The dominant so-called “orthodox” Protestant doctrine of “atonement” has been handed down to us badly cross-wired. The evangelical legacy of “penal substitution” has negative leads attached to the ‘pole’ and a very loose positive connection to the tomb, so it barely lights up at all when the switch is thrown. The terminals have corroded so there’s hardly any power flowing from the sepulcher. Meanwhile, the cross has been collecting a massive negative charge of ionized vapor—a smoke screen—that surrounds it with a repellant and repulsive magnetic field of violent magnitude that threatens all life forms within range. The old high-resistance circuitry is obsolescing and in danger of total meltdown in case of a power surge. The primitive, in fact downright medieval, wiring has been heretofore heavily insulated, but bare wire has repeatedly been exposed in recent times, whereas repairs seem less and less effectual. Sparks have been flying, and even the circuit breakers are broken! The old dynamo appears less dynamic, and by all indicators more heat than light is being radiated. [4/16/06]
“THE FRUIT OF THE LAW”?
The Law of Moses scarcely demanded, much less produced, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, amenableness, or self-control. And although it did very explicitly, even primarily, command love, yet this, too, it was powerless to evoke.
Thus the great superiority of our getting the Wholesome Spirit in this age, post-Pentecost, is that these multifaceted traits actually do get sprouted and bud and blossom and come to mature fruitage within us. And it is the duty of senior/elder learners in our assemblies to test for these fruits regularly. Against such character qualities, there is no law. [4/17/06]
We pass, as if through a magnifier, from this age into the future age, for in that age, whatever is done intentionally in this one is superabundantly overcompensated. This is what Scripture teaches us about God’s Justice. There is a transformation between the ages. Even our bodies are as seeds in comparison to what their planting will manifest and unfold on the other side of the first death. The first resurrection (by our faith, which implants us into Messiah’s already consummated resurrection, exaltation, and glorification—that is, transformation—via water and Spirit immersion) enables us to enjoy a foretaste of that future so that we can even here and now start to realize and recognize Messiah and be transformed into his image, “the eyes of [our] heart having been enlightened for [us] to perceive what is the expectation of His [the Father’s] calling and what the wealth of the glory of the inheritance of His allotment among the wholesome ones, and what the transcending greatness of His power for us, who are believing, in accord with the operation of the might of His strength, which is operative in the Messiah, raising him from among the dead and seating him at His right hand among the celestials, up over every sovereignty and authority and power and lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is future, and subjects all under his feet, and gives him, as Head over all, to the assembly, which is his body, the contents with which all in all is getting filled.” (Eph. 1:18-22) [4/17/06]
GOD’S ANGER AGAINST INCORRIGIBLE VIOLATORS CANNOT BE BOUGHT OFF; CHRIST INDEMNIFIED THE SINFUL BY STEPPING BETWEEN THEM AND SATAN, AT THE LOSS OF HIS OWN SINLESS LIFE, YET IN RELIANCE ON GOD’S JUSTICE TO REVERSE IT WITH DUE COMPENSATION
Scripture does not represent God as “the righteous judge who requires the propitiation which Jesus alone can offer” (á là Thomas A. Smail in The Forgotten Father, 1981) so that He can pardon sins gratuitously. This strikes us as downright stingy, crabbed, and warped…not to add, ‘mechanical.’ ‘Payment’ for sins is sufficiently exacted by the wrath of God periodically released against persistently stubborn rebels as frightful object lessons to the rest of us. And if that were not payment enough, the last farthing will be collected soon enough at the Lake of Fire. For the anger of God against unrepented wickedness cannot be bought off at any price.
However, having said that, the “propitiation” (better: protection, shielding, shelter, or indemnification) that the Father sent and officially commissioned His faithful Son to make on behalf of the entire human race effected with astounding thoroughness the whole heroic feat! How? By placing himself between “him who had the might of death, even the Adversary” (Heb. 2:14)—”that Great Dragon“ (Rev. 12:9), fire-breathing and red with rage—and us fated victims, helpless in our corruption and weakness.
This “chief of the authority of the air (Eph. 2;2),” using his agents, “the chiefs of this age (1 Cor. 2:6, 8),” unloaded his full payload of viciousness at this Target, with evident deadly results. So far so bad. But the story wasn’t over. Allowing a few grim hours for the full realization of this deadly blow to sink in to all those who had perpetrated and witnessed it, God the Father Himself answered this enormity of infernal assaultiveness with TRANSCENDENTLY OVERWHELMING, SUPERABUNDANT OVERCOMPENSATION that totally exploded the most generous calculations of the actuaries. Such exuberant super-excessive repayment was OFF THE CHARTS. THUS WERE WE INDEMNIFIED BEYOND MEASURE, UNSTINTINGLY! THAT’S GOD THE FATHER’S GRACIOUSNESS ON FULL DISPLAY. [4/17/06]
The Premial Atonement 