Featured God's Two Pictures of the Atonement in the Sacrifices

Scripture presents one method of reconciliation. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him. Christ's death of the cross purchased the right to forgive any human being. When God chooses an individual for salvation, based on crediting their faith as righteousness, He then places the individual into Christ (baptizes them into Christ) where then undergo the washing of regeneration, and arise in Christ a new creation, born anew, forgiven, made perfect.

 

This is an excellent document. For those who won't go through it, the author provides primary source documents and then creates a table to distinguish the various atonement theories represented.

 

The ECFs, especially Justin Martyr, give very clear testimony to Penal Substitution.
I'll post on this when I get a moment, but I'm preaching tomorrow and need to complete my preparation.

 

1Pe 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

That verse all alone shows penal substitution. Any denial of that is to deny scripture. He bore our sins means He is the substitute. For crying out loud to say that it doesn't is equivalent to denying something as simple as 1+1=2. There is no other possible and reasonable understanding of that verse.

Joh 10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He played down His life for us. He (who is innocent) had to die for us (who is not innocent).

Any denial of PS has been thoroughly debunked at this point.


Rom 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Propitiation means to satisfy the wrath of God. This was done by the shedding of His blood. The reason for this was to show His righteousness. Meaning the sin of man was so terrible that one who was innocent had to be the one who made the sacrifice. This is not rocket science.

Further, cherry picking those from the early church and denying others who clearly show they support PSA is a failure to be honest about the issue.

 

It's worth mentioning that the Holy Spirit does not share the concerns of these people.
Through the Apostle Peter, for example, He testifies that God 'judges justly' (1 Peter 2:23) and then in the following verse affirms that Christ 'bore our sins'. Through Paul, He declares that setting forth Christ as a propitiation for our sins was a demonstration of God's justice, not a denial of it (Romans 3:25).

The reasons for this are not hard to find. Firstly, God does not pick some random bloke to be made sin for us. It is God Himself (Acts of the Apostles 20:28), in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ who has willingly taken our sins upon Himself to satisfy His own justice and make propitiation for us.
Secondly, the Lord Jesus is the Mediator (Hebrews 8:6) and the Surety (Hebrews 7:22) of the New Covenant. As Mediator, He must do everything necessary to reconcile sinners to God, and as Surety (or Guarantor), He must pay in full the debt of righteousness that Mankind is unable to pay, and the penalty for their sin.

 

Hebrews 10:1-10, ". . . For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. . . ."

 

the chastisement of our peace was upon him

Me thinks a #2 in the signature is coming up...

 

I am saying that the ECFs DID teach what today we call Penal Substitution. It was absolutely part of their doctrine.

 

Jon, you are on an island of one. Even the early church fathers stand against you. You are attempting to thread a needle of nuance to keep arguing for what no early church father ever argued. It's best if you drop this and admit no one agrees with you.