We often hear the words “justice and mercy” mentioned whenever Christians are talking about the character of God.  I don’t know of any true believer who would deny that justice and mercy are indeed two of the many attributes of the Lord revealed in Scripture.  But do the words “justice” and “mercy” go hand-in-hand? More often than not, “justice” infers “righteous judgment” while “mercy” infers “undeserved forgiveness.” Is there a point where the penalty of God’s justice can stay so that the forgiving balm of God’s mercy can be manifested?  I would submit to you that there is such a point and that it lies in the shadow of the cross.

Where Did the Idea of Satisfaction Theory Come From?

For Christians, the sacrificial death of Jesus on Golgotha and His subsequent resurrection are the two most significant, watershed events in all of human history.  Without them, man is doing little more than shuffling down an inevitable path toward the grave with its curse of eternal punishment and irrevocable banishment from the presence of the living God.

Read more about the deception of Substitution Atonment Here

Because the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ are the cornerstones of our faith, it surprised me to learn that many of the current beliefs concerning His atonement did not come out of the first-century church established by His own apostles. The primitive church saw Christ’s death as a ransom which redeemed man from the curse of the law, making reconciliation with God possible.  Instead, what is being taught almost universally by Christian-related denominations around the world, can be traced back to a teaching called “The Satisfaction Theory,” which sprang from the mind of a Benedictine monk named Anselem in the eleventh century.  In the 1500’s, John Calvin expanded on Anselem’s idea and developed a theory of his own which he called “Penal Substitution.”  It is Calvin’s Penal Substitution that has dominated our understanding of Christ’s atonement for nearly five hundred years.

 

From Anselem’s point of view, the primary purpose of Jesus’ death was to satisfy God’s standard of moral justice.  Anselem saw sin as man’s failure to give God His just due, thus dishonoring God Himself.  Therefore, the atonement served as a payment for man’s wrongdoings committed against God.  God must act to preserve His honor, and His divine code of justice will not allow Him to overlook sin, hence God’s just character demands that man’s sin must be paid for. The atoning sacrifice of Christ balanced the books and man’s debt was paid in full. Anselem reasoned that the atonement was a logical necessity, for without it, there is no possibility of satisfaction and therefore no possibility of forgiveness and salvation. Anselem drew many of his conclusions on the atonement from principals he observed in civil law, and he reasoned that the sin of mankind was a debt owed to God which Christ paid for in our stead.  However, Anselem failed to mention that the word “debt” was used 5 times in the New Testament (Matthew 6:12, Matthew 18:27, Matthew 18:30, Matthew 18:32, and Romans 4:4) and NEVER ONCE WAS IT USED in reference to Christ paying the debt of our sins.

The Developement of Penal Substitution

Calvin’s theory of Penal Substitution stands in sharp contrast to Anselem’s Satisfaction Theory in that Calvin believed God’s righteous justice demanded not only payment for sin, but punishment as well.  In Calvin’s model of the atonement, Christ took the place of sinners in the sight of God when He went to the cross.  All of the iniquity of mankind was imputed to Jesus, who became so blackened by sin that God could not bear the sight of Him.  God Himself poured out the full cup of His wrath on His only begotten Son Who absorbed it all as He hung on the tree.  Even though man stands in the dock guilty and without excuse, once he has been drawn by God’s irrestible grace to accept the free gift of salvation, penal justice can have no further claim against him, for Christ drained God’s bitter cup to the dregs, leaving not a single drop for sinful man.

I’m certain that if you were raised in a church environment, you have heard pastors use these same words and phrases to explain the atonement, often citing Galatians 3:13 as their proof-text (Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us…).  If we would have but looked into that verse, we would have seen that the word “curse” as used in the passage, has nothing to do with Christ absorbing God’s wrath. In the context of the verse, it means that Christ was reviled, denounced, decried, condemned, vilified, detested, loathed, hated, and abhorred; all very accurate words in describing how He was treated that day – by men and not by God.  What Calvin and our pastors failed to be mentioned is that there is NOT A SINGLE VERSE in Scripture that specifically states that Christ stood under the wrath of God.

