The energy deficiency of Calvin’s gospel itself demanded a coercive ‘sovereign’ to get the job done.

The potent drawing power of the apostolic Gospel that moves sinners to get conciliated with God resides in the humanly astonishing message that God gave His own beloved Son into the hands of the very sinners He wanted to save. When they publicly assassinated him instead of accepting him as their divinely chosen Messiah, rather than destroying them for their vicious crime God simply (!) reversed their sinless victim’s death and HELD THEM HARMLESS IF THEY CONFESSED THEIR SIN! Such a Proclamation possesses inherent conciliatory punch to spur sinners to change their minds and return to such a God.

By stark contrast with this premial justice of God manifested at Christ’s resurrection, John Calvin’s doctrine concerning God’s penal justice at the cross has no such evident heart-transforming power, consequently he was constrained to make up for this energy deficiency by inventing a prior regeneration by the Holy Spirit acting only upon the ‘unconditionally elect’ with an ‘irresistible grace‘ on account of their ‘total depravity’ that disenables them from believing his ‘gospel’ — thus placing the blame for his own deficient ‘gospel’ on each sinner’s supposed ‘fallen’ condition!

This disembowling of the Apostolic Gospel into an effete substitute goes far to explain why any appeal to the power of the Message itself (such as Abelard had championed, though arguably on an insufficient basis) falls on deaf ears when presented to hardened Calvinists. Yet how might the authentic premial Gospel itself fare?!

Still, we must concur with Calvin that the penal satisfaction/substitution message does, to be sure, lack full power to conciliate sinners to such a deity who must show his wrath before forgiveness can be forthcoming. It lacks ethical force; it lacks a prima facie exhibit of appealing love. It must be hedged by a cartload of qualifiers to pose it as rational and moral. It is fraught with contradictions. It makes a pretty embarrassing showing, needing to be propped up by an assemblage of crutches and feeble apologetics. [9/22/11]

Penal substitutionary leaders of the Jews — the high priesthood in particular — were so totally clueless in their hardheartedness and forensic blindness that they reasoned that unless they eliminated the ‘threat’ of Jesus and his messiahood, the Romans would come and “take away our place as well as out nation“ (John 11:47-48) not comprehending that getting rid of him is exactly what would culminate their national turpitude and precipitate the destruction of their cherished temple, the city of Jerusalem, and indeed their prized national existence. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and priests! [9/26/11]

Penal substitution advocates tend to hold that justice in Scripture is mainly, if not exclusively, to be construed as penal, although justification yet somehow tests ‘positive‘ (i.e., premial!) when we get around to Paul’s epistles (however, only in a roundabout manner via a penal substitute). Yet the lexical facts stack up differently: in both the Old and New Testaments, justice is two-sided, i.e., either penal or premial, depending what the deserts of the defendant in question call for — penal toward the vicious and premial toward the upright, in accord with the two-fold sanctions of the ancient Sinai Covenant. Even so, justice often appears prominently premial in the O.T., without explanation or apology.

Moreover, in virtually all Greek literature outside the New Testament “justification” (dikaioo) is penal, never premial.* Only in Paul’s writings do we find an outright premial interpretation of “justify” — in particular, God’s “justification.” He could not have derived this definition from Greek (much less, Roman) literature or judicial customs or terminological usages. But if from the Old Testament (i.e., the LXX), where the concept of justice is likewise weighted to the premial, why would “justify” ever need to entail a penal twist?! [9/26/11]

*See Mark A. Seifrid, Paul’s Use of Righteousness Language Against Its Hellenistic Background,” in Justification and Variegated Nomism, Vol 2 (2004) 39-74.

A penal substitutionary atonement has paralyzed our impulses to dig deeper and explore wider the meaning of Christ’s justifying resurrection.

