To “take responsibility” for something is to be willing to absorb whatever loss may be involved. At the cross, Jesus, for whom everything was made, absorbed the loss that all human wrongdoing exacted from him. Enormous as this was, his just compensation for suffering this loss was infinitely greater, for it amounted to a NEW CREATION! God’s justice would not let him be taken down by the sins of his creatures, therefore, astonishingly, He made a way for even those sinners themselves to benefit from Christ’s vast repayment in return for his unjust injuries. This mighty act of inclusive graciousness–the natural overflow of God’s premial justice–is the proof of His great love. [8/19/10]
An atonement by way of premial justice does an end run around the pile-up of all penal satisfaction wrangling. The contentious encounters over “substitution” can at long last be quashed since it only comes up and persists when the issue of a penalty to be justly endured is at stake. However, NO PENALTY IS EVER REQUIRED TO SATISFY PREMIAL JUSTICE, AND IT IS PRECISELY THIS LATTER JUSTICE THAT THE LORD JESUS DESERVED FROM GOD FOR THE SINS HE BORE, WILLINGLY AND SO EXTREMELY UNJUSTLY. [8/19/10] If you missed the point, I’ll rephrase: THE ONLY DIVINE JUSTICE THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST EVER “ENDURED” WAS “HAVING” TO GET RAISED FROM THE DEAD AND EXALTED TO THE THRONE OF THE ANCIENT OF DAYS IN ORDER TO RECEIVE A GARGANTUAN AWARD FOR ALL HIS EARTHLY TROUBLES ON ACCOUNT OF SIN. Oh dread. [1/3/22]
The degree to which theologians have ignored (or at best minimized) God’s premial/rewarding justice/righteousness is a measure of the pervasive bancruptcy of our Protestant theological enterprise as a whole, since no category better characterizes the Pauline Gospel at its core than that of JUSTICE! Yet penal justice offers only a pathetically crabbed and contorted caricature of the Father’s role in atonement and justification. [8/19/10; 2/6/22]
The Premial Atonement 