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The Lord Jesus Christ, by bearing (phor-/pher-) his people’s (Israel’s) sins and offering (prosphor- /prospher-) himself to God on behalf of the transgressions of others, thereby became the indemnification or “insurance carrier” for them. [5/6/11]

Isaiah’s words (53:4), “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted,” is a stunning echo—A THUNDERCLAP!—of the Book of Job. For all of Job’s “comforters” FALSELY IMPUTED SIN TO JOB IN THE VERY SAME WAY. And such imputation was exposed by God as SIN! He demanded sacrifices for such wickedly bad accounting! Furthermore, God SUPERCOMPENSATED Job for his unjust suffering of abusive reviling as well as of his physical pains. [5/6/11]

“He said that He would exterminate them, except that Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him, to turn back His fury from bringing ruin [on them].” Psalm 106:23 (Exodus 32:7-14, 30-35; Deuteronomy 9:14, 25-29; Ezekiel 20)

If even Moses, by his intercession, could turn back God’s wrath or indignation from destroying the poeple for their sins, then it seems plausible that the expenditure of God’s anger is not some absolute necessity, and He may indeed—as Moses pled for—show mercy instead. The rationale that somewhere, “somewhen,” He must “nevertheless” expend that treasured-up wrath “in order to ‘pay for’ those sins” is, to be sure, beyond mere conjecture; it is downright blasphemy! For it imputes a “deeper” motive than “mere” mercy; it alleges some primal, cosmic need to vent wrath against every sin “before” and “so that” he can be gracious! SUCH TEACHING BREEDS SUSPICION AND DREAD TOWARD GOD OF A SORT THAT UNDERMINES OUR WHOLEHEARTED ATTACHMENT TO “OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.” IN FACT IT CAN CRIMP AND POSSIBLY PARALYZE OUR WORSHIP OF HIM!

The authentic Biblical teaching concerning God’s justice, however, displays perfect harmony with His mercy, longsuffering, kindness, patience, and, ultimately, His love. God’s final goal is human maturity in love, and He bends every effort (and every “rule”) to insure the attainment of that goal. This means that not only are we to forgive one another’s sins (which is right and just) but SO MUST GOD! If He is to be our model for just and upright behavior, and if Jesus was the perfect exhibit of that behavioral model in earthly flesh, then no hidden agenda, no “deeper motive” of “penal payment” hiding in the wings as His special prerogative, is in the least possible in such a universe. So be assured, and behave accordingly…God be with you! [5/7/11; 5/11/24]

Turretin erred in alleging that God’s unique Son stood as ‘surety’ for human debts of sin.

It stretches parables beyond the breaking point to insist that they be put to the yeoman service of abstract, technical dogmas. Case in point: the parable of the unjust debtor in Matthew 18:21-35. It teaches simply that we should forgive the sins (conceived as “debts“) of others against us, even as God forgives our sins (likewise represented as “debts” to Him) without demanding payment of any kind. Now, in line with the post-Reformation Genevan-Italian Calvinist theologian Francis Turretin, to interpose the assumption that all such forgiven debts of sin must be paid for by someone who stands as “surety” for our debts is to burden the poor parable to the brink of collapse. Instead, God Himself “absorbs” the loss from love, expressed as gracious forgiveness. He “stands surety” for His own “losses”; He did not exact them from His beloved Son at the bitter cross. For in tandem with the Father’s loss of His dear Son to a wretchedly dishonorable and undeservedly agonizing demise stands Christ’s own individual loss of life (though without loss of divine favor!) in the event. Accordingly, the role of Jesus on the cross was that of displaying, manifesting, and revealing to mankind exactly how his Father (whose perfect image and characterization he in fact is, after all) was at that very moment responding to the sins of His slayers, for is this not PRECISELY THE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S LOVE THAT WE NEED TO KNOW IN ORDER TO GET CONCILIATED TO HIM?