The tyranny of “penal substitution” among self-styled “orthodox evangelicals” has savagely cut short their explorations into the rousing reformational ramifications of Christ’s resurrection and restoration of the Holy Spirit to human affairs and relations.  One can see the dulled and apathetic minds of smug “evangelicals” on every hand, self-satisfied in the pseudo-knowledge of the Atonement, standing immovable, transfixed on their tradition, obscurantist though it is.  For they “know” all the possible alternatives are “wrong” from the start.  Not perceiving the actual morbidity of their spiritual condition, they have clipped the wings of their normal instinct to explore.  This is a recipe for hard-heartedness and forensic blindness.  Bland routines assume dominance, and divine teaching is trivialized and pulpitized.

Oh God, WAKE US UP!  [8/14/10] The authentic, full-bore apostolic ethic can never be revived, much less sustained, without a rediscovery of the premial atonement that so galvanized the first few generations of Christians. [7/09/21]

EXCERPTS FROM PAULINE CHRISTIANITY, BY JOHN ZIESLER (OXFORD & NY: OXFORD UNIV. PRESS, 1983)

“There are not two faiths, one the initial response and the other the continuing attitude, but only one consistent response and attitude which both enables people to enter Christ’s realm and keeps them there (compare Galatians 3:24 & 26).  Because faith is continuing it is possible to think of it as obedience, though NOT IN THE SENSE OF AN ACTIVITY.“ {p. 81, all emphases added} I would hastily add that the “obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:6, 16:26), although “not…an activity” in the New Testament sense, yet, if authentic, necessarily issues in a steady flow of good works, which premiate (see an unabridged dictionary) to us vast blessings from God in Kingdom come.

“Romans 1:17 shows that behind God’s gracious activity such as in justification, lies the righteousness of God.  This is not God’s justice in the narrow sense of rewarding the innocent and punishing the guilty [AHA! DID YOU CATCH THAT RADICAL AND RAMIFYING MISSTEP BY Ziesler? IT IS INCOMPARABLY INSTRUCTIVE TO OBSERVE A JUSTIFIABLY REVERED EVANGELICAL THEOLOGIAN SOMEHOW ‘DAMN BY FAINT PRAISE’ THE VERY CORNERSTONE OF GOD’S PREMIAL JUSTICE AT THIS CRUCIAL JUNCTURE. FOR BY INOCUOUSLY APPENDING THE ABSOLUTELY INDISPENSABLE SENSE OF “rewarding the innocent” TO THE TRADITIONALLY NARROW (BECAUSE IT VIRTUALLY EXCLUDES THE OTHER!) SENSE OF “punishing the guilty,” HE THEREBY SKIPPED OVER, BLITHELY UNNOTICED, VIRTUALLY THE ENTIRE GOSPEL OF THE APOSTLE PAUL! THE EXTREME IRONY OF THIS CAN ONLY COME CRASHING HOME WHEN WE RECOLLECT THE TITLE OF THIS JUSTIFIABLY FAMOUS AND OTHERWISE WORTHY PIECE OF CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARSHIP!], but his faithfulness to his covenant people.  In practice more often than not  THIS MEANS HIS SAVING ACTIVITY, NOW EVIDENT IN THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST in which God acts to save all who have faith, all who thus become true children of Abraham, whether Jews or Gentiles.  It is GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS which makes him justify people who do not desire it (Romans 3:21ff)….  Paul also believes that believers are drawn into and share GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS in CHRIST, and…this makes possible a whole new being.“  {p.85, all emphases added} NOW, PLEASE OBSERVE ACUTELY HOW Ziesler STILL MANAGES, AS IF BY MAGIC, TO INVOKE GOD’S “RIGHTEOUSNESS” AS “his saving activity” “which makes him justify people“–YES, YES, ALL TRUE, AND WHICH MARTIN LUTHER LIKEWISE HERALDED, ONLY BRANDISHING A PATHETICALLY CARICATURED PENAL RATIONALE, OR I SHOULD SAY ‘IRRATIONALE,’ THAT CONTINUES TO BELEAGUER PROTESTANTISM LIKE A DEFILING INCUBUS–ENTIRELY IN THE ABSENCE OF THE PAULINE RATIONALE THAT HIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN TO DEFEND! Weep here.

“GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS ([Romans 3:]21ff) …is both his SAVING activity, and a power [i.e., His Holy Spirit] into which believers are drawn THAT THEY TOO MAY BE RIGHTEOUS.  His salvation comes wholly by [to] grace as a gift, without any deserving (v. 24a), and results in the acceptance of those who desperately need it (v. 26b).  In the process, sins are passed over or forgiven (v. 25b), not because he does not care about them, but BECAUSE HE HAS A WAY OF DEALING WITH THEM: HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS not only forgives, but also RESTORES TRUE LIFE AND GOODNESS (cf. v. 22).  {pp. 88-89, all emphases added} AGAIN, EMPHATICALLY AFFIRMATIVE! BUT THIS CAN IN NO WAY BE FOUNDED UPON THE TREACHEROUS QUICKSAND OF A “GRACE” ROOTED IN “WRATH UPON CHRIST” OR ANY SIMILAR ARCANE TRAVESTY. LET’S SNAP OUT OF IT!

“…[H]ow can God thus freely and unconditionally forgive sin and restore sinners to fellowship and life without implying that ordinarily sin and righteousness do not matter? [THIS WOULD BE AN EXCEEDINGLY ODD STATEMENT FOR ANYONE WHO GRASPS THE COSMIC NECESSITY OF THE PREMIAL, REWARDING, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE OF GOD BEING HAPPILY DROP-SHIPPED TO THE GROSSLY AGGRIEVED VICTIM OF SATAN’S AGELONG WAR AGAINST GOD. BUT, AS WE NOW KNOW, Ziesler IS YET A STRANGER TO THE ELEGANTLY SIMPLE SOLUTION (THAT JUST HAPPENS TO BE CORRECT, IN THIS RARE INSTANCE)]  His answer is partly…that he shows how much sin matters by finding a way to deal with it and how much righteousness matters by providing a way to it.”  {p. 89, all emphases added} YET AGAIN, YES! YES! HOWEVER, Ziesler’s WAY IS NOT PAUL’S WAY. FOR ALL THAT, Ziesler STILL GETS HIGH MARKS FOR HIS BRAVE INCONSISTENCIES, FOR SO MUCH OF HIS EXEGESIS SWIMS RESOLUTELY AGAINST THE RIP TIDE OF PENAL SUBSTITUTION, WHICH HE STILL CANNOT QUITE BRING HIMSELF TO ABJURE DECISIVELY AND COMPREHENSIVELY. SO TWO CHEERS!!

“…PAUL DOES NOT IN PRACTICE APPEAR TO ASSOCIATE THE CROSS WITH THE WRATH OF GOD, not even in Rom. 5:9, where being saved from the wrath follows [Ziesler italicizes only “follows”] being justified by his blood, and is not what the cross in itself achieves [BOLDLY AND CORRECTLY CONTRARY TO THE SOTERIOLOGY OF J. I. Packer IN HIS CELEBRATED LECTURE, “What Did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution.” For my own rather more consistent rebuttal, see: https://premialatonement.wordpress.com/2020/08/28/what-did-the-cross-wiring-achieve-the-penalty-of-penal-substitution/], nor in 1 Thess. 1:10 where IT IS THE RESURRECTION THAT DELIVERS FROM THE WRATH TO COME.  HE NEVER SAYS THAT THE CROSS WAS NECESSARY TO TURN AWAY GOD’S ANGER.”  {p. 90, all emphases added except the author’s, as noted}

“…[T]he righteousness of God (e.g., Rom. 1:17) is a power which not only justifies sinners and restores them to acceptance with him, but also keeps them there and makes them righteous.” {p. 96, all emphases added}

