The “premium” that Christ paid for our “coverage” (kaphar; hilasterion) to “protect” us from sin was his faithfulness to obey God in everything he did. The value of this virtue in God’s estimation was so off the charts that when Jesus was slain on the cross, God reimbursed him at a stupendously increased rate sufficient to “indemnify” all who qualify by faith so they could benefit from the provisions of this “policy contract” (covenant). Naturally, the stated benefits of this “life insurance policy” were only payable on the death of the “policy holder,” Jesus Christ. Happily, delightfully, the particular provisions payable on his death just so happened to include everlasting LIFE, both for him, as well as for all his beneficiaries! What a hoot! Thus were sin and death handily transcended. [9/23/10]
The historic reversal of the capital crime of Israel’s executing their own sinlessly qualified Messiah released such a nuclear magnitude of VITAL ENERGY FROM THE CREATOR in order to RECREATE HIS LOSS VIA RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD—THE ULTIMATE SATISFACTION OF TRUE JUSTICE–that its GRATUITOUS EXCESS OF GRACIOUSNESS ENGULFED HUMAN CIVILIZATION IN ITS ENTIRETY WITHIN THIS OVERFLOW OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD’S LOVE. We sinful mortals can bathe in this flood of divine acceptance by simple faith! [9/23/10]
One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, why the Gospel of God’s premial atonement and premial justification strikes human beings as so DUMBFOUNDING is that vengeance is such a pervasive and, yes, perverse trait of our sinful, corrupt flesh. THEREFORE, AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE GOD OF UNIMPEACHABLE JUSTICE HAS AGREEABLY MANAGED TO CIRCUMVENT VENGEANCE (EVEN THOUGH OFTEN WELL DESERVED) IN ORDER TO BRING AN EVEN MORE WELL-DESERVED JUSTIFICATION AND SUPERCOMPENSATION SIMPLY BLOWS US AWAY…IN SPIRIT! It sweeps us up in faith and joy! [9/23/10]
“Forensic blindness” now afflicts evangelical orthodoxy with reference to its view of “forensic justification” and “penal substitutionary atonement.” It is “legally blind” to the most obvious fact that “forensic” need not be only-and-exclusively-penal, but may also be premial. This unperceived and unacknowledged alternate side of God’s justice suffuses the grim debates concerning atonement and justification with shimmering beams of light that illuminate unsuspected expansive corridors of escape from continuous futility and wrangling. Yet furthermore, happily, God’s premial justice is eminently legal! Necessarily so! Stringently! [9/23/10]
The Premial Atonement 