 

Where Anselem drew his conclusions from civil law, Calvin drew his from penal law. Both men considered the atonement to be a judicial act; however, Anselem viewed it as the settlement of a debt, while Calvin viewed it as a barbaric execution.  It is clear that Anselem influenced Luther, Calvin, and the rest of the Protestant reformers with his approach based on philosophy and logic in lieu of strict adherence to Scripture.  It is Calvin’s view of Christ’s work on the cross that is the most popular and widely held today, especially in Reformed and evangelical circles.  However, we do well to remember that popularity and truth, like justice and mercy, do not necessarily walk hand-in-hand.

 

It is impossible to understand the significance of Calvary without properly understanding the words used by the New Testament writers to describe what happened there.  Where Anselem and Calvin used the words “debt, satisfaction, penal, and substitution,” to describe what occurred on that Passover afternoon nearly two thousand years ago, the Biblical text uses the words “atonement, propitiation, reconcile, redeem, and ransom.”  Be aware that when used within the context of Calvinism, these two groups of words are not compatible, and they do not mean the same thing. 

It may surprise you to learn that the words “penal” and “substitution” used by Calvin were never used in any passage of Scripture to describe Christ’s sacrificial death.  In fact, they do not appear in a single verse of Scripture anywhere in the KJV Bible.   However, substitutionary language has been slowly merged over the centuries with atonement language, resulting in a view held by nearly all church assemblies  today, that when referring to the cross,  the words “penal substitution,” are synonymous with the words “redemption,” “ransom,” “propitiation,” and “atonement,” when the fact of the matter is – they most certainly are not.

 

Part Two – Did Christ Pay the Penalty For Our Sins?

 

As believers, we can all agree that Christ died on the cross FOR you and me BECAUSE of our sins:

 

• Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

• 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10: For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

 

That being said, the fact remains that there is not a SINGLE VERSE in the entire Biblical text which specifically states that because of His atoning death, Christ PAID THE PENALTY FOR OUR SINS as Calvin reckoned.   The inconvenient truth for many believers today is that Christ DID NOT PAY THE PENALTY FOR OUR SINS on Cavalry.  To determine the truth or falsehood of that statement, you need simply ask yourself, “What is the penalty for sin?”  What is the fate of those who refuse to accept Jesus as Savior and die in rebellion against God? God’s word gives us the unambiguous answer:

 

• Matthew 10:28:  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

 

• Matthew 13:49-50: So it will be at the end of the age.  The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire.  There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

 

• Matthew 25:41 and 46: Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” …continuing in vs. 46, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

 

• Mark 9:43-44: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to Gehenna into the fire that shall never be quenched where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

 

• John 3:36: He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

 

• Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

• 2 Thessalonians 1:9: They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

 

• Hebrews 10:26-29: For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

 

• Hebrews 10:31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

• James 1:14-15: But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

The Scriptures Speak for Themselves

In some of the most chilling and ominous verses found anywhere in Scripture, these passages and a host of others describe the utter hopelessness and abject terror that awaits those souls who have rejected God’s gracious offer of mercy.  The penalty for sin is eternal death and everlasting destruction resulting in permanent separation from God; a separation that is irreversible and without hope of reprieve forever, “where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”   That is the penalty for sin according to God’s word.  Was Jesus subject to eternal death and destruction resulting in everlasting separation from God when He died on the tree?  If our answer is “No,” then we must accept the fact that the Lord did not pay the penalty that we deserve for our sins when He was crucified.  That penalty still hangs over those who refuse God’s free offer of salvation (Romans 2:5) as well as those who initially accept God’s offer but later return to the pollutions of the world and become entangled again in them (Hebrews 6:4-6, Hebrews 10:26-27, 2 Peter 2:20-22).  All who hold to the belief that Christ paid the penalty for their sins on Cavalry must be prepared to explain what it was that occurred on Resurrection Sunday, and to also explain how even now at this very second, the Lord sits at God’s right hand interceding for His saints (Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 3:22).

 

The stone rolled away.  Our Lord is alive forevermore and He is not separated from God.  For those of us who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and abide in Him to the end, our sins have been forgiven and we have been reconciled to our Creator.  Our Lord paid a price on Calvary, but He did not pay the penalty of our sins.