“This new righteousness is not a possession and does not derive from one’s own resources.  On the contrary, it exists only so long as faith exists and only so long as one is in Christ (see 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 1:11; 3:9; see also Eph. 4:24 and perhaps 5:9; 6:14).  He has become our righteousness and in him we come to God’s righteousness, DEPENDING ENTIRELY ON FAITH.” {pp. 96-7; all emphases added} YES, YES! BUT MANIFESTED IN THE VISIBLE FRUIT OF ABUNDANT GOOD ACTIVITIES, WHICH EMPHATICALLY PLEASE GOD, FAULTY THOUGH THEY NECESSARILY ARE, AND FOR WHICH WE SHALL RECEIVE COMPENSATORY EVERLASTING REWARDS BY CHRIST’S GRACIOUS DECREE AT THE FINAL JUDGMENT! [8/14/10; 9/2/21]

CHRIST’S RESURRECTION FROM HIS DEFAMATORY DEATH was designed to defuse perennial human fear, resentment, doubt, and distrust toward God

Self-styled “evangelical” theology of the Atonement is so strapped to medieval categories of “satisfaction,” etc., that it finds it all but impossible to come to terms with the pure categories of Scripture alone.  This overcomplication of the Gospel largely accounts for the “forensic BLINDNESS” of Evangelicals to the simple resurrectionary explanations of apostolic scripture.  To be sure, the apostles themselves would never have recognized the so-called “evangelical” version of the atonement as the Evangel at all!  It’s misrepresentation of the Father, and of what the Son was suposedly doing relative to Him, would have brought an immediate and shocked outcry of protest.  [6/08/10]

The main hindrance to human salvation has never been human sin, nor God’s reluctance to forgive, much less any necessity of His to require payment for sin by an expression of His wrath (to demonstrate His “holiness,” “[penal!] justice,” whatever) before He could forgive sin.  The prime hindrance to our salvation is our distrust of God.  Satan, in the guise of the Serpent of Eden, was the instrument of planting doubt in the human heart.  He supplied a contradictory explanation to the one given by God.  This challenge was necessary in order that Adam and Eve might overcome falsehoods and grow in their trust of God, which was the only route to true human maturity.  But they failed the test or trial of their young faith and sinned by eating the forbidden fruit; this was the outworking of their unbelief concerning God.  Their restoration, therefore, would require overcoming their distrust/unbelief.  This need was forthwith supplied by God in the history of His personal revelation that we find in the Bible.  By this means He established a credible track record of powerful historic deeds that brought the very salvation that humans had come to believe He was reluctant to offer.  This was God’s most direct method of dealing with human sin, although it may seem roundabout.  This strategy best honors creatures made in God’s own image and likeness.  For in order to deal properly and effectively with sin–a voluntary human behavior–it was necessary to appeal to the human will by restoring faith in the Creator, who alone could adequately handle the problem.

So the big question is really, “HOW DOES THE CROSS/ RESURRECTION OVERCOME DISTRUST?”  The apostolic answer to that question is simplicity itself.  Human distrust breeds hostility and enmity within us.  To overcome this attitude God sent His own Son as a human being to teach and demonstrate what God desires from humanity, fully aware that this mission would call down the fury and wrath of Satan himself at the hand of corrupt human authorities, thus leading to his inevitable execution.  But not to worry!  For this little snag would allow God TO DEMONSTRATE AT FULL SCALE THE MAGNITUDE OF HIS LOVE AND ABSENCE OF HOSTILITY/ENMITY ON HIS PART, SO AS TO EFFECT THE CONCILIATION OF HIS ENEMIES AND OF THE IRREVERENT WHEN THEY HEAR THIS ASTOUNDING NEWS.  THE NATURAL EFFECT OF THIS ENDEARING STORY IS TO GENERATE FAITH/TRUST WITHIN ITS HEARERS.  For who could possibly have expected the Son of God to die at the hands of sinners and yet that God the Father would possibly allow the murder WITHOUT INSTANTLY RETALIATING, BUT WOULD INSTEAD REVERSE OUR TRAGIC CRIME BY RAISING THE VICTIM FROM THE DEAD AND REPAYING HIM SUCH A BONANZA FOR ALL HIS TROUBLE THAT THE WHOLE WORLD OF SINFUL MANKIND COULD HAVE NEW LIFE AND FULL PARDON TOO?  But there you have it.  WOW!!!  [6/08/10]

The N.T. narrative about God’s PREMIAL justice is a blockbuster to soften entrenched resistance to His love.

