Penal Substitution

1. Penal Substitution Did Jesus Die in My Place?

2. What Is Penal Substitution? • Penal Substitution is that theory of the atonement which demands the payment of the penalty for sin by a substitute in order for God to remain just while justifying man. • In other words, God cannot justly forgive man unless the punishment for sin is suffered by a substitute for man.

3. What Is Penal Substitution? • And, according to the theory, Jesus is that substitute. • He died in your place and mine that you and I might be forgiven. • But if the theory were true, either Calvinism or Universalism would follow because salvation would then be unconditional.

4. What Is Penal Substitution? • Calvinism imagines that: • All humans are born totally depraved. • God unconditionally elected certain individuals to salvation. • Jesus diedas a substitute for the elect. • All the elect will persevere to the end.

5. What Is Penal Substitution? • Universalism holds that: • Jesus died as a substitute for all. • Therefore, all will be saved. • Both affirm that all those in whose place Jesus died will be saved because their sins were punished in the person of Jesus.

6. What Is Penal Substitution? • This theory is held by some who are neither Calvinists nor Universalists but these seem to be inconsistent. • Because, if Jesus was punished for the sins of anyone, then those for whose sins He was punished will not be punished. • Nor would they need forgiveness since their sins have already been punished. • Why would this not be the case?

7. The Role of Jesus’ Death • What one is willing to sacrifice for a person or cause is an indicator of the love he has for that person or cause. • The life of a living thing is in the blood thereof.

8. Leviticus 17:11 'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.'

9. The Role of Jesus’ Death • What one is willing to sacrifice for a person or cause is an indicator of the love he has for that person or cause. • The life of a living thing is in the blood thereof. • Therefore, to shed the blood of a living thing is to sacrifice the life thereof. • The sacrifice of Jesus’ life is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love and Christ’s love for mankind.

10. Romans 5:1-4 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

11. Romans 5:5-6 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

12. Romans 5:7-9 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

13. Romans 5:10-11 For if when 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. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

14. Romans 8:31-33 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

15. Romans 8:34-36 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

16. Romans 8:37-39 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

17. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

18. John 15:13 "As Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."

19. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

20. The Role of Jesus’ Death • If the Son of God had come into the world immediately after the sin of Adam and Eve, there is no way anyone could ever have appreciated the love of God. • And one could hardly reciprocate a love that he does not appreciate.

21. The Role of Jesus’ Death • For this reason, God incorporated the concept of sacrifice into religion so that, in the fullness of time, His love could be demonstrated—through the sacrifice of His Son—so that man could appreciate it and would be motivated to reciprocate it.

22. The Role of Jesus’ Death • The Old Testament was taken out of the way and the New Testament was dedicated by the pouring out of Christ’s blood and the sacrifice of His life.

23. Colossians 2:13-14 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

24. Hebrews 10:1-2 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

25. Hebrews 10:3-5 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,But a body You have prepared for Me.

26. Hebrews 10:6-7 "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sinYou had no pleasure.Then I said, 'Behold, I have come--In the volume of the book it is written of Me--To do Your will, O God.' "

27. Hebrews 10:8-10 Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

28. Hebrews 9:16-18 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

29. The Role of Jesus’ Death • The Old Testament was taken out of the way and the New Testament was dedicated by the pouring out of Christ’s blood and the sacrifice of His life. • The shedding of Jesus’ blood in His death on the cross also reveals “the goodness of God” that “leads … to repentance.”

30. Romans 2:3-4 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

31. The Role of Jesus’ Death • It also provides a focal point for man’s faith in God and in His Son.

32. Romans 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

33. Romans 3:25-26 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

34. The Role of Jesus’ Death • It also provides a focal point for man’s faith in God and in His Son. • Finally, only the shedding of the precious blood of Jesus the Lamb could demonstrate the enormity of sin.

35. Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

36. Romans 8:3-4 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

37. Therefore • Jesus did not die in my place or yours. • It was His place, and His alone, to die on that cