Christians affirm that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God forgives sinful human beings and restores them to right relationship with himself. However, when asked to explain exactly how this atonement occurred, they have offered a variety of theories. A gracEmail subscriber requests more detail concerning these different explanations. * * * The penal substitution explanation of Jesus' atonement rests on such scripture passages as Isaiah 53:4-6, Romans 3:23-26; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 and 1 Peter 2:24, plus the Old Testament sacrificial system which Jesus fulfilled in … [Read more...]

Christians affirm that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God forgives sinful human beings and restores them to right relationship with himself. However, when asked to explain exactly how this atonement occurred, they have offered a variety of theories. A gracEmail subscriber requests more detail concerning these different explanations. * * * Moral influence. This view was made popular by Peter Abelard, a French philosopher/theologian who offered it as an alternative to the satisfaction theory proposed by his older contemporary, Anselm of Canterbury, and to the … [Read more...]

Christians affirm that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God forgives sinful human beings and restores them to right relationship with himself. However, when asked to explain exactly how this atonement occurred, they have offered a variety of theories. A gracEmail subscriber requests more detail concerning these different explanations. * * * New Testament writers do not try to explain the inner workings of God's accomplishments in Jesus. Instead, they tell the story of Jesus and call attention to the blessings, obligations and warnings that flow from it. Along the … [Read more...]

A gracEmail subscriber writes: "I recently came across some of C. S. Lewis’ comments concerning his denial of the 'penal, substitutionary' view of atonement. I have never heard atonement explained in any other way. This led me to research a former and greatly respected professor who also basically denies the 'penal substitutionary' view. Is this just a minor disagreement or does it involve an essential truth of the Christian faith?" * * * Christians everywhere proclaim that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the holy God forgives sinful human beings and restores them to … [Read more...]

A gracEmail subscriber in Korea asks, "How could God, who abhors human sacrifice, sacrifice his own Son? How could the murder of an innocent man (Jesus) be necessary to bring about our forgiveness by God?" * * * When speaking concerning divine mysteries such as the Atonement, we must speak hesitantly and with great reverence. However, we may be sure that God always behaves consistently with his own character. He would not condemn the slaughter of innocents with one breath, only to turn and do the very thing he had condemned. Remembering two truths here will help us avoid needless … [Read more...]

A gracEmail subscriber has heard someone say that if God required his sinless Son to die in order to forgive our sins that would be both unjust and "cosmic child abuse." What does Scripture say about this? * * * The atonement made by Jesus Christ involves holy mystery. We should therefore speak about it with both reverence and humility. When we have said all that the Bible tells us on the subject we will still have some unanswered questions. This is a controversial topic and there are extreme statements on both sides. It is an unbiblical extreme, for example, to deny that Jesus' death … [Read more...]

A gracEmail subscriber writes: "How do you view the issue of man's choice or God's decree with regard to our salvation? Is limited atonement true or did Christ die for all?" * * * The biblical point is not "limited" atonement, which sounds like God intentionally excluded some people from salvation. It is rather "particular" or actual atonement, which means that Jesus actually saved real people with names and faces. He did not merely make salvation theoretically possible without really saving anyone. By his faithful doing and dying, Jesus actually saved everyone who will finally be saved. … [Read more...]

A West Texas reader responds to my comment that God forgives repentant people who do not conform precisely to his commands. "Is that really just?" he asked. * * * Yours is a most perceptive question which takes us to the very heart of the gospel. For without considering what God has done in Jesus Christ, the answer must be an emphatic "No!" We do not deserve God's kindness and we never will. No one who is finally saved will receive "justice" based on his or her own performance. Yet the "good news" of the gospel is that God gives us sinners what we do not deserve. He treats us in a way that … [Read more...]

A gracEmail subscriber writes: "You said that Jesus was without sin. But didn't he become a sinner by taking on our sins? Isn't this why he was forsaken by God on the cross?" * * * Indeed, Jesus was the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He "bore our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). God made him "who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf" (2 Cor. 5:21). He "became a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). It is as if the cross of Jesus was a cosmic lightning rod planted squarely in the middle of the universal storm of divine judgment, a judgment that built in … [Read more...]

A gracEmail reader asks, "Was the cross necessary in order for God to forgive our sins? Did Jesus have to die in order for God to love us sinners?" Part 1 Jesus considered it imperative that he be murdered (Matt. 16:21) by crucifixion (Luke 24:7) and that he be "counted with the transgressors" (Luke 22:37). These things were "necessary" because the Father's own love and holiness made it so, not because of something external to God himself which God was bound to obey. Nor were these things imposed on an unwilling Jesus by a determined Father, for Jesus "gave himself" (Gal. 2:20). Jesus' … [Read more...]