I’m not complaining about the longevity of the penal substitution myth within Western civilization; I just want equal time!  The next 500 years should suffice.  [5/07/10]

There are lies, there are damned lies, and there is THEOLOGY.  [5/07/10]

Our contemporary theological literature defending penal substitution provides many textbook examples of the power of entrenched ideology, otherwise aptly characterized as “forensic blindness“–closed-mindedness to what Scripture is actually communicating.  This pathological condition can be fatal if repentance (change of mind) is not forthcoming after repeated attempts at getting through.  The true, authentic Gospel about God’s premial justice providing  atonement, happily, has the power of a spiritual blockbuster to open minds and hearts to Scripture and, conversely, open Scripture to otherwise blind hearts and minds.  It can veritably renew minds if people will examine it regularly to evaluate competing truth claims.  [5/07/10] Let’s emulate those noble Bereans of old! [5/08/21]

Jesus BORE the sins of MANY, and by that means DIED FOR the sins of ALL.

Penal substitution advocates read “penalty” and “punishment” into text after text after text where no such idea is to be found. However, there is a penalty attached to such errant eisegetical flights of violence—a penalty which their own faction has dubbed “forensic blindness.” Let us beware of making Scripture a wax nose, and ourselves suffer from glazed eyes—symptoms of the Pinocchio syndrome. [03/21-08]

E = mc²

The energy released by a nuclear reaction is by no means a calculable product of the energy invested by the triggering explosion, any more than the power of a dynamite explosion is some computable product of the energy contributed by the fuse.

Or to use a more relatable illustration, the “electricity” in a romantic relationship bears little relation to the “energy” contributed by the cupids who brought the enchanted couple together.

In such cases, the “active ingredients” for the reaction were already present, just waiting for the ideal moment to be brought together. That accomplished, the reactions, whether nuclear, chemical, or psychical all took off on their own, by an inner compulsion that bears virtually no mathematical, economic, or merely logical relation to the respective inputs.

So likewise, though these parallels suffer by comparison, what was witnessed in the resurrection of Jesus and his further exaltation was a power all along residing in the heart of the Father, just waiting for the perfect occasion to be displayed in proper glory. To be sure, without the requisite obedience of some son of Adam—“the Son of mankind” of Whom Jesus so often spoke—the covenantal reaction we know as THE RESURRECTION could never have irrupted into cosmic time with all of its restorative repercussions. Now, in this case the repercussions do most definitely bear an ethical identity or kinship with the triggering event, but their respective magnitudes are incommensurable. What Jesus won by his lifelong labors is out of all proportion to his input and will never make sense unless we factor in GOD’S SAVING JUSTICE. This is RESTORATIVE JUSTICE at work, AT PLAY…ON DISPLAY! [03/21/08]

JESUS BORE THE SINS OF MANY, AND BY THAT MEANS DIED FOR THE SINS OF ALL

Jesus bore the sins of many in order to become a protective covering (hilasterion) concerning the sins of all.

Those “many” were neither “the elect” (i.e., the many vs. all) nor “all mankind” (i.e., the many vs. a few), but precisely the historic perpetrators of his crucifixion. David sees them prophetically in Psalm 22:

But I am a worm and not a man,

A reproach to mankind and despised by the people.

All those seeing me deride me;

They open up their lip in sneering;

They wag their head, saying,

‘He exults in Yahweh; let Him deliver him!

‘Let Him rescue him, since He delights in him!’

* * * * *

O do not be far from me, for distress is near,

Because there is no one helping.

Many young bulls surround me;

Sturdy ones of Bashan, they compass me about,

They open their mouth wide against me

Like a lion, ravening and roaring.