 

Part Three – How the Primitive Church Viewed the Atonement

 

Scripture tells us that Jesus paid a price on Calvary. (1 Corinthians 6:20 & 1 Corinthians 7:23) Indeed our Lord did pay a terrible price, of that there is no doubt.  The obvious question then becomes, “If Jesus did not pay the penalty for our sins on the cross, exactly what did He pay for and what did His death on Cavalry accomplish?”  God’s word is as clear as glass on this.  Christ’s death was an OFFERING FOR SIN.  He died as an ATONING SACRIFICE for my sins and yours.   His death was the PROPITIATION for our sins and MADE PEACE between God and man.  These are the words that were chosen by Christ’s own apostles to describe what He did on the cross.  Various passages throughout Scripture explain that rather than paying a debt, Christ ransomed, redeemed, and reconciled man back to his Creator.  (Isaiah 53:10, Hosea 13:14, Matthew 20:28. Romans 3:25, Romans 5:11, Romans 8:3, 2 Corinthians 5:18, Galatians 3:13, Ephesians 2:14-16, Ephesians 5:1-2, Colossians 1:19-22, Hebrews 9:13-14, Hebrews 10:11-12, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10) The words used by the Old and New Testament writers regarding Christ’s death have explicit and specific meanings that have nothing to do with “satisfaction,” or  “penal substitution.”

 

In the English language the word “atonement” originally conveyed the meaning of being “at one with.”  The word in Hebrew means “to cover, purge, or make reconciliation.” In the Greek, the word means “reconciliation, restoration to favor, and to bring back to a former state of harmony.” So it follows that the atoning sacrifice of Christ makes reconciliation with God possible…

 

• Romans 5:10: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

 

• Colossians 1:20: …and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

 

… for Jews and Gentiles alike:

 

• Ephesians 2:14-16: For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

Old Testimate Description of the Atonement

Another thought on atonement; the Hebrew word for atonement, when used in verb form, means “to cover with pitch.”  It was the word used by God in Genesis 6:14 when giving instructions to Noah on building the ark.  Noah was told to cover the ark, “inside and outside with pitch.”  Since the floodwaters were symbolic of God’s wrath that fell on mankind, and the ark was symbolic of God’s salvation, would not the pitch, which covered the ark and protected Noah and his family from God’s wrath, be symbolic of the atoning sacrifice of Christ and His blood that cleanses from sin and protects the faithful from God’s wrath in the future?

 

Scripture tells us that Christ was the propitiation for sin. One of the definitions of propitiation is, “the act of appeasing the wrath of God to avoid divine retribution.” Propitiation is a conciliatory offering that results in a RECONCILLIATION BY BLOOD.  The death of Christ is the basis for the forgiveness of sin.  As such, the atonement has nothing to do with settling a debt as Anselem proposed or paying a penalty as Calvin envisioned.  Jesus did not pay the penalty for man’s sin.  He paid a price in blood so that man’s sin could be FORGIVEN – NOT PAID.  Scripture confirms that unless blood is shed, sin remains unforgiven. (Hebrews 9:22) Both Anselem and Calvin portray God as an angry creditor demanding payment, thus completely eliminating the possibility of a loving, gracious God extending undeserved mercy and forgiveness to those who repent and forsake their sin.  Paying a debt does not mean the same thing as forgiving a debt.  When a debt is paid in full, the debtor is released from all obligations related to that debt.   When a debt is forgiven, the penalty of the debt is suspended, but as Jesus explained in the Parable of the Ungrateful Servant (Matthew 18:23-34), that penalty CAN BE REINSTATED.

 

In the parable, the ungrateful servant was forgiven of a debt of 10,000 talents.  In Biblical times, one shekel was enough to support a small family for a week.  There were 3,000 shekels in one talent.  So, we can see that a debt of 10,000 talents represented a huge amount of money, one that the ungrateful servant would, in all likelihood, never have been able to repay.  How incredibly gracious of the king to forgive so great a debt.  The ungrateful servant was owed 100 denarii by a fellow servant.  In Biblical times, one denarius was worth about 20 cents.  The ungrateful servant had his fellow servant thrown in jail over a debt of $20 when he had been forgiven of a debt worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The gracious king was so enraged when he learned of this, that he had the debt of the ungrateful servant reinstated and had him delivered to the torturers to PAY EVERY PENNY he owed.