To imagine rather, with Turretin, that not only was even full “REPAYMENT of the debt” not sufficient to achieve forgiveness (flying in the face of abundant conciliatory appeals throughout the New Testament), but that additionally EXACTION OF PUNISHMENT was required, is not merely to make the analogy ‘walk on all fours,’ but to squash it ignobly like roadkill under THE JUGGERNAUT OF PENAL IMPOSITION, YEA, PUNITIVE PRESUMPTION! Thus does Turretin deal treacherously with Scripture in general and the Gospel in particular. We can leave it to God to judge those who depart from His Words. But we must not delay to correct them by whatever further Light He beams forth from Scripture in our day, furnished so abundntly with sophisticated and even computerized analytical tools unavailable until only decades ago. What excuse can we plead to keep plodding along in the treacherous aging ruts of fallible human traditions? [12/22/10; 8/15/23]

The Lord Jesus Christ paid for us and our salvation at the staggering loss of his own precious blood, for GOD REIMBURSED HIM WITH THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OF LIFE TO FURTHER DISBURSE FREELY TO ALL WHO BELIEVE, SO AS TO CLEANSE THEM FROM ALL SIN AND THEN EMPOWER THEM WITH MIRACULOUS FAVORS IN ORDER TO TESTIFY TO GOD’S KINGDOM OF JUSTICE AND HENCE DRAW ALL MANKIND BACK TO GOD THEIR SAVIOR. [12/22/10; 8/15/23]

That the Greek preposition huper is by no means to be understood in a ‘substitutionary’ sense is clear, among other texts, from 1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, seeing that he, for our sakes, lays down his soul. We also ought to lay down our souls for the sake of the brethren.” That Francis Turretin* can so blithely overthrow the clear and simple meaning of such a Scripture where a perfectly obvious, uncomplicated, and ethically compelling parallel is drawn by the Holy Spirit is further evidence of the treachery of his scholastic tradition against the premial justice of God as laid down within inspired apostolic Scripture.

*Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. II (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1994): 428. [12/22/10; 8/15/23]

Even as God gave His Son the Spirit “without measure” in order to heal and cure, in accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy (53:4), “Surely he bore our infirmities,” as Matthew quotes (8:17), so also God bequeathed Jesus the superabundant gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out at Pentecost and ever since, because he was willingly yet unjustly “pierced on account of our transgressions” and “crushed on account of our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5), for those supremely sinful human deeds of wicked ‘punishment’ that “God laid on him” (Isaiah 53:6) “brought us peace” and by those vicious wounds “we are healed.” The modus operandi was exactly the same on both fronts, contrary to Francis Turretin*, et al.

*Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. II (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1994): 427. [12/22/10; 8/15/23]

Jesus did not suffer the ‘punishment due our sins‘ but rather the [unjust—”in his humiliation his judgment was taken away“! Isaiah 53:8 LXX, Acts 8:33] punishment of/from/by our sins! [12/22/10; 8/15/23]

The Devil has himself to thank for provoking the Power that is presently nullifying his kingdom and works of darkness. Seemingly clueless about the redemptive storm he would unleash by perpetrating such a magnitude of injustice and horror as the official, public, cruel crucifixion of his only rival for dominion over the world, he was foiled into overlooking the comparatively untapped potential of God’s restorative justice to save the upright and reward them despite even the interposition of death itself—in fact, all the more so because of its wrongful interruption of Jesus’ flawless career! [12/23/10; 8/15/23]

Sorting out “JUST DESERTS”

The “sins” and “offenses” and “transgressions” that Jesus “bore” (see Isaiah 53:4, 11-12, with context) were those historic assaults (both physical and verbal) that afflicted and took his life in 30 A.D. And if that is so, then his suffering their abuse could not have been “vicarious” or “substitutionary” or “in the place of sinners,” because he was graciously accepting them as truly directed against his proper person, yet wrongfully, by sinners for whose sake and whose salvation he, who did not deserve them, expected his Father’s RIGHTFUL RECOMPENSE THAT HE DID DESERVE, SO THAT HE COULD OFFER IT FREELY (SUPERABUNDANTLY AS IT NECESSARILY WOULD BE ACCORDING TO THE DIVINE JUSTICE OF COVENANT LOGIC), AS RESURRECTED LORD AND EVER-LIVING SAVIOR TO ALL WHO NOW BELIEVE HIM, INCLUDING WHOEVER THEN DISBELIEVED HIM, provided they repent.

