Jesus did not “shed his blood.”

JESUS DID NOT “SHED HIS BLOOD,” IT WAS SHED FOR HIM! Yes, he obediently submitted himself to this official, public, cruel, prolonged, and incredibly unjust execution, but HE DIDN’T SHED IT, NOR DO THE SCRIPTURES TEACH THAT HE DID. This notion is a grotesque impulse and reflex of a penal substitutionary misrepresentation of the Gospel. [8/17/08] Getting the details of the Story straight is half the battle.

There’s a leering irony in the fact that, for all their vociferous denials that the Gospel is “rational” (out of overreaction to Socinianism), yet Evangelicals indulge in elaborate, if tortured, rationalizations to establish and justify it! If you happen to believe for any reason that the Gospel is truly and appealingly “rational,” you are liable to be labeled a “Socinian,” “Unitarian,” “anti-trinitarian,” “rationalist,” “Liberal,” or worse—a “non-Evangelical”! Okay, maybe that’s not so bad after all, considering the company you start keeping when you’re jealous over the “Evangelical” tag. [8/19/08]

If it is possible to conceive of a penal justice entirely bereft of reparative qualities, as evidently it is (on the prevalent view), then why would a purely reparative justice be so inconceivable—a justice entirely lacking in punitive qualities, focused on restoring to victims of crime what they lost? This is the challenge before us at our moment in history. The apostolic Proclamation of salvation through the work of God in the “Crossurrection” has been distorted and contorted beyond a Wholesome-Spirited rationality and hence beyond credibility. It sinks under a thousand qualifications. Certainly someone will come along and propose a mediating “combination” of the two, but I would hold out for a clear and unconfused, unmixed distinction between the two, plus an emphatic claim of exclusive evangelical authenticity for the reparative, in connection to the Atonement. [8/30/08]

The denunciatory attitude of “penal substitutionary” advocates is too consistent and widespread not to be a natural reflex of the erroneous doctrine itself. The theory breeds arrogance, smugness, judgmentalism, animosity, and self-righteousness (oddly ironic!). These evil qualities can be seen throughout the history it traverses (too short to be apostolic, too long to be merely adventitious). The punitive and peremptory manner of its devotees is plowed into every new generation, making them sometimes twice as fit for gehenna as their mentors.  Brethren, this ought not to be!

May resurrectionary graciousness overtake this aberration and swallow up its disciples for the cause of reparative justice instead. [9/02/08] Then may they teach their teachers a lesson!

“And to you, O Yahweh, belongs kindness, For You Yourself shall pay each man according to his deeds.” —Psalm 62:12

This, THIS, for Heaven’s sake, is what was happening at the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ! THAT SUNDAY WAS PAYDAY for Jesus! On that glorious day he started to get paid back for his lifelong faithfulness to the Covenant with his Father. THE CROSS WAS ONLY THE LAST STRAW—THE ONE THAT BROKE THE DRAGON’S BACK! Even so, the Resurrection was a mere “advance” on Christ’s full paycheck, which came after his exaltation to Heaven.

We must understand our own individual salvations as comprehended within his PAY PACKAGE! He suffered greater abuse in order to swell his PAY…ON OUR BEHALF, ALL THE GREATER! We’ve gotta get this! [9/02/08]