 

Christ’s blood turns away God’s wrath, just as the blood of that first Passover lamb on the lintels and door posts turned away the angel of death on that dark and terrible night in Egypt so long ago.  For those who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, His blood cleanses us of all past sins, thus reconciling us to God.   In that pristine moment, we are as sinless and innocent in the sight of God as we were on the day we were born.  Because of our transformation, God is able to declare us righteous and extend to us His gift of everlasting life.  We maintain that gift by our faithful obedience to His word.  Nevertheless, our salvation is only possible because of the amazing grace and exceptional mercy of the Lord our God which cannot be paid for or earned but can only be given.  In the final analysis, it is God’s grace and mercy that Anselem and Calvin omitted from their views of the atonement.  In doing so, they strike a blow at the very heart of what the Lord accomplished on Calvary.  The penalty of sin was most assuredly not paid there, for all those who reject Christ’s sin offering will have the unenviable task of providing one for themselves someday:

The Penalty of Sin is Death

• John 3:36: He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

 

• Romans 2:5: But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds:  Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil…

 

• Hebrews 10:31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

 

Anselem and Calvin reasoned that because of their superior logic, they were better qualified to explain Christ’s death on Calvary than the men who actually walked with Jesus and were eyewitnesses to the risen Lord.  Both Anselem and Calvin refused to consider that when a debt is paid in full, mercy is no longer needed.  Paying the debt for our sins leaves no room for divine forgiveness or pardon.  With their great swelling words of emptiness, these men have attempted to divest almighty God of His divine capacity to grant undeserved mercy.   As a result, only God Himself knows how many souls have been deceived over the centuries.

Personally, I choose to reject the errant teachings of Anselem and Calvin.   I choose instead to humbly accept the gracious and undeserved mercy of the Lord our God, rather than face a purely righteous Judge in the future, one who will have been rejected by those who stand in the dock.  On that day, His verdict will be rendered based entirely on justice, and mercy will be absent from that verdict.

 

Part Four – Calvin’s Proof-Texts

 

Those who hold to Calvin’s theory of Penal Substitution point to certain passages of Scripture as proof-texts for support.  In considering them, we must ask ourselves whether or not these proof-texts harmonize with the rest of the Biblical record, as well as harmonizing with the character and nature of the Lord our God as revealed in Scripture.  One of the most often referenced proof-texts is a well-known passage from Isaiah:

 

• Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, and 10-11: Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…continuing in verse 8…For the transgressions of My people He was stricken… continuing in verse 10… Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.  When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.  He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied.  By His knowledge, My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

 

This passage plainly states that Christ died because of the sins of mankind.  The word “borne” in Isaiah 53:1 is taken from the Hebrew word “nasa” and means to lift, to bear, or to carry.  Without doubt, the iniquity of us all was laid upon Jesus, who obediently carried His onerous load to the cross. That being said, the fact remains that there is not a single verse of Scripture that unequivocally states that Jesus Christ stood under the wrath of God.

Calvin assumed that Christ stood under God’s wrath, basing his assumption on Isaiah 53:10: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.”

The Character of God

Does the thought of God taking pleasure in the suffering and death of His Son, align with the character and attributes of God described throughout the Old and New Testaments?  Scripture declares that the Lord does not take pleasure in the death of anyone, even those who live in outright rebellion against Him:

 

• Ezekiel 18:31-32: “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord.  “Therefore, turn and live!”

 

• Ezekiel 33:11: Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord God, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live…”

 

If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, how could anyone imagine that He would take pleasure in the suffering and death of His own sinless, blameless, and obedient Son.   Calvin argued that God takes pleasure in saving some men, while taking equal pleasure in condemning others:

 

“We say then that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was His pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was His pleasure to doom to destruction.”  (John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion, first published in 1536, Volume 3:21: 6-7)

 

That passage goes on to say that God’s decision to save is made “without respect to human worth.” Do not Calvin’s own words seem horribly out of character for the God who desires that none should perish but that all should come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9) Scripture is filled with examples of the innocent suffering for the guilty.  However, there is not a single example anywhere in Scripture of God PUNISHING AN INNOCENT HUMAN BEING for the guilty.  Were that to have happened on the cross, would it not have been the ultimate example of divine injustice rather than what it actually was – the personification of God’s love in action?