By contrast, if he was “bearing” sins “vicariously,” “as a substitute in the place of sinners” (requiring a roundabout, indirect “imputation” of “guilt” and suffering of “penalty”) who did deserve such “punishment” (no longer interpreted as “discipline” in obedience) then he was suffering abuse rightfully, so could hardly count on a JUSTIFYING REVERSAL BY RESURRECTION SINCE HE WAS ALREADY GETTING WHAT THEY “JUSTLY” DESERVED, SO GOD’S OWN STUPENDOUS JUSTICE WOULD NEVER NEED TO GET CALLED OUT OF RESERVE FOR THE OCCASION TO SHOW ITS STUFF IN HIS FAVOR! BUT THIS SCENARIO LEAVES RESURRECTION LIMP, SUPERFLUOUS, AN UNNECESSARY AND VIRTUALLY USELESS APPENDAGE, theologically speaking. As, indeed, it is for Western Christianity. [6/23/08]

“Laurence Browne, British scholar and missionary to Muslims in Lahore, Pakistan wrote ‘One cannot help regarding the Crusades as the greatest tragedy in the history of Christianity, and the greatest setback to the progress of Christ’s kingdom on earth.’ The tragedy, wrote Browne, was that Christians denied ‘the Savior who bought them’, and that the church approved it. ‘It was for Christ’s honor that they fought, but they were ignorant of what sort of deeds would do honor to Christ’.” The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia [Cambridge, UK: University Press, 1933], p. 144. Quoted in Gordon D. Nickel, Peaceable Witness Among Muslims (Scottsdale, PA; Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 1999), p. 91.

The indelible coincidence that at the very historic moment that the First Crusade was being organized (1095), mobilized (1097) and executed (1099), Anselm of Canterbury was writing (<1098), publishing (1098) and distributing (>1098) his Cur deus homo? (Why the God-man? Or Why Did God Become Man?) to JUSTIFY GOD’S AVENGING HIS OWN “HONOR” BY DEMANDING VICARIOUS SATISFACTION. The coincidence is far, far more than trivial. Even Steven Keillor (This Rebellious House:  American History and the Truth of Christianity.  Downers Grove, IL:  IVP Academic, 1996), although he appears oblivious of the role of this famous atonement theory in the American South during this period (via Sir Walter Scott’s cultishly popular feudal adventure novels), yet draws out the tragedy of the American Civil War as a festering exhibit of each side “defending its [sacred!] honor,” thus escalating both vindictiveness and carnage. For they too were ignorant of what deeds would do honor to their real interests and ideals (to the extent that they were actually worthy ones, of course), in other words, “of what makes for peace.”  [6/23/08; 7/08/16]

Sacrificial BLOOD was a type of Christ’s RESURRECTION

We know the blood of Jesus symbolizes resurrection from the dead because we know from Scripture that’s what happened to him necessarily after his blood was shed. The blood of cattle, sheep, and goats could ever only hint at this, but the Antitype fills it with its true, full, authentic meaning as a type of the Resurrection. [6/23/08]

One might have expected Christian theologians long, long ago to figure this out since resurrection was the unexpected key to the whole conundrum of Jewish soteriology. An actual resurrection is what unravels the whole tangle. [9/14/18]

If the blood is at the center of soteriology, then it follows that the Resurrection is at the center of soteriology.  Therefore, so is the Lord’s Supper…and in turn, Baptism…and, of course, so is the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and ever after.  There is a quite natural flow from blood to resurrection to Holy Spirit, and on to the ordinances that express them.  This concatenation of links has often gotten lost in the shuffle of post-apostolic theology and liturgy.  It’s long overdue to reconceive them both in light of the premial soteriology of the New Testament.  [6/23/08; 12/12/09; 7/06/16]

Jesus did at least one healing miracle (and thus “bore our illnesses” and “was burdened with our pains”—Isaiah 53:4) to prove that he could forgive sins—the visible to prove the invisible (all three synoptic Gospels report it—Matthew 9:2-8, Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:17-26), the whole to validate the part!

Theologians routinely get this wrong because they still nurture a “penal substitution” view of the Atonement, and they can no healing in that sort of ‘atonement’. Indeed, it is not to be found there. Only on the resurrectionary atonement view can we clearly see that Isaiah’s language makes transgression, depravity and sin parallel to illness and pain, but such that the former (often invisible to humans) are included among the latter (usually visible), but all alike gathered up by the grand healing treatment flowing from Messiah’s wounding, crushing, beating, welts, humiliation, severance from the land of the living, i.e., death, via God’s vindicating justice that raised hum up from the grave with unearthly power and proof!

Thus James can likewise associate healing with forgiveness of sins (James 5:13-16), similarly making forgiveness follow healing! And Peter does something similar, drawing in fact from the very language of Isaiah (1 Peter 2:19-25). He finishes off his passage with a flourish, including all he has previously said about suffering unjustly (i.e., the very case of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant!), and, indeed, anticipating all he is going to say on the subject in the following three chapters(!) within the healing that comes “by [his] welt” (2:24; Isaiah 53:5)!

This should put to a much deserved rest, once and for all, those disparaging voices that claim to credit forgiveness of sins “in this age” but without its validating proofs and witnesses in healings of our sick, wounded, mortal bodies. Let’s get with the Kingdom program for this age of God’s lavish graciousness since the resurrectionary atonement manifested in His Son and our Savior, Jesus, the Lord of all, for goodness sake! [6/23/08]

There can be no greater proof that God is propitious toward us and our sins than that He raised Jesus from the dead instead of destroying his killers! And that’s why his blood is protective of us. It signals God’s righteousness into lifesaving, rescuing action on behalf of his needy, struggling, beleaguered, oppressed Covenant partners, i.e., all who trust His reputation for amazing salvations! ]6/23/08] His blood, being innocent in the extreme, never evoked God’s wrath so always triggers the flow of His graciousness to all who imbibe it with faith. [9/15/08]

The sins that Jesus bore were INFLICTED, NOT IMPUTED

Joseph and Job, not to add Jeremiah and Jonah, were all “smitten of God and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4) in diverse ways, BUT WAS IT FROM DIVINE WRATH IN EVEN ONE OF THESE CASES? OF COURSE NOT! NOR IN THE CASE OF JESUS EITHER! Nor for John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, or any of the apostles. The case of Jesus was more severe than the others, to be sure, but therein did not lie its greater efficacy. IT WAS MUCH MORE POWERFUL BECAUSE IT WAS MUCH MORE WRONG, and therefore DEMANDED A MUCH GREATER CORRECTIVE: RESURRECTION GLORY. [12/14/07]

The orthodox Protestant or “penal substitutionary” theory of atonement appears to demand “eternal conscious punishment” of unbelievers, because otherwise God’s patience, mercy, longsuffering, and kindness, which only amount to deferrals or delays of God’s “righteousness” that “cannot allow sin to go unpunished,” would actually cancel or impede or otherwise compromise such “justice.” But if in “hell” God can finally “catch up” with His punishments, then all is hunky-dory.

Such a view deserves our ridicule as compromising God’s true and gracious justice (i.e., it’s premial side) and patently ignoring His sentence of death for sin announced to Adam and unfailingly carried out throughout history, with clarifying elaborations throughout Scripture. [12/17/07]

JESUS BORE THE SINS OF OTHERS NOT AS THEIR SUBSTITUTE BUT AS THEIR VICTIM. THEIR WRONG DOINGS WERE NOT IMPUTED TO HIM, THEY WERE INFLICTED ON HIM. [12/18/07]

Who dares to impute guilt to Jesus?

