If God could not experience and feel genuine suffering from evils occurring in His creation, then how would it be possible for us to become like Him, knowing and emulating His just behavior in response to evils?

Is it just possible that our experience of suffering evils is somehow intended to help us understand how God suffers from evils? Can He experience suffering? Did He experience suffering from evils only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn’t it a part of becoming like God in character that we learn to experience and feel about evils the same way God experiences and feels about them? Doesn’t this require God to experience or know evils somehow the way we human beings do? And doesn’t the Lord Jesus simply reflect and reveal his Father’s own feelings and attitudes toward evils? How could we mature into the image and likeness of God Himself if He can’t feel evils and then respond in a normative manner that we could emulate? [3/8/12]

So-called “penal substitution: is impossible no matter how we construe the meaning of “penal” or of “substitution.” If by “penal” we refer to an attitude of God, then it is impossible because no such attitude could be expressed by a just God against a sinless man, nor is any postulated in Scripture by a fair reading. Nor could such a penal expression toward a sinless person serve as a “substitute” for others so as to prevent penalties from falling either on recalcitrant evildoers to avert their ultimate destruction or on erring believers to correct their misbehavior before it becomes habitual and destroys their faith.

On the other hand, “penal” could hardly refer to the attitude of those who inflicted wounds and abuse on the Lord, because that suffering assuredly does not substitute for ours. In fact, he informs us that no servant is greater than his lord, so we should expect similar ill-treatment from the world. [3/8/12]

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead justified him from any sin that had been ascribed to him by his wicked accusers and false witnesses (Rom. 6:7, cf. 2 Cor. 5:16, 1 Tim. 3:16, Rom. 4:23-5:2, 18, 21; 8:1-4, 10-11.) [3/10/12]

The power of Christ’s resurrection rectifies sins by reversing their evil effects, even as it reversed, yes, even more than reversed, Christ’s death—the effect of his cross. This is how Christ’s work deals with and in fact expunges sin, i.e., via the vivifying, death-and-evil-reversing power of the Holy Spirit, poured out of heaven superabundantly on believing sinners as a fruit of Christ’s unjust abuse-taking getting reversed by God’s premial justice to him, then overflowing graciously to us from there! Thanks be to God for His unspeakable Gift! [3/28/12]

Penal Substitution defenders must minimize and downgrade the fierceness of Christ’s contest against Satan at the cross. That is the only way they can “glorify” their pet hobby horse—Christ’s “suffering God’s wrath”! This means that the REAL BATTLE AGAINST SATAN GETS POOH-POOHED, DIS-HONORED, AND MARGINALIZED TO MAKE ROOM FOR A MYTH OF DEFAMING MAGNITUDE! From such slander how does God save His honor? With penal substitutionary theologians for friends, why would God need enemies! For if the Son suffered the Father’s wrath, then the Father suffers the penal substitutionary advocate’s slander, misrepresentations, in a word, DISHONOR. And this, in turn, means that God suffers the repulsion, repudiation, rejection, withdrawal, and recoiling of sinners in need of His redemptive love and authentic, premial justice! God gets wretchedly disgraced! Is that not, then, a “doctrine of demons” that dares to defame God by turning the cross into a demonstration of divine wrath and away from a divining of demonic rage! [3/21/12]

How ironic it is that the ‘evangelical’ Protestant theory of Christ’s “penal substitution should be met by the Islamic conjecture about Jesus’ “penal substitution by a luckless lookalike! The simplest way to subvert such a “poetic” twist of penal justice is to reassert premial justice at Christ’s resurrection, which entails the gracious inclusion of all who believe it! [3/31/12]

Not a theologia crucis but a theologia resurrectionis is what we need, indeed, that is exactly what Paul’s Epistle to the Romans actually teaches, or rather harps on over and over again! [3/31/12]

It’s Only Fair!

“The Bread from Heaven” eaten in the Lord’s Supper was likened by Jesus to the manna that miraculously fed Israel. A jar of that manna was kept in the Ark of the Covenant as a memorial to God’s miraculous sustaining of their lives/souls during their wilderness sojourn. That ark was covered by protective cherubim, overshadowing the solid gold protective cover (kapporeth / hilasterion) where “atonement” was made by the spattering of blood annually, and where Jehovah promised to meet His people—the earthly figure of His celestial throne.

