Featured Biblical Penal Substitution

By Grace through Faith in Christ you have been made righteous. Christ paid for your sins on the cross. But to say the Father punished Him with the wrath of God is to go beyond what Scripture says. The Wrath of God is for the unrighteous. Where does it say Christ became unrighteous? Scripture does not say that. Matter of fact, because Christ remained fully righteous, that is Why God raised Him from the dead--a righteous man does not deserve to die.

 

Brother, I want to clarify. I agree about certain aspects of what you say here. Of course we have eternal life, right now, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His subsequent resurrection. And the Lord removed our iniquity and shame and guilt through His death and resurrection. And His imputed righteousness is because He is the just and justifier. There are just certain elements of PSA I do not agree with. Namely, God pouring out His wrath on His Son.

 

4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

It was a substitutionary Covenant death requiring a surety.

 

Sort of...

Hebrews 9:15-22
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Substitutionary? Maybe. The covenant of the Father to the Son and also God to Abraham wasn’t based on substitution, but promise. Redemptive, yes!

 

Surety...mediator, was based on substitution....strict substitution and guarantee
2 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:

24 But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.

25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Encyclopedias - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Surety
SURETY

shoor'-ti:

This word is used in three different connections or groups:

(1) As a derivative of the word "sure" it means "of a certainty" or "surely."--In Genesis 15:13 the infinitive absolute of the verb is used to give emphasis to the idea of the verb and is rendered "of a surety." In Genesis 18:13 the Hebrew 'omnam is translated "of a surety." In Genesis 26:9 'akh is similarly rendered, and has the force of our "indeed." In Acts 12:11 alethos, is translated in the King James Version "of a surety," but better in the Revised Version (British and American) "of a truth."

(2) In the sense of security or pledge for a person.--This means that one person may become security for another, that such a one will do a certain thing at a time in the future. Judah was "surety" to his father Jacob that Benjamin would safely return from Egypt (Genesis 43:9). He pledged his life that the younger brother would return safely. He tells Joseph (Genesis 44:32) how he had become surety for Benjamin, and offers to become Joseph's slave for the sake of his brother. Job says (Job 17:3), "Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; who is there that will strike hands with me?" The striking of hands refers to the action or gesture by which the surety or pledge was publicly manifested and thus ratified. Job here beseeches God to become surety for him, to pledge him that some time in the future He will cause Job's innocence to be made known and be acknowledged by God Himself. In Isaiah 38:14 Hezekiah says, "O Lord, I am oppressed, be thou my surety." He wishes God to give him a pledge of some kind, to go security for him in such a way that he will surely be saved out of his sickness and distress. Jesus is called "the surety (egguos) of a better covenant" (Hebrews 7:22). Jesus is the pledge or surety that through Him we may obtain the assurance and certainty that a more excellent covenant has been established by God, and are assured also of the truth of the promises connected with it.

(3) It is used to describe the practice of going security for another by striking hands with that person and becoming responsible for money or any object loaned.--The Book of Proverbs unhesitatingly condemns the practice. No mention is made of it in the Mosaic Law, as if the custom were then practically unknown. The Book of Proverbs makes no distinction between a stranger and a neighbor; the person who does such a thing is likened unto an animal caught in a trap. He is exhorted to sleep no more until he has got out of the trap, or freed himself from this obligation (Proverbs 6:1-5). The wisdom of such advice has been abundantly verified by experience. It does not necessarily preclude certain special cases, where the practice may be justified. The international relationships of the Jews in the period of the monarchy, together with the unsettled condition of the country (Nehemiah 5:3) and people, needed such commercial strictness. Their trade was mostly in the hands of the Phoenicians and other foreigners, and the pressure of taxation for the payment of foreign tribute, etc., was heavy (Nehemiah 5:4). Proverbs 11:15; 17:18 declare one "void of understanding" who thus goes security for another. Proverbs 20:16 seems to contain an exclamation of contemptuous rebuke for the man who goes security. Proverbs 22:26; 27:13 contain like admonitions.


At the White Throne Judgment, what happens to those with no mediator, or surety?

 

Great post, @Iconoclast
In the Scriptures we have the concept of the mediator, one who might fill up the gap between the outraged holiness of God and rebellious man (Isaiah 59:2). Job complained, “For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both.” But mediation requires a satisfaction to be made to the offended party. We see this is the book of Philemon. Here we have an offended party, Philemon, whose servant has run away from him, perhaps stealing some goods as he went; an offending party, Onesimus, and Paul who is attempting to mediate between them. Onesimus needs to return to his master, but fears the sanctions that may be imposed upon him if he does so. Paul takes these sanctions upon himself: ‘But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay…..’ (Philemon 18-19). Whatever is wanting to propitiate Philemon’s anger against his servant and to effect reconciliation, Paul the mediator willingly agrees to provide. In the same way, the Lord Jesus has become a Mediator between men and God (1 Timothy 2:5).

Equally interesting is the concept of a Surety or Guarantor. I don't know whether this happens in the USA, but in Britain house prices are so ludicrously high that many young people cannot get a mortgage. So their parents become guarantors for them, promising that, if their child fails to make the payments, they will guarantee them. So if your son or daughter reneges on the mortgage, the bank will come after you for the money - all that is owing. Never mind if you have led a life of faultless financial rectitude up to that point, you are regarded as if you are the defaulter rather than your offspring, and you must pay what is owing down to the last penny.

So it is with the Lord Jesus; He has become our Surety, and we are utterly bankrupt before God. We have not led the life of perfect righteousness that the law demands (Deuteronomy 27:26; James 2:10), and there is nothing with which we can make restitution (Isaiah 64:6). But the Lord Jesus has done everything necessary to pay our debts and reconcile us to God. He has lived the life of perfect righteousness and obedience that we cannot live, and which qualifies Him as a perfect acceptable sacrifice (Leviticus 1:3 etc., etc.) and He has paid the penalty that we were due to pay in full instead of us. So now:

'When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see His face
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Saviour died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
Foe God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.'

 

May I ask, on what basis the Father frees us from the bonds of those powers? Christ has died; so what?
Also, just so that I know, do you follow Gustav Aulen's views on Christus Victor?

 

May I ask you to read posts #48 and #49? Christ is our Surety. Our debts, our sins, became His. He was 'made sin for us.' He was morally innocent, but judicially guilty.

 

He didn't become "sin for us", he became a "sin offering" . I'll check those posts out, thanks!

 

Also, for the record, there are elements of PSA that are true--i am not denying the parts that are True and Biblical. I'm denying the part that says "God poured out His wrath on His Son."

 

Maybe you are forgetting about 2 cor5:21.

 

It seems as if some are saying Jesus could have died in a nursing home as a consequence of sin and death. As long as he rose victorious.....

 

No, i'm not forgetting it--Paul's talking about Christ becoming a sin OFFERING--the NLT even expresses that. Paul's context (Ch. 3-5) is talking about the better Covenant--and then Paul finishes up with talking about being reconciled to the Father and that is through the Sin offering--Isaiah 53 says that as well--which Paul is probably referencing:

Isaiah 53:10 and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

I know you guys know better than to take ONE obscure passage and make a doctrine out of it. Christ didn't become sin, that is ludicrous. Christ became a sin offering, to reconcile us to God.

 

That's quite the caricature, brother.

 

Why do you think it is a caricature?
The penalty of the broken law and Gods wrath being poured out seems to not enter in to these other suggested ideas.
Men are under the law of God.
There is a penalty for breaking the law.
This idea of sin and death holding some random power over men, as if the fall has not taken place, is not found.
Unsaved people receive Gods wrath without mercy. They are cast into hell,eternally separated from life.