I am poured out like water,

And all my bones are disjoined.

My heart has become like wax;

It is melted in the midst of my bowels.

My vigor is dried up like earthenware,

And my tongue clings to my jaws;

And You bring me low to the soil of death.

For curs have surrounded me;

The crowd of evildoers has encompassed me;

They dig into my hands and my feet.

I number all my bones;

They look; they stare at me.

They apportion my garments among themselves,

And they cast the lot for my clothing.

Yet You, O Yahweh, do not be far away!

My Fortitude, do hurry to my help!

Do rescue my soul from the sword,

My only one from the paw of the cur.

Save me from the mouth of the lion

And from the horns of the wild bulls—

YOU HAVE ANSWERED ME!

—Psalm 22:6-8, 11-21

So you see, it worked! God did save Jesus from the many who were involved in his mortal downfall at the cross. Accordingly, by way of overcompensation, God gave him authority over all and gave him such superabundance of Holy Spirit that any and all can be saved. In the graciousness of the Father and the Son, God possesses sufficient even to “waste” on those who end up apostatizing and “trampl[ing] on the Son of God, and deem[ing] the blood of the covenant in which [they are] made holy/wholesome contaminating,”—which blood, I must emphasize, harbors that Messianic faithfulness through which God Himself got His own Son purposed for a protective covering around the sins of the whole blamed world (Romans 3:25)—including even those “outrag[ing]” the very Spirit of that graciousness! And don’t tell me, “The Spirit can’t take it,” or “won’t take it”! Because Jesus himself “took it” in the gut on the cross to demonstrate exactly Their joint divine graciousness! Why wouldn’t His very own Spirit be able to “handle such mistreatment from those for and from whom Jesus, the Savior suffered abuse and was slain as a flawless offering to God THROUGH THAT SAME AGELONG SPIRIT (Hebrews 9:14, 10:29)? It’s a shoo in! A no brainer. [03/21/08]

Jesus bore the sins of many and by that means died for the sins of ALL! Given the supercompensating logic of divine justice, this is all that was necessary. Because of the sterling faithfulness of Jesus, in combination with the rock-solid righteousness of Yahweh, God could launch a universal salvation from a wretched cross! [3/21/08; 8/22/21]

“FORENSIC BLINDNESS”

“Forensic Blindness” is an inner heart ailment resulting from the extension, bloating, or herniation of forensic categories into textual tissues where they do not belong. The eventual hardening of the categories results in the baneful and habitual, even reflexive obscuring of all non-forensic categories, usually by minimizing their central significance.

Thus, e.g., the Biblical teaching concerning Christ’s resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the importance of Messiah’s directives, and the cruciality of our obedience to them despite all temptations, not to add the significance for our daily lives of the power of God’s Kingdom, especially in miraculous manifestations, are all underplayed, neglected, or minimized. [10/20/06]

All the amazing benefits of the New Covenant had to be procured and sealed by an actually sinless—thus truly human, i.e., capable of sinning, but also truly theotic, i.e., capable of resisting temptation to sin—Victim whose innocent blood was worthy of such an incomparable reward by way of God’s righteous overcompensation. [10/30/06]

The two cherubim—an integral, inseparable part of the solid gold “propitiatory” cover that fit onto the Ark of the (Old) Covenant—depicted the angelic protection that was an integral part of this indemnity concerning Israel’s sins. The requisite blood could of itself not depict this. The shadows of the Old Testament are, accordingly, compound types. Only the fulfilling antitype, Jesus, could pull them all together into a unity, integrally. [10/30/06]

Even as (the whimsical saying goes) “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” so the way of Messiah’s blood to our hearts is through taking it, in the Lord’s Supper, into our stomachs. The image is very simple and direct. Drinking of the wine while believing in his Explanation about it brings the benefits he promised in his New Covenant: release from sins, the cleansing of our hearts, the power of the Spirit of wholesomeness. [10/30/06]

The very most central essential, and active ingredient of God’s rectitude is that he MUST REWARD THE FAITHFUL. He can mercifully let sins go unpunished—that too is an intrinsic and very endearing component of His uprightness—His kindness—although this does not exclude fatherly chastisement, discipline, and scourging. And eventually, yes, even His anger, roused by the incorrigibility of the stubbornly sinful, will at length descend with destructive force upon their own heads.

