Q: I`m a college student studying religion at a Baptist college....My major is Religion and my concentration is Missions because I want to do mission work. Anyway, in my Doctrine class my teacher was talking about the various theories on atonement. He said he mostly agrees with the Christus Victor view of atonement. But I was alarmed when he said he does not accept the Penal Substitutionary Atonement view. He said he used to back in his younger days. But he described it like this (and he said he used this demonstration for kids Sunday school class) But he said its like this` I had a glass in one hand and I said this glass is us sinners....and then I had a hammer in the other hand....I sat the glass down and tried to swing the hammer down to strike and break the glass...but then all of the sudden I moved a pan in the way and the hammer struck the pan and the glass was not harmed` This is how my professor explained this theory to us...he said the hammer was the wrath of God and the pan was Jesus. This theory makes God look like he is struggling with anger issues and needs someone to take it out on...that someone being Jesus...and it also makes God look like he has multiple personalities or something. Please help because I`m so confused!
A: The subject of forgiveness is the most important issue to understand for any Christian. Without a complete understanding of this topic, your Christian life and any missionary work you do will be severely hampered. What I am about to say may add to your confusion, for which I apologize, but it needs to be said. Jesus Christ did not atone for the sins of the world. Atonement is a temporary covering of sins, but never accomplished complete forgiveness. To say that the death of Jesus Christ was an atonement is to lower His death to the level of that of a bull or goat. However, the Bible says something different. "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2 NASB)." Jesus Christ's death was a "propitiation" not an "atonement." This means God was completely satisfied for eternity because of the death of Jesus Christ. This is the Bible's view of forgiveness. I would advise you to measure any view of forgiveness, whether it be Christus Victor's or the Penal Substitution, by what the Bible has to say. This is the key to discerning any subject as it pertains to scripture.
"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14)." The Holy Spirit discerns the meaning of scripture for us. And unless one is born again of the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ they do not have the Holy Spirit indwelling them. If you are in Christ then you have the Holy Spirit within you desiring to teach you His truths. Therefore, I would suggest you do a study on forgiveness from the Bible's perspective before learning the opinions of others about the subject. For example, do a study on the phrase "once for all" and see what it reveals. You will see passages like 1 Peter 3:18. "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." I am confident that you will begin to see that the death of Jesus Christ was a one time act that satisfied God for all eternity. Atonement carries with it the inherent idea of an ongoing and never ending performance of sacrifices that are not even required or accepted by God as payment for sins. That is why the Bible says, ""Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:17-18)."" Once for all, have been forgiven and no longer any sacrifice for sins are terms more closely aligned with propitiation then atonement.
Your teachers example of the glass, hammer and pan to illustrate forgiveness does make you think of a God struggling with anger issues or a personality disorder. Does He love us or not? Are we forgiven or not? However, if you believe in atonement rather than propitiation that would make sense. Atonement, by definition, leads to the belief that our sins still separate us from God. Therefore, one has no choice, but to believe that God is constantly agitated and upset by our sins which means He is always wanting to swing that hammer at us. This leads to fearing our God and not experiencing His love and forgiveness. However, when you understand Jesus Christ's death as a propitiating sacrifice you realize that our sins no longer separate us from God. Therefore, the idea of God swinging His angry hammer at us, sinful glasses, doesn't hold water. "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)." If God is not counting our sins against us then why would He need to swing His hammer at us? He is not because we have been reconciled to Him through the death of Jesus Christ. God is no longer judging us on the basis of our sins, but on a new life in Christ.
God does not have anger issues and He is not suffering from a personality disorder. While it is true that we see a wrathful God as well as a patient and forgiving God within the pages of scripture, when taken as a whole we see that He is consistently a loving God. He gave us a perfect Creation to live in (Genesis 1:31), but we disobeyed Him and sin entered the world. He gave the world 120 years to repent, while Noah built the ark (Genesis 6:3), before He sent the Flood. Before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, God allowed Abraham to plead for the lives of the people (Genesis 18:16-33) before He destroyed the cities. Ultimately, He came to earth as Jesus Christ to die in our place as punishment for our sins. Why did God do this? "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)." A perfectly righteous and holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, He had to eliminate it in order for Him to have a relationship with us. That is the ultimate act of love! And it is the main reason why Jesus Christ's sacrifice is not an "atoning sacrifice," as some translations say, but a death that "turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins." When you eventually become a missionary you can do so knowing that you have been reconciled to God. This will free you to allow God to use you to "testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name (Acts 10:43)." In the words of the Apostle Paul, "Be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20)." Amen!
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