These sorts of images or pictorial representations intermingle and mount and recombine and romp and play with one another in symbolic attempts to convey the heavenly truths that they never quite attain. But they do manage to teach that communion is a New Covenant incorporation of atonement—ingesting heavenly power to nourish our resistance/immunity to sin. (Baptism/immersion in like manner focuses on the complementary aspect—washing.) [6/12/09]

The disposition of Jesus’ flesh was enmity toward God, just as ours is (Romans 8:7). But he was not (as incarnated) responsible for that factual circumstance, any more than any of the rest of the human race is. He was, however, responsible for walking in the Spirit of life instead of in that mortal, sinful flesh of his. Thus Jesus never gave vent to his death-oriented flesh, but only to his life-oriented Spirit. And he has left us this example so that we might follow in his steps.

Moreover, at length, through his death on the Cross, Jesus killed the enmity in his flesh, condemning sin in it (Ephesians 2:16, 14, Romans 8:3, 7, Colossians 1:20-21) as well, via his resurrection, which, conversely, acquitted him and his Spirit (1 Timothy 3:16!). Thus Jesus’ flesh was condemned and his Spirit was justified all in one fell swoop at the ‘Crossurrection’ events. Accordingly, he won/acquired/procured (peripoi–) from God a whole new body! [6/14/09]

God was “in Christ” on the Cross and God was in Christ in the Unseen, in the Tomb…and beyond! That’s why Christ could declare, “I am laying down my soul that I may be getting it again. No one is taking it away from me, but I am laying it down of myself. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to get it again. This precept I got from my Father” (John 10:17-18). “Raze this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). [6/17/09]

God purposed Messiah Jesus “as a protective shelter…because of the passing over of the penalties-of-sins which occurred before in the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25), that is, God’s righteous forbearance was being manifested or displayed precisely by his provision of a protective shield over sins justifying him in passing by their penalties! It was, of course, the faithfulness in Christ’s blood that elicited His resurrectionary display of justice toward him and his. [6/18/09]

Romans 1:17-18 distinguishes between “a righteousness of God”—namely GRACIOUSNESS (1:5; 3:24; 4:4-5, 15-16; 5:1-2; 1:7; 5:15-21; 6:14-15; 8:32-34)—which is “revealed from heaven” in historic outbreaks of divine judgment. Thus both the premial and the penal are in view, but with very different results! Paul expounds God’s penal justice in 1:18-3:20, in grim terms, but then turns on a dime to expound God’s premial justice in 3:21 onward, in glorious words. [6/18/09]

Whatever Jesus got by his faithfulness is what we, too, get by our faith. God reciprocated with outrageous graciousness to Jesus in just recompense for his faithfulness in obedience to Him. Thus it is only fair and right that all others who exert a like faith receive a like reward of graciousness. [6/18/09]

The human need for the SHOCK VALUE of a Resurrectionary Demonstration, or, the RECREATIVE POWER of putting “Humpty Dumpty” together again

“For where there is a covenant, it is necessary to bring in the death of the one getting covenanted, for a covenant is confirmed over the dead, since it is not availing at any time when the one getting covenanted is living” (Hebrews 9:16-17). Why is that? Well, for the elegantly simple reason that until and unless the innocent covenant victim (“the one getting covenanted”) is unjustly slain, God’s just judgment cannot kick in to fulfill the otherwise empty promise that was covenanted—in this case, namely, THE INHERITANCE OF THE AGELONG ALLOTMENT OF GOD’S ROYAL ESTATE, i.e., HIS KINGDOM AS A REWARD! So not until the Lamb of God died (thus, in effect, losing out on God’s personally covenanted and vouchsafed (by oaths!) promises to him, could God be roused to overcome the humanly irreparable loss by exerting His recreative power to…PUT “HUMPTY DUMPTY” BACK TOGETHER AGAIN. The wrongful slaying of the innocent Lamb was the necessary occasion for God to act to fulfill His oath and promises and thereby display the full MIGHT OF HIS RIGHTEOUS POWER. And if we suppose this to be unnecessary for His own name’s or reputation’s sake, then we are forgetting our human need for such proof in order to start to grasp the worth and value of the salvation being offered and thereby start to loosen our grasp on unworthy substitutes. Such a demonstration has SHOCK VALUE! Sullied, jaded, and distracted as we all are, WE NEED THIS! [11/12/07]

