Featured Biblical Penal Substitution

Without agreeing with you, may I ask what you think it means that the Lord Jesus was made a sin offering?

 

I know this isn't directed to me, but i'd like to offer what Hebrews speaks concerning this, particularly Hebrews 10.

Especially Hebrews 10:8-10

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

Yes, His sustutionary death in our stead!

 

When Jesus became as one of us, did he have the same nature we have as sinners? And hw is wrath appeased by a Holy God in he has no one to direct that upon in judgement against sins?

 

I am spending some of my time looking at the various offerings of Leviticus 1-5. I have by no means finished my studies yet; when I do so I may post a new thread, but I will just draw attention to some of the particularities of the sin offering and the trespass offering.
I take it that we may agree that all five offerings speak of the Lord Jesus Christ and that each one presents a different aspect of His work on the cross. Almost the first thing I have noticed is that the first three offerings are described as 'a sweet aroma to the LORD' (Leviticus 1:17; 2:9; 3:5). But when we come to the sin and trespass offerings, no such description is given. Christ as a sin offering is not a sweet aroma to the LORD.

And where the peace offering could be offered to the Lord as food (Leviticus 3:11), the sin offering was taken outside of the camp and burned (Leviticus 4:12, 21). 'For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate' (Hebrews 13:11-12). God is of purer eyes than to behold evil. Therefore the sin offering was taken outside the camp where God dwelt in the Tabernacle.

More later as I continue my studies.

 

We could never be a sin offering--therefore He wasn't a sin offering in our stead, He was a sin offering for our benefit. Let me know if i need to clarify that for you.

 

He died in my place, receiving in and on Him what I was due for being a sinner!

 

With respect, you are the one talking about Christ being a sin offering. I don't know where we go to define the term without going to .........the sin offering. Otherwise it seems to me that we're just making it up as we go along.

Really?? 'Indeed, Christ our passover is sacrificed for us' (1 Corinthians 5:7)

Indeed.

 

Bummed that I am just seeing this discussion now. A few things I would point out based on what I am seeing in the discussion:

The Sacrificial system - the Old Testament sacrificial system does not present penal substitution for several reasons. Notice first that it is always the sinner himself, not a representative of the justice system, that slays the sacrifice, just as it is sinners that slay Jesus on the cross. In sacrifices that deal with sin, the shed blood of the innocent sacrifice purifies the sinner from his corruption, thus saving him from suffering wrath in order to eliminate his corruption. In other words, when someone sins, they become a source of corruption and must be eliminated through exile or execution, OR they must be purified from corruption by the shed blood of the unblemished sacrifice. The shed blood of the innocent sacrifice somehow functions as a purifying agent, reversing or cleansing corruption, which is why all the stuff in the temple is sprinkled with blood. So yes, the sacrifice does die in order to avert wrath from the sinner/offerer, but the sacrifice does not suffer the wrath as a substitute. Propitiation just means wrath aversion, it does not mean "wrath displacement" as penal substitution would have it.

Passover - Notice that the function of the Passover lamb is not to suffer the wrath of God, but to avert the wrath of God. If it were penal substitution, then the Israelites should tie up the lamb outside the house for the night so that the angel of death would kill the lamb instead of the firstborn of the household, but that is not what happens. Keep in mind, as Exodus 4:22 says, the reason the firstborn of Egypt were under judgment that night was that God's firstborn son, Israel, was "put to death" by the Egyptians (put in bondage to slavery and had their children killed). The Passover lamb marked the Israelites as those innocents who had suffered bloodshed at the hands of the Egyptians. The angel of death passes over, because those with the blood on their homes are those to be avenged, not those who deserve vengeance. For an Israelite not to put blood on their home was to say that they sided with the oppressor, not with the oppressed.

Romans 3:25 - The righteousness of God demonstrated here is His faithfulness to His promise to bless all nations through Israel (Genesis 12:3). The "propitiation" achieved is that through Jesus' death and resurrection, God is bringing about the end of exile (to sin and death) both for Israel and for all of humanity. God's "forbearance in passing over the sins previously committed" is not His withholding punishment from sin. That is an impossible reading of the text, given Israel's history of being under the foot of foreign empires for 500 years, as well as texts such as Isaiah 51:17 and Daniel 9:11 that say Israel has "drained the cup of God's wrath to the dregs" and "the curse along with the oath have been poured out on us." Rather, God's forbearance refers to His seeming delay in allowing Israel's own wickedness to be an obstacle to His blessing going forth to the nations. This is ended when the perfectly obedient Jesus enters into Israel (and humanity's) exile on the cross, to pull them out of it by His resurrection.

 

Pretty sure if it takes multiple threads for JonC to try explain his theory...the issue here is one of straining gnats.
John, it's highly doubtful that God's atonement for sinners is not nearly as complicated and strained as these threads have become.
Suffice it for us to state that Jesus has made us holy by His atoning sacrifice for our sins.

 

I still do not understand how non PST atonement views deal with the wrath of God?

 

God comes in judgement; the Israelites sacrifice a lamb and daub its blood on the doorposts, and the judgement passes over them. The clue is in the name really. See Micah 7:18. The lamb, of course, only served for one Israelite household. Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

In the face of the iniquity of Israel, God later declares, 'I will not pass by [or 'over'] them anymore' (Amos 7:8).