The manifestation of the righteousness of God “apart from [works of] the Law [of Moses]” (Romans 3:21) is an allusion to the resurrection of Christ apart from the retributive judgments against his killers that the Law demanded. In other words, this was the grandest possible demonstration of God’s life-giving blessing apart from the curse! It is in this sense that God expressed His righteousness at the Messianic climax “apart from the Law.” In the words of Romans 4, “the Law produces wrath,” yet the resurrectionary verdict of God gushed forth graciousness, superabundant (according to the demands of divine justice, for Heaven’s sake!!!) and absolutely free to every believer! [2/18/09]
It is quite true that, as J. Denny Weaver observes, God’s invitation “to join the struggle of those seeking liberation from the forces that bind and oppress” “envisions both those who are oppressed and their oppressors.” (“Narrative Christus Victor: The answer to Anselmian Atonement Violence,” in Atonement and Violence: A Theological Conversation, edited by John Sanders [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006], p. 23.) However, we only know it’s true because of the historic fact that neither the Cross nor the Resurrection entailed any wrath or avenging from God Himself against any human party whatever, much less against His own dear Son…not even “for our sake” as some offbeat “substitute.” [2/20/09]
If to know a created thing is to know what to expect of it, and if to know a person is to know what to expect of them in varied circumstances, and if to know God is to know what to expect of Him in diverse situations, then the “penal substitutionary” doctrine about the Atonement that leads us to know God as someone who demands that debts be paid before He can forgive them has hereby radically twisted the true knowledge of the astoundingly gracious God of the Bible into a miserable, miserly caricature (objections that this representation is itself a facile caricature of its teaching, to the contrary, notwithstanding–see my “‘Penal Satisfaction/Substitution’ in English Hymns”: https://premialatonement.wordpress.com/penal-satisfaction-substitution-in-english-hymns/). [2/22/09; 11/06/16]
On his mother’s side of the family, Jesus of Nazareth was merely human, though Davidic royalty (and likewise, de jure, on Joseph’s side…his “step father”). So when he—David’s Seed—was falsely condemned to a viciously unjust death, the royal house of David might have been justified in avenging it in the usual manner.
But on his Father’s side of the family, on the other hand.… [2/22/09]
With the announcement of this clarification of the age old Gospel as essentially premial, God is saying, “All is forgiven, come and dine.” Without rancor, let us all make the necessary adjustments with no finger-pointing, and let’s get on with the urgent task of wholehearted, conscientious proclamation to the whole world, the entire creation, every family, tongue, land, and nation, until Christ returns to judge. Let us join arms and on with the task! [2/24/09]
At the Cross, God allowed evil. This is a revealing cross-section of the entirety of human history. The hill of Calvary is the “apex” (read: nadir!) and culmination of human wickedness precisely because Jesus, by diametric contrast, was the crown of human righteousness. Yet in its very being this, those crosshairs on Golgotha targeted the precise locus of God’s own longsuffering, patience, kindness, and mercy, which had ever been in operation at every moment of sin’s seeming ascendancy.
However, the story didn’t end there. In virtually immediate response to this summum malum of evil came the RESURRECTION that supremely culminated the manifestation of God’s unexpected resources of righteousness and, accordingly, graciousness! So, yes, here is the “theodicy” the world needs and has been waiting desperately for. Yet there it was all the time! There God proved that He can turn evil to a good use…in a worst case scenario. That’s the essence of the premial Gospel.
Are there any questions? [2/25/09]
The Premial Atonement 