If the blood of the sacrifices always signified the living soul of the resurrected Jesus, then we might conclude that the soul of Jesus REALLY GETS AROUND! AND THAT WOULD BE CORRECT. Wherever his Holy Spirit shows up, you find the soul of Jesus, as it were. That is, you find his “personal presence,” “personality,” or “character.”  [11/13/07]

God “IMPUTES” RIGHTEOUSNESS to us not because we are righteous, but because we are going to be. How can He possibly do this and still be righteous Himself (an old question raised to increased prominence by the Protestant Reformation)? He can do this—He can declare sinners (“the guilty”) as “righteous” IF THEY HAVE FAITH IN MESSIAH JESUS—BECAUSE FAITH IS THE OPEN CHANNEL FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT TO ENTER AND WALK US INTO AN AUTHENTIC, EMPIRICAL, VISIBLE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOOD ACTIONS THAT FAR, FAR EXCEEDS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES OF OLD (a virtue which Jesus seems to assume would be visible to ordinary observers!  [4/06/16]). FAITH OPENS THE DOOR FOR GOD’S VERY OWN SPIRIT TO MAKE US ACTUALLY RIGHTEOUS AS SONS OF GOD, FOR THIS IS GOD’S EXACT GOAL FOR EVERY ONE OF US DURING OUR SOJOURN ON THIS EARTH IN THIS CURRENT VICIOUS AGE, WHERE TO DO GOOD AND RIGHTEOUS ACTS IS TO STAND OUT AND INVITE SCORN, ENVY, RIDICULE, NOT TO ADD OUTRIGHT HATRED FOR MAKING OTHERS LOOK BAD BY COMPARISON. THE APOSTLE PAUL SAYS WE LIVE IN “EXPECTATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Galatians 5:5), WHICH MEANS TO HAVE FAITH IS ONLY A BARE START, QUITE LITERALLY, BUT THE RIGHT START, SINCE FAITH (TO ACCORD WITH GOD’S GRACIOUSNESS) IS NOT A WORK OR ACTIVITY AT ALL—IT IS NAKED OF ACTS, BUT YET IT IS THE ONLY—ABSOLUTELY ONLY WAY TO START PRODUCING THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH CONSTITUTE “OUR” “RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM JEHOVAH”! AND WE DIDN’T GET THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, THIS SPIRIT OF WHOLESOMENESS, WHICH IS THE SPIRIT OF JEHOVAH BY WORKS OF THE TORAH (circumcision, Sabbath keeping, food regulations), BUT BY FAITH ALONE. (In the following passages, I specify the most pertinent verses within the larger running contexts that are germane to the above topic: I Corinthians 1:30-31, Galatians 2:21-, 3:6-14-21-26-29, 4:6-19-29-, 5:5-16-18-25-, 6:8-15-16, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6-8-9-17-18-, 4:7-11-16-, 5:4-5-21-, 6:6-14, 7:1, 9:8-10, Ephesians 4:23-24, 5:9, Philippians 1:11, 3:9-16, 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 John 1:9, 2:1, 29, 3:7, 10, 12, 4:11-13, 5:3-4, 1 Peter 2:24, 3:14, 2 Peter 1:1-, 2:20-21, 3:13) [11/13/17]

Riddle: Did Jesus bear the WRATH of GOD or the SIN of HUMANS?

Answer:  Jesus Christ did not come to bear ‘the wrath of his Father’; he came to bear the sin of his brethren!  There is a world of difference and a great gulf fixed between the two ideas, and with nearly opposite implications for God’s character.  Jesus came to manifest the authentic image of the Father.  Without such a transparent magnification, God ends up with a serious “image problem.”  For then Jesus appears to “pay off,” “pacify,” “appease,” or “satisfy” an alleged aspect of God’s character instead of mirroring the whole of it and commending it to us for our own imitation and emulation.  The behavioral repercussions of a misrepresentation here can be ugly indeed, and in any case dictate sprawling evil ramifications for ethics.  Christ died and rose from the dead not “to pacify and reconcile God” but to pacify and conciliate us!  [10/16/96]  (Refer to chap. 8, “Atonement,” in the “BIOGRAPHY” link under Barton W. Stone, on the right.)