Like Job’s comforters, both the enemies of Jesus and “friendly” penal substitution theologians imputed (logis-) misery (ponos), calamity (plege) and ill-treatment (kakos) FROM GOD (Isaiah 53:4) to Jesus because of his cross.  All alike were blind to the actual inner workings of the mystery of salvation.  But now it is an open secret that Jesus was crucified out of envy, and his resurrection proved him innocent as a Lamb.  So why does so much atonement theology IMPUTE GUILT TO JESUS?  Where is such a perverse notion to be found in all of wholesome Writ?  [7/02/07]

By the time the Romans were finished with Jesus, he was an utterly bloody mess of a Messiah!  Not only did they flay his back to ribbons, not only did they beat his face to a barely recognizable pulp, but they forced a “crown” of thorns onto his scalp—the most profusely bleeding region of the entire human body when wounded.  On top of that, they pierced his side, from which flowed congealing blood plus watery plasma.  In addition to the comparatively small amounts of bleeding from his hands/wrists and feet, Jesus would have been drenched in blood from head to foot, along with his cross.

Therefore, ivory tower scholars who loftily opine about a tidy, nearly bloodless mode of execution for Jesus need a severe reality check.  This particular crucifixion was sanguinary in the extreme, no contest.  [7/02/07]

The resurrection of Jesus and the descent of the Dove at Pentecost PROVE INDUBITABLY THAT GOD DOES NOT DEMAND “PUNISHMENT FOR EVERY SIN.”  Therefore to RE-IMPUTE SINS (even if they are said to be someone else’s, namely ours [“the elect’s”] or the whole world’s) TO MESSIAH JESUS AFTER GOD HAS GONE TO SO MUCH TROUBLE TO UTTERLY RENOUNCE ANY PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT OR COMPLICITY IN WHAT WAS DONE TO HIS SON AFTER HE HAD PROVED HIS WILLINGNESS NOT TO SPARE EVEN HIS OWN OFFSPRING TO WHATEVER THEY MIGHT DO, IN FACT AFTER HE HAD EVEN DENOUNCED THEIR COMPLICITY WITH SATAN, THAT LIAR (whose words could not be trusted) AND THIEF (who came only to steal and destroy) AND MURDERER (whose criminal record was legendary), IS TO BETRAY ALL VAUNTED THEOLOGICAL TALK ABOUT GOD’S “ATTRIBUTES” OF “LOVE,” “HOLINESS,” AND “RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  Anyone can see this except a good many theologians!  No wonder Jesus issued so many broadsides excoriating the scribes, Pharisees, and chiefs of the people.  THE LIFE-GIVING WOUNDS OF JESUS HAVE BECOME INFECTED WITH THE DEATH-DEALING CONTAGION OF “PURELY” PUNITIVE NOTIONS OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS, WHILE HIS TRUEST RECTITUDE AS RESCUER OF HIS CHILDREN HAS GONE BEGGING.  [7/04/07]

77 Questions about the Atonement (Q&A #73)

73.     “Is healing in the Atonement?”

And how!  Inasmuch as God atoned for the miserable death and shed blood of Jesus by raising him from the grave through the wholesome power and glory of the Spirit exalting him to Lordship over all nations, consequently every spiritual favor of the Spirit springs from that atonement in rich profusion, including expulsion of demons, miraculous healing of human ills, and other startling precursors of the future thorough housecleaning of the cosmos.  Christ Jesus suffered from the illnesses of others and was burdened with their pains.  He was wounded by their transgressions and crushed under their depravities.  He learned obedience through this pedagogic discipline and experienced our human plight in depth.  So in exchange for his willingness to share our misery, itself caused by our own aggregate depravity, and hence being perpetually afflicted by human vice and viciousness at every turn his whole life long, without complaint or vengefulness, he was bequeathed by God the highest estate in the created universe, complete with fresh resources of creation-renewing power.  It is in this manner that by his welts there can be healing for us.  Only in this way are we equipped and deputized for our assigned task to start renewing the face of the earth as a testimony to what Christ has by his heroic obedience rendered…inevitable!