 

How many times will scoffers ask, “How can Christians possibly love a God Who would torture and murder His own Son?”  That is a legitimate question which Calvin’s skewed theory of Penal Substitution cannot answer.  The question Christians should be asking the scoffers is, “How can you possibly love a god who would torture and murder a blameless and innocent Man?”  For the god the scoffers serve is the god of this world, who has been a murderer and a liar from the beginning:

 

• John 8:44: You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

 

It was not Jehovah God but rather wicked men, driven by Satan himself, who seized, tortured, and murdered the Son of living God.

 

• Acts 2:22-23: Men of Israel, hear these words;  Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know – Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death…

 

Did the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ please God – of course not! What pleased the God was seeing His plan of redemption and ransom fulfilled and accomplished.  It pleased God that because Christ bore the iniquities of mankind, many would be justified as the passage in Isaiah goes on to explain.  Jesus made it transparently clear that the sacrifice of His life was perfectly voluntary and completely self-determined:

 

• John 10:17-18: Therefore, My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.  This command I have received from My Father.

 

In this passage Christ declared that it was His own will to lay down His own life.  Since none but God can raise the dead to life, Christ’s words, “I have power to take it again,” are a self-declaration of His own divinity.  During His ministry, Jesus was absolutely consumed with His mission of redemption as Luke records:

 

• Luke 12:49-51: I came to send fire on the earth, and HOW I WISH IT WERE ALREADY KINDLED.  But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and HOW DISTRESSED I AM till it is accomplished!  Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth?  I tell you, not at all, but rather division.

 

Although we’ve heard the mantra many times that, “Christ paid the full penalty of man’s sin by absorbing the full wrath of God on Calvary,” that statement is simply not supported by the Biblical text.  Did God permit the Lord Jesus Christ to be bruised and put to grief in order to accomplish His plan of salvation – YES.  Did God Himself torture and put to death His only begotten Son – NO.  The blueprint for God’s plan of salvation, which was co-authored by Christ, was set in place before the world was ever created:

 

• 1 Peter 1:18-20: …knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you…

 

• Revelation 13:8: All who dwell on the earth will worship him (Anti-Christ), whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Substitution is Not Taught in Scripture.  The Apostalic Teaching Is Ransom

Jesus did not take my place on the cross nor did He take your place on the cross.  Jesus took His own foreordained place on the cross.  His primary mission in coming to earth was to die on that cross in order to make salvation possible. A sacrifice was required because of man’s sin, Jesus was the only one qualified to make it, and man’s reconciliation to God depended on it.  We each have our own crosses to bear, and we take our places on our crosses the day we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  We then pick up those crosses and carry them for the rest of our lives.  Make no mistake about it; God’s offer of salvation is an invitation to a crucifixion – our own.

Read more about the deception of Substitution Atonement here

Two other important proof-texts for those who hold to Calvin’s doctrine of Penal Substitution are found in Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians and in the first epistle of the apostle Peter:

 

• 2 Corinthians 5:21: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

• 1 Peter 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 we are healed.

 

There is significant textural evidence which demonstrates that 2 Corinthians 5:21 should have been rendered, “For He made Him Who knew no sin, a SIN OFFERING for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” More compelling than the textual evidence which the translators ignored, is the Scriptural evidence that refutes the very idea of a Redeemer blackened by the sin of man.

 

God instructed Moses that the Passover lamb MUST BE without blemish. (Exodus 12:5) Christ was referred to directly by Paul as being our “Passover Lamb.”  (1 Corinthians 5:7) The author of Hebrews and the apostle Peter both confirmed that our Lord died without blemish or spot.  (Hebrews 9:14 and 1 Peter 1:18-19)  If Christ had become sin on the cross, His death would have been for nothing, for unless He was offered “without blemish and without spot,” according to Scripture, it would have been impossible for God to accept His sacrifice. Scripture plainly confirms that Christ was our sin offering and rejects the idea of a “sinful Savior.”