We know that all of God’s people, whether before or after Pentecost, will inherit God’s Kingdom at the general resurrection.  On this score there is no distinction between them.  But the death and Resurrection of Christ did interpose a profound difference between our respective pre-resurrection experience of God’s future Kingdom.  We will all inherit God’s Kingdom after the Last Trumpet sounds, when the dead are raised and the living changed.  But we who trust Christ and his Proclamation in this age may enter that Kingdom even now, and receive the Wholesome Spirit of sonhood whereby we can taste its great powers and giftings (charismata).  This is why it was said by Jesus that even the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist, for John never experienced this outpouring of the Spirit and, indeed, didn’t do one sign!  (Jn. 10:41)  While even the least in the Kingdom may now have miraculous giftings routinely and even do greater things than Jesus (John 14:12)!  [07/08/07]

Christ’s lawless and unjust Crucifixion justified God in repaying him superabundant life.  This extraordinary repayment was God’s just award (dikaioma) to him for his unjust suffering on our behalf.  Christ’s Resurrection to immortality, in other words, was his just award for suffering unto death, and equates to the justifying of the verdict of superabounding life in return!  (Rom. 5:17-21, Gal. 3:21-22, Heb. 7:15-19, 1 Tim. 3:16, 1 Cor. 15:45)  This means that Christ was indeed “raised because of our justifying” (Rom. 4:25), both because the verdict of justification was, in effect, declared immediately at his unjust execution, even though not carried out until “three days” later by the actual bestowal of his just award of getting raised to life agelong, but also because the award was sufficient in magnitude for “whosoever will”!  (Rev. 22:17)  [11/01/96]

We seldom approach the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead by considering Jesus’ own experience of it.  What was its function for Jesus himself?  Is it possible that this very touching memoir intends also to teach us how much the Father loved His Son and wanted to assure him of His own full power and intention to raise him from the dead as he faced his own sure and certain death in Jerusalem?  The trial in the Garden of Gethsemane, not to mention what followed, was inconceivably grueling.  It reveals much about Jesus’ humanity.  No one could take his existence away from him; he laid it down voluntarily, yet not without great struggle, in which that foretaste of the joy lying before him—so recently manifested in the resurrection of his own dear friend Lazarus—must have contributed considerably to his resolve.  [11/04/96]

It is astounding to consider that the Jews themselves, by self-concerned execution of their own legitimate, divinely-attested, miracle-working, super-wise, graciously merciful, life-saving Messiah were by their own hands essentially slitting the throat of their own fondest hopes and covenanted blessings!  For what was the nation without its true King except doomed!  The Jewish leaders had allied themselves with the Herodian dynasty of almost unspeakably corrupt non-Jewish usurpers!  Jesus had both taught and exemplified the way of justice and peace, of wisdom and prosperity, of liberty and joy for Israel’s national life.  By highhandedly rejecting Jesus as Jehovah’s Messiah, they sealed their fate as a nation and invoked the curse of Moses’ Law upon their own heads:  “His blood be upon us and upon our children,” they had cried unbelievingly (Mt. 27:25).  So be it.  Yet even so, for any who still might repent and trust Jesus there would be safekeeping from the Divine wrath coming upon Jerusalem and the Temple and the Jewish people within one generation of their treason, their treachery, against God’s Anointed and Chosen One.  From then on, “election” would have to be understood as the status of all–whether Jew, Greek, Circumcision, “Foreskin,” barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, male, or female (1 Cor. 12:13, Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11)–who by trust get immersed in Christ for the washing away or release of their sins and thereupon obtain the Holy/Wholesome Spirit of promise, the Spirit of sonship, the blessing of Abraham, the father of all the faithful, for all the nations of earth.  [11/06/96]