God was not guilty of the Cross.

Calvinists, of all people, should be able to grasp how a non-penal explanation of the Cross works. God’s “sovereignty” means God oversaw the event of the Cross yet had no part in its “guilt” (sin!), whether construed as “imputed” or otherwise. Simple! [11/01/07]

The function and purpose of punishment is not (cannot be for) payment but only for correction. Therefore restitution or reimbursement, etc., is not a “punishment,” i.e., in order to correct, but to restore peace by repaying the harmed victim.

We Americans may all too easily fall into this punitive error since our justice system tend to view crimes as violation of “state sovereignty” rather than torts, etc. against others that need to be redressed by restoring their losses instead of “paying for” them by jail sentences or fines payable to the court (and which do not reach the poor victims). [11/01/07]  We should ponder more deeply some of the traditional differences between criminal and civil law concepts of justice.  [3/17/16]

The Atonement was not complete until the soul (“which is in the blood”) of the Son was glorified by the Father FACE TO FACE IN JUBILANT REUNION! It was the faithfulness of the Son (“in his blood”) which made him worthy of “passing through the heavens” to dare approach AS A HUMAN , the “Wholesome of Wholesomes.” This is what caused Daniel the prophet such consternation—“on the clouds of heaven, One as a Son of mankind is arriving and unto the Ancient of Days he reaches and WAS OFFERED [prosenechthe] TO HIM”! THAT’S BIG! THAT’S STAGGERING! It was right there, before the very throne of “The Wholesome One of Israel” where Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God and son of humankind dared pass the seraphim to embrace his true Father in his resurrected body to get his glory cranked up by the One who dwelt in otherwise “unapproachable light”! This was the climax of his priestly activities. Here he was bequeathed a much fuller portion of “the LOOT” (Isaiah 53:12) which God’s justice apportioned him as the much deserved fruit of “the toil of his soul [which is in the blood]” (Isaiah 53:11), faithful unto death, “even a death of the CROSS” (Philippians 2:9). But to get more specific, “To him was granted sovereignty and honor and a kingdom; and all nations, tribes, and languages shall serve [slave for—douleucoucin] him; his authority—an agelong authority—will not pass away, and his kingdom shall not disintegrate” (Daniel 7:14). In other words, “Given to me was ALL AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON THE EARTH.” Ergo: “Going, then, disciple all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father [“the Ancient of Days”] and the Son [“One as a son of mankind”] and the Wholesome Spirit [“the loot”], teaching them to be keeping all, whatever I direct you. And lo! I am with you all the days till the conclusion of the age. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20). [11/01/07]

The closer our theology of Atonement adheres to the opinions of Anselm and Calvin, the more “crude” they will necessarily be. These are the major progenitors of those crudities that so many dissenters have taken in hand to expose so often. This crudeness is inextricable, however, for it inheres in their many departures from Biblical vocabulary and usage. Nothing can ever redeem such notions for they refuse to get reconciled to the inspired explanations of Scripture; “crudity” is their eternal reproach. We, however, must leave them and cleave to wholesome Scripture. [11/01/07]

God “CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH” by RAISING CHRIST’S FLESH IMMORTAL, not ‘by punishing him for our sins’.