 

Penal Substitution adherents use 1 Peter 2:24 in tandem with 2 Corinthians 5:21 to attempt to show that Christ’s body became blackened with sin.  One famous Word-Of-Faith evangelist teaches that Christ became the worst reprobate sinner in world history as He hung on the cross.

To support the fallacy that Christ became sin on Calvary, these people point to Peter’s phrase, “He bore our sins in His body on the tree” as if sin were something that could actually inserted into the Lord’s living flesh.  They ignore the fact that Peter was quoting directly from Isaiah 53 which states, “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”  As mentioned previously, the Hebrew word translated “borne” in Isaiah 53:4 means to lift or carry.  The Greek word translated “bore” in 1 Peter 2:24 means “to bear, to carry, to bring up, to offer.”

Peter’s use of the words, “in His body” can also be translated, “with His body.” (Strong’s G1722) So we can see that Peter was in complete agreement with Isaiah.  With His body (not in His body) Christ carried the sins of mankind to the cross.

 

Calvin’s interpretation of these passages seems to be terribly out of tune with the harmony of the complete Scriptural record.  His “Penal Substitution Theory,” simply put, is little more than fertilizer for his tulip.  The two legs that support Calvin’s theory on the atonement are the imputation of man’s sin to Christ and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to man.   These are but two of the many streams of unsound doctrine that flow out of Calvin’s teachings.

Did Jesus Take on God’s Wrath for Our Sins?

In an article entitled “Problems With The Substitution Theory,” Brent Kercheville wrote,  “If Christ’s death on the cross removed God’s wrath against sin, satisfied divine justice, paid all our debt in our place, took our punishment for sin upon Himself, became guilty with our guilt, and was cursed in our stead, then Jesus has already done everything for us. How can we be charged with anything if Jesus has already done it all? I cannot be held accountable to God for what I have done because my substitute took that upon himself and removed all responsibility from me!

 

That is exactly what Charles H. Spurgeon taught in a sermon entitled “Sin-Bearer.” Spurgeon said, ‘We are henceforth legally dead to the punishment of sin. If I were condemned to die for an offense, and some other died in my stead, then I died in him who died for me. The law could not a second time lay its charge against me, and bring me again before the judge, and condemn me, and lead me out to die.’

 

In another of Spurgeon’s sermons entitled “Justification by Faith,” he said, ‘This is the language of God, put into human words, ‘I can deal with you upon terms of mercy through the merits of my dear Son.’ This is the way in which the gospel comes to you, then. If you believe in Jesus, that is to say, if you trust him, all the merits of Jesus are your merits and are imputed to you: all the sufferings of Jesus are your sufferings. Every one of His merits is imputed to you. You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were you—He in your stead, you in His stead. Substitution!’

 

Penal Substitution declares that all of my sins, past, present, and future, before I was born, were literally transferred to Jesus and taken away when He died on the cross. All the punishment for sin that God has determined for sinners was transferred to Jesus at the time He was on the cross. All of my guilt was transferred to Jesus when He was on the cross. Jesus paid every debt I owe to God while He was on the cross. Consequently, I am not accountable for my sins, I owe God nothing, and thus I cannot be punished because my substitute stood in my place nearly two thousand years ago.”  (End of quote)

 

Imagine, all this plus the additional benefit of guaranteed salvation that can never be lost. Calvinism virtually removes any and all human response from the process of salvation, something that God’s word definitely DOES NOT DO.  What is fascinating is that so many who reject Calvinism nevertheless espouse Penal Substitution, never realizing that two are joined at the hip and cannot be dissevered. To accept Penal Substitution demands the acceptance of Calvin’s teachings.

 

All of these various streams of Calvin’s unsound doctrine drain into the same cesspool of vain, man-made philosophy and empty deceit.  It is a cesspool into which deceived men and women, blinded by baseless confidence and false assurances, have immersed themselves completely; a quagmire of eternal insecurity which will eventually empty into the lake of fire.  Do not allow yourself to be carried along in its wicked flow toward a rendezvous with the second death in that fiery lake.    For you should have no illusions or doubts – that is where the streams of Calvin’s false doctrine will end one day, as surely as our God lives.

 

Written by David Clifton