BUT GOD’S HONOR IS MOST INTIMATELY BOUND UP WITH THE ABSOLUTE IRONCLAD NECESSITY OF RECOMPENSING THE RIGHTEOUS WHO ARE OPPRESSED. [10/30/06]

The Antitype Exceeds the Type: The Fulfillment Surpasses the Prophecy

The New Covenant Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, as the fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecies, in reality filled to overflowing the mere letter of those prophecies.  That is, the actual fulfilment in Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, had more glory than hinted at in the Hebrew Scriptures themselves!  This is one reason why the New Testament use of the Old Testament often looks so strange to us.  A Jew of Jesus’ day, reading the Hebrew Scriptures, was not thereby prepared to see, hear, or understand Jesus.  In fact, their antiquated, labored interpretations actually blinded them to the Truth when he appeared!  They only expected mere literality (this method was at the heart of Zionistic Judaism and has been adopted with no better, but only bitter, results by its Christian counterpart and clone, Dispensationalism).  What Jesus proclaimed was superabounding spirituality—the very power of the age to come!  Jesus was actually equipped with life superabundant and free for all who trust him as God’s appointed and anointed Son, the inheritor of the universe (not merely a plot of ground in the Near East)!  Jesus exploded the eentsy weentsy, teeny weeny notions of the scribes and Pharisees and their pitiful expectations.  They hated him for puncturing their parochial hopes, popping their bubbles of bigotry, and skewering their self-important aspirations.  The antitype exceeds the type by far, through God’s power!  [9/10/97]

Every miracle, every divine healing, is a proof of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Every sign, every wonder, is an ally of the Proclamation of God’s  Kingdom.  Every such act of God in current history is a testimony that the resurrected Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living and true God.  “Is healing in the Atonement?”  No, if we must answer such a question; much rather, “atonement” is in the healing!  Since, “that you may know that the Son of Mankind has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, ‘Rise!  Take up your bed and walk!'”  (Mt. 9:6, Mk. 2:10, Lk. 5:24)  The association is unmistakable; healing and pardon are two fruits of the very same powerful operation, the first visible (thus its probative function to certify the other), the second  invisible (hence, otherwise doubtful to sinful mortals, thus requiring an external sign).  The supreme sign of the Resurrection of Christ is thus refracted in every other exertion of divine power on behalf of redemption, however nuanced.

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God’s only-born Son, in combination with the Resurrection that immediately followed, constitute proof that God is the kind of person Who is both able and desirous of absorbing the cost of personal injury against Himself without demanding repayment or satisfaction of any kind.  Such stupendous grace/favor toward us obligates us, much rather, to ebullient  gratitude toward Him and repentance for our injuries (for injuries they remain!).  There is no greater demonstration imaginable of the true contents of the loving heart of the invisible God—namely, favor—than to send His only-born offspring in visible flesh and blood, to surrender himself to the viciousness of sinful humans and their corrupt justice, and then to radically and totally and overwhelmingly reverse their fatal judgment by the counter-verdict and rightful award of agelong life via Resurrection from among the dead and exaltation to His own right hand!  For by so doing God, in effect, remitted the avenging due his murderers (for so they were, and not mere executioners), proclaiming, instead His favor to all who merely repent of their sins (that Big One included!) and trust Jesus as the Messiah/Christ.

