Saturday, March 15, 2008

Penal-Substitution

Just gave a lecture/discussion on the importance of Penal-Substitutionary Atonement today to a few of the men of our church . For me this was just an awesome study and reflection on the work of Christ. In my study I was drawn to think Christologically about the first Passover in Exodus 12. In the first Passover there were 2 salvations

1. Pharaoh and Egypt
2. God's wrath for idolatry

Verse 12 of Exodus 12 is so important. God states that he would have dominion over the god's of Egypt, gods the Israelites no doubt worshipped alongside the Egyptians. It seems that God's judgment in killing the firstborn was his judgment on both Egypt's and Israel’s idolatry. In order to be saved from God's righteous wrath a substitute had to be provided. This is a divine picture to help us understand the perfect substitute we have in Christ. John the Baptist no doubt understood this when he exclaimed "behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Why do we object to Penal-Substitutionary Atonement? It is a hard pill for us to swallow. The only way we could have a reconciled relationship to God was for God to kill his own Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. On the cross the righteous wrath and anger of God was poured out on Christ for our sin and rebellion against God. Perhaps some of us are uncomfortable with a God who is so perfectly just that he would kill his own Son in order to make sure that no sin goes unpunished.

“But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”

1 comment:

John Nicely said...

Exodus 11 is also an amazing chapter in terms of its ties to the New Testament, in showing both the lordship and sovereignty of Christ over all things, as well as the implications for that. One of the pastors at my dad's church just preached on it, and was unfortunately unable to draw out all of these things because of the theological leanings of the church... But both covenant and king are so evident in the whole deal that goes on there.