The Beauty of Penal Substitution
“See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?” so writes the great hymn-writer, theologian, and philosopher Isaac Watts. But think about it for a moment, how strange is the phrase, “or thorns compose so rich a crown?” Thorns from a bush doesn’t really demonstrate an exuberant amount of wealth, nor does it display any sort of glory, but shame.
Another hymn, often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (whom Martin Luther said is the only Medieval theologian worth reading) says, “O sacred Head, no wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown! O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine! Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.” He continues, “What thou, my Lord hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve thy place. Look on me with thy favor, and grant to me thy grace.” The richness of the crown of thorns as Bernard says, is that the grief, shame, and gore is that Christ suffered for sinners, and it was our transgression that was displayed in his deadly pain.
Thus the conclusion that the other hymn-writer Augustus Toplady also concludes, “nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling; naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to the for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.” If you haven’t noticed a theme in these three hymns, and many more hymns throughout the ages, is that they recognize something that is central to the Christian faith, that is, the work of Christ at the Cross, bearing our sin and shame. It was at the Cross that Christ took the punishment in our place, and as we know also that it was at the resurrection that Christ gave us His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21; Romans 4:25).
One of the ideas I hear creeping forward is this idea of “sin” only being a separation from God “in your mind.” In essence, what they are saying is, that the only sin that exists is that you are separated from God, and once you get over that, sin is done away with. This sounds appealing to those who are not familiar with the Christian faith nor God’s word, however, if you’re familiar with the Law of God (as it pertains to what is required of lawbreakers) then you know that not only is this nonsense, but it is absolute heresy. You would know that God’s law requires that those who break His law are to be cursed, and all people are lawbreakers, thus all people are to be cursed. And this cursing of God upon law-breakers (all of humanity) is the curse of death, not just physical death, but a death that causes one to be under the eternal wrath of God. So when Christ became the “Man of Sorrows...bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood...He was lifted up to die,” that would have all been in vain if sin were simply an issue of the mind. However even a cursory reading of Romans 7 shows us that there is something else at work within his flesh that would nullify this heresy as well.
When discussing Christianity with anyone, even non-Christians, they often say “it’s about Jesus dying for sinners,” or some derivative of that thought. And while they are right, what does this mean? How is it that Jesus can die for sinners? We only need to turn to Romans 8 for our answer. After the beautiful promise of verse 1, that all those in Christ have no more condemnation, and they can rest in that as a “now” reality, not a future reality. However verse 3 says that Christ was sent by God in the “likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” This was not because He had any sin of His own, but in order to do what we could not. (see Romans 7:7-23) Christ was able to fulfill the righteousness requirements of the Law in His flesh (whereas we could not in our flesh), and finally causing us to now be able to fulfill the law as we walk by the Spirit.
Paul says that all Christians have the Spirit (verse 9) and that this is a battle that we must fight to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh (vrs 10, and Galatians 5:16-26), and then Paul gives the qualifications of the Spirit to be able to fulfill this within us (vrs 11). As we move through Romans 8, we see what still awaits believers. This is because of the work of Christ, and the ongoing work of the Spirit, within all of Creation in verses 12-29. After speaking about the power of God to restore all creation, Paul says, “if God is for us, who can be against us?” This same God who is able and willing to restore all of creation is for you, and there is no legitimate opposition to those who can be against you.
And we come to the climactic point, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” The Father gave up the Son, for us. This doesn’t speak about our worth, as some people try to twist, rather, this speaks about the nature of how the Son is glorified, through conquering death by death. Christ killed death. This is a strange statement, in a sense, Christ gave death a taste of itself. But note the little phrase, “for us all,” we should not miss this. It is in this phrase that a host of theological discourse is contained. Christ was given up “for us all.”
The purpose of Christ’s death was “for us,” not cosmic child abuse as some popular teachers have asserted, but the purpose of Christ’s death was substitutionary. It was not “for him,” or “for his sins,” but it was “for us,” and “for our sins.” That is why Christ’s being given up to death for us is paired with the next statement, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died…” (vrs 33-34a). The substitutionary nature of Christ’s death (for us) is paired with our being justified and a sort of condemnation, and thus we derive the term “penal.” It is this chapter that defines so clearly what has become known as the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. Christ was condemned for us, therefore we no longer have condemnation, so we are justified by God and no one can bring any charge against us.
And while this is a beautiful reality, we must go further. As you may have noticed, I finished with vrs 34a, but verse 34 and the rest of the chapter has more to say concerning our salvation and Christ’s work. “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Very often we focus on the work of the Cross and the death of Christ, and while this certainly is a pinnacle of the Christian faith, we must not see it as the totality of the Christian faith. Christ did not merely die, He rose again. And Christ did not merely rise again as extraordinary as that is, but He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father in a place of power and glory.
And finally, He did not just ascend to heaven to sit and hang out, but He rules and reigns in power and does His priestly work as well, interceding for us as our High Priest-King, bringing us before the Father. This means that Christ Himself is praying for each individual believer (and those elected to believe...more on that in another article) and this should encourage us to be bold in our faith and in the world as a prophetic witness to the world about Christ. As Robert Murray M’Cheyne put it, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
The truth of Romans 8 leads us to understand salvation in a far grander scale than we often think or are taught. While it is true that you individually are saved from God’s wrath eternally, and are saved from the dominion of sin in this life, the purpose of Romans 8 is to place your individual salvation as a specific instance in the whole story of God’s redemption of all of Creation. So the next time you look at any portion of creation (including your own failing body) think, “this will one day be restored by God when Christ returns.” But for now, we give thanks, we live for Christ. As the hymn originally cited says, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