Thus we can visibly behold what otherwise, even using the “best” of Old Testament shadows and types, we can yet barely visualize—indeed, that which was routinely misunderstood and unrecognizably twisted.  The only “satisfaction” God desires is the satisfaction of seeing His highest creature turn away from destructive sins and start growing into the image and likeness of Himself as seen clearly in His Son Jesus.  So by instructing His faithful Son to sacrifice himself, including his royal rights as the authentic King of the Jews, God was preparing to exhibit openly and unmistakably on the public stage of eye-witnessed history, what had always been and would always be unalterably true: Jehovah God does not demand or require or desire payment or recompense or compensation or sacrifice to Himself by anyone in the universe (neither sinners nor His Son) for sin.  Much rather, He forgives or pardons sins gratuitously, for free, and “demands” or “requires” that we do likewise, on penalty of our own sins remaining ominously unforgiven by Him!

This is the most startling, life-transforming truth of the Proclamation of God’s Kingdom, and we all have far to go to absorb its full force.  It should “extort” from us superabundant and never-ending praise and thanks.  Not for a moment should such a staggering revelation of God’s self-sacrificing character, conduct, and disposition motivate us to dishonor or trample His explicit desire for our obedience.  Our obligations toward Him are nothing less than that we behave ourselves toward one another as He has behaved toward us, i.e., that we become like Him, as exhibited in the conduct of Jesus Christ His uniquely-begotten Son, for this is our very destiny if we seriously believe his words: all who trust Christ are destined by Old Testament Scripture to become sons of God, morphing into His likeness and image.  Good gracious!

The Mosaic law was but a shadow of this desire for us.  Jesus was the Light that cast Moses and his Torah in the shadows forever.  Jesus was greater than Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon combined!  The Old Covenant has all but evaporated for those who are in Christ.  The grace that Christ received from his Father for obeying Him even to the death of a cross burst into history for our human appropriation and enjoyment at Pentecost, if we do not resist it as the Jews did in Jesus’ day.  For our resistance to the Wholesome Spirit of God’s favor will win for us later generations the same just deserts (dikaioma) that God poured out on the stubborn generation of vicious Jews who perished under His wrath when the “abomination of desolation”—the Roman legions of Titus—surrounded and besieged Jerusalem, the “Holy City,” and vaunted temple in 70 A.D., exactly 40 years to the week, one generation, after they viciously dispatched their Messiah.  The judgment of “Gehenna,” the Valley of Hinnom where Titus cast the bodies of the dead during Jerusalem’s self-destruction and subsequent cleanup, is the repulsive foretaste of what awaits all who, like those perfidious Jews, remain stubborn to the Son (see Psalm 2), refusing to repent of their sins and acknowledge their rightful Master and royal superior.  Thus those who harden themselves to the outpouring of God’s favor are only setting themselves up for the outpouring of His indignation.  Our choice is between a baptism of Spirit or of fire.  For God delays His anger, not desiring any to get destroyed, yet prolongs His kindness so that many may repent and be saved.  He appeals to us, “Now is the day of salvation, repent and trust Me!”

Thus it is clear that no “payment of sin” is even conceivable in Biblical terms!  God Himself “pays for sin” (an expression never actually used by Scripture) if in any sense, by absorbing the “cost” into Himself and countering with a gigantic donation back!  Furthermore, God proclaims such a great salvation even to His bitter enemies so that even they may get conciliated to Himself!  He chose Saul of Tarsus as the great exemplar of such receipt of favor.  No wonder that Saul—now Paul—agonized over his remaining stubborn co-Christ-persecutors and fellow-Messiah-murderers.  For he now knew that even they could be saved if they would!  Jesus himself prayed outright for the forgiveness of his Roman executioners while he was still on the cross, while they were still enemies:  “Father forgive them, for they are not aware what they are doing!”  (Luke 23:34)  How much more had he longed to gather Jerusalem under his wings of protection, but they would not consent (Matt. 23:37-38; Luke 13:34).

God has lavished demonstration upon display, exhibit upon example, proof upon parable, that nothing from His side prevents or ever has prevented or ever will prevent or ever can prevent the superabundant expression of His favor to any and every sinner who only believes His explanations and acts accordingly in consequence, confessing before humans the favor and truth of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.  [9/27/97]