to withstand Gods presence too, God the father doesn’t change. (1John3:2, 1 Cor 15:5, Heb1:12)
Do satisfaction and penal substitutionary atonement theories hold water if their basis is the idea that God is changed by human action in Christ? Or by human acceptance of what Christ did on the cross.
According to PSA or Satisfaction Theories…
God set a standard of existence: law for living: moral code: justice and righteousness.
Humans were created to live according to that standard: failure to do so would incur consequence (sow and reap) but more pointedly would require punishment or satisfaction of retribution.
When Adam failed humans were plunged into the red. God could no longer relate to them as beloved sons but rather as debtors.
In these theories humans are debtors to God. All language about being prisoners to sin and death would fall under the category of punishment and balance: (very yin and yang idea of appeasement.)
They imply if you suffer enough, if you pay a high enough cost you will be rehabilitated and God will be satisfied by your sentence. However no one can pay a high enough price for offending his absolute perfection (so you’re screwed)//
Therefore the death on a cross (the highest form of torture and suffering) for an innocent person (the highest form of injustice and sacrifice) is the only means of satisfying the requirements for punishment and the only means of balancing the scale. {Offending an Infinite and perfect God = requires an infinite and incomparable punishment (you should have died on the cross, you should be separated from God forever, you should experience ultimate pain and suffering and abandonment= if you do God will forgive your debt to him}
This was the only source of punishment God would except as payment for our debt to him. Our own death is not enough balance. Our own eternal torture in hell is not enough to pay that debt.
The good news is that Jesus decided he would take on that punishment instead of us so we can spend eternity with God and be good enough to not offend him or break anymore laws in heaven.
So now when humans are born they are still debtors right out the gate and owe God a reckoning or make bail in Jesus name. Swiping their Calvary credit card and paying back God.
All is well because in heaven there are perfected people, everyone has paid their invoice, so God isn’t offended by anyone, and punishment takes place eternally still in hell.
The purpose of life on earth was then to weed out the bad ones. To create a heaven full of good people who worship God and won’t upset the balance of justice. And what about all those debtors in hell? Well they had their chance in the few short years of their lives. They knew better so eternity paying off their debt is fair. All of existence is ultimately about upholding God’s perfection and ego, I mean goodness.
Without PSA or Satisfaction Theories… ACTUAL GOOD NEWS!
God set a standard of existence: law for living: moral code: justice and righteousness.
Humans were created to live according to that standard: failure to do so would incur consequence (sow and reap) in this life. God instituted spheres of authority to facilitate order and accountability through the LAW and its officers, which would require participation and obedience on the humans part or incur punishment or satisfaction, however the nature of such satisfaction is always restorative.
When Adam failed humans were plunged into the red. They became debtors of the LAW, which was hijacked by Sin and therefore death. Humans no longer related to God as loving Father but were deceived in their thinking, lost in it, prisoners to the LAW, prisoners to powers and rulers of darkness. Legally transferred to the domain of darkness in the LaW. God already had a plan for satisfying the Law on their behalf.
Without these theories humans are debtors to the LAW, to sin, to the authorities in place on earth and heaven. All language about being prisoners to sin and death are literal.
Good atonement theories recognize God does not exceed consequence beyond cause. (Eye for eye).he is just. If you suffer in this life it is because you did something to deserve it or you are simply living in a world of sinners ruled by malicious spiritual powers. The LAW is satisfied through obedience to it and sacrifice as repentance. God is Satisfied with covenants and a sacrificial system of law but even more so, God is satisfied with repentant hearts and obedience.
Therefore, God devised a way for one ultimate covenant and sacrifice that is transferred through repentance to all humanity. God himself would come as a man (to guarantee it wouldn’t be mucked up also to act in accordance with the authority structures he placed in the earth) killed by humans and spiritual rulers, to satisfy the requirements of the Law but paying our debt to it in blood, buying us from our captors, but also to heal the human race, to liberate us from satans domain, to cover us with life new life and, surprise turn of events, be raised from the dead to even transform our eternity from death to eternal life.
The mosaic law would have been sufficient to satisfy our guilt forever but by Gods grace he dealt with it once and for all. Our own deaths are acceptable consequence enough for our choosing to sin and turn from God.
The good news is that Jesus decided he would take on the LAW and its requirements instead of us so we can spend eternity with God free from delusion of him and live this life without guilty conscious or condemnation!
So now when humans are born they are born under a new Adam, starting from a place of grace and need only awaken to our reality in Christ victory. We owe God nothing but repentance, intimacy and gratitude because that’s all he asked of us and in that nearness we walk out obedience and good works. We are born into a world saturated with the presence of Gods Holy Spirit poured out for all.
All is well because heaven has truly forgiven people, God has paid their invoice to the Law and death and hell itself are consumed to make way for eternal life on earth
The purpose of life on earth was then to share life and blessing and joy to as much of creation as possible while refining the human and angelic races through the greatest story of redemption and restoration ever. To create a heaven full of people who worship God and flourish as beloved ones of the father. And what about all those debtors still in hell? God always forgives and always restores when people cry out to him and repent. Heavens gates are always open. Perhaps He still has good I store across all eternity to return hearts to him? All of existence is ultimately about reveling in and participating in God’s perfect Love, goodness and beauty.