Featured Just how does the wrath of god be appeased if no penal Substitution?

Christ's substitutionary sacrifice on the cross provides the propitiation or means of salvation from the wrath of God when an individual undergoes the circumcision of Christ and the washing of regeneration. Thus only when an individual's faith is credited as righteousness by God and then God places them in Christ are they inside the propitiatory shelter of Christ, where the circumcision of Christ and the washing of regeneration occurs. Not in Christ, not justified, forgiven, or saved. In Christ, justified, forgiven and saved.

Our sin burden is removed, not when Christ died as a sacrifice for sin, but when God places us into Christ's spiritual propitiatory shelter, the body of Christ.

This is really basis.

 

One does not lead to the other

 

What do you make of Hebrews 2:14-15? Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, Jesus Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Also, the protoevangelium, the first gospel, says that the seed of woman will strike the head of the serpent, but the serpent will strike his heal. The first gospel depicts the cross as a conflict between Jesus and Satan.

For a better understanding of the Christus Victor position, read this quotation from Augustine:
It is not then difficult to see that the devil was conquered, when he who was slain by Him rose again. It is something more, and more profound of comprehension, to see that the devil was conquered when he thought himself to have conquered, that is, when Christ was slain. For then that blood, since it was His who had no sin at all, was poured out for the remission of our sins; that, because the devil deservedly held those whom, as guilty of sin, he bound by the condition of death, he might deservedly loose them through Him, whom, as guilty of no sin, the punishment of death undeservedly affected. The strong man was conquered by this righteousness, and bound with this chain, that his vessels might be spoiled, which with himself and his angels had been vessels of wrath while with him, and might be turned into vessels of mercy.[1]



[1] Augustine. De Trinity. Book 13, Chapter 15.

 

Propitiation simply means "wrath aversion" or "wrath reversal." The purpose of the wrath of God is to purify his creation of corruption due to sin. The innocent blood of Jesus purifies our corruption, and therefore averts the wrath of God. The wrath of God is not needed to wipe out our corruption because Jesus' blood, and our dying and rising with him, has purified us from corruption.

 

There are three main problems Biblically with penal substitution:

1) On penal substitution, the central problem with humanity is that we deserve wrath, and the central solution is that Jesus suffers it in our place. But in the Bible, the central problem is that humanity is dead in sin, and the central solution is that we are raised to new life in Christ. (See Eph 2:1-10). Many presentations of the "gospel" from penal substitution advocates make no mention of the resurrection (like this one from John Piper: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/do-arminians-preach-a-sufficient-gospel But the New Testament sees the resurrection as the central fulfillment of God's gospel promises.

2) On penal substitution, Jesus suffers the punishment of death justly. Our sin is imputed to him such that Jesus actually becomes a sinner, or guilty of sin. In the Bible, Jesus suffers the punishment of death unjustly as an innocent party. See 1 Peter 2:18-25, the longest New Testament commentary on Isaiah 53, which explicitly states that Jesus' death was unjust, and it is in fact unjust suffering that secures grace with God. Justice is satisfied in the resurrection as the divine reversal of the unjust human verdict. It is Jesus' innocence and uniquely unjust death that requires justice to enact the reversal of death via his resurrection.

3) The language of "in our place" and "as our substitute" and "he suffered so we wont have to" is unbiblical and misleading. Jesus dies not so we wont have to, but so that we can die and rise in him. The New Testament refers to Christians as "in Christ" over 200 times. Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me, not, "avoid the cross because I was crucified in your place."

 

But that would not satisfy justice's priority of retribution. Retribution requires that the guilty party be punished, not that the court punish someone. And given this definition of retribution, it is impossible for the guilt to be imputed to another party.

In the Bible, humanity has sinned against God and is therefore dead in transgression and sin. God becomes human in the person of Jesus Christ and suffers death unjustly at our hands. Justice therefore requires the reversal of his unjust death in his resurrection. Justice is satisfied in the resurrection as the reversal of Jesus' unjust death. It is the divine reversal of the unjust human verdict. If we die and rise with Christ, we are purified of sin and raised to new life.

 

No. It is not that "someone" has to serve the sentence. It would be horrifying for a court, upon hearing of a murder, to go out and find some random person to punish. That would satisfy no priority of justice.

 

Jesus did not die "in our stead." Jesus died on our behalf. There is a big difference. We still must die, and are in fact called to die with Christ and in Christ. We are called to be crucified with Christ. We are called to take up our cross and follow him. Salvation by union with Christ is much more Biblically accurate language than salvation by substitution. The New Testament refers to Christians being "in Christ" over 200 times. The language of "he suffered so we wont have to" just leads to the prosperity gospel.

 

I'm not sure how this responds to my argument.

 

I think you are misunderstanding the priority of retribution. If Steve gouges out Bill's eye, then retribution requires that Steve lose an eye, not that Bill go gouge out someone's eye. It is not that the court needs to punish someone, but that the guilty party must be punished.

Because we have sinned, we are dead in our transgression and sin. We have received the wages of sin which is death. We are children of wrath. So we can either be united to the death and resurrection of Christ, or we can continue to be dead in sin eternally.

 

This verse, Hebrews 9:22, in context refers to inheritance, not to punishment. The idea is that heirs to a will do not receive the benefits listed in the will until the person that made the will dies. We cannot receive the benefits of the Covenant due to sin, and Jesus, who has a right to the benefits of the Covenant due to his righteousness, must die in order to bequeath the benefits of the Covenant to us, his heirs.

Be sure to read in context: For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. 18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. 22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

 

Your statement is redundant. Atonement, or at-one-ment is being united (at one) with Christ. We become united to Christ when the Holy Spirit applies his life, death and resurrection to us, and we therefore die and rise in him. Our death in Christ is where our sin is done away with. Read the below passage from Romans 6:

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

Substitution is nowhere in here. We need to die, with and in Christ. This happens through repentance when we become Christians, and when we physically die at the end of our lives. If Jesus died in our place for our sins as our substitute, then we should never physically die.