How did God “condemn sin in the flesh” when “sending His own Son in the likeness of sin’s flesh and concerning sin [i.e., “as a sin-offering,” cf. Leviticus, LXX]” (Rom. 8:1-4)?  What was the precise mechanism or process or procedure?  The common popular evangelical answer is that God ‘vented His wrath on His own Son at the cross’, thereby condemning sin.  But it’s not that way at all.  Much rather, the sin of condemning the sinless Son of God—this overwhelmingly wrongful deed of the Jews (leaders, populace, and disciples alike!), this fury of Satan in cahoots with all his witting and unwitting henchmen and hangmen (Judas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, Peter, the chief priests, the Roman soldiers, et al)—was itself openly, overwhelmingly, publicly demonstrated to be wrongful and unjust—outright SIN— by the display of God’s righteousness in raising Jesus the Messiah from among the dead (Rom. 3:21-26)! For in this exacting manner all his opposition were swept away decisively and irrevokably and unanswerably. The Resurrection shut every accusing mouth and opened every unhardened heart. It was calculated to melt all the opposition who were not adamantly confirmed in viciousness. Yet every age has its Pharaohs who progressively reject every merciful moment God extends them, “bartering the graciousness of our God for wantonness, and disowning our only Owner [who, in that assigned role, bought us back!] and Master, Jesus Messiah” (Jude 4), and harden their hearts, stiffen their necks, the “unbelieving…who are stumbling also at the Explanation [about God’s undeserved, completely unexpected, and even unimaginable graciousness and mercifulness], being stubborn, to which [stumbling] they were appointed also [by their own self-determined, rigid distrust]” (1 Peter 2:7-8).

In sum: God condemned sin by justifying Jesus in the Resurrection to agelong life so that we who simply trust this stunning message might inherit this same just recompense deserved by Christ’s sinless career, willing surrender, and obedient submission to the vicious, murderous sovereignties and authorities of this age—namely, the same agelong life that his obedience won triumphantly on our behalf!  Thus did he triumph by his cross (Col. 2:14-15), condemn sin, and bestow gratuitous life for us who are undeserving sinners!  And all we have to do to enjoy this boundless boon is to be “in Messiah Jesus” (Rom. 8:1, 2), which transpires at immersion, by faith, which in turn accomplishes implantation (Rom. 6:5, 6) into his body.  [4/10/06]

So where does “divine punishment” fit into the picture of “atonement” within Scripture? It most emphatically fits exactly nowhere within holy Scripture! Our salvation was not achieved by resorting to punishment of our sins. “Agelong punishment,” far otherwise, is the fate of all who reject a salvation so great that it did not need any divine punishment factor! It circumvented divine punishment altogether. The abuse suffered by Messiah was not divinely punitive in any sense, any more than Job’s was. The assault of Satan at the Cross was, to be sure, divinely appointed, but it had nothing whatsoever to do with divine wrath or the disfavor of Heaven. Jesus “tasted death”—“even a death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8)—“in the favor of God” (Heb. 2:9, Phil. 2:9).

In the meantime, whoever get destined for adoption experience divine discipline, yet such measures are corrective and for our good (Psalm 94:10, 12, Isaiah 53:5, Heb. 12), and thus are inescapable for any of us sons of Adam who are now children of a heavenly Father whose goal is our maturity.   This often painful procedure equips us to rule with Messiah in the age to come.  (Corrective discipline can be “atoning” only in a derivative and secondary sense.  See David Bercot’s “What the Early Christians Believed about the Atonement.”)  [4/10/06]

It was not while “in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6) that God’s Son won our salvation, but only after becoming a human being—a “son of mankind.”  It was in this form and after this fashion that he achieved full maturity of sinlessness, by learning obedience under the Law of Moses, an escorting disciplinarian (Gal 3:24-25), submitting to sinful authority (it could not be otherwise—whether parents, Jewish leaders, Roman occupiers), getting immersed in Wholesome Spirit, performing astounding acts of miraculous power to free his fellow human beings from the enslaving tyranny of the Adversary and, at the last, by being betrayed by one of his inner-circle friends and getting surrendered to his enemies, bearing their injustices patiently, not deserving their abuse, but giving it all over to Him Who judges justly.

In this flesh he got vindicated, the Highest Judge reversing the lower court’s decision.  As a human being he received overcompensating damages for his trouble, and that is precisely why he had the right to “give gifts to mankind” (Eph. 4:8, Ps. 68:18)—gracious presents of splendid varieties, salvation, and agelong life in his Father’s Kingdom, receiving these boons from his divine Father as the Son of God, and bequeathing them all to his human brethren as the son of mankind—the true Mediator between Deity and humanity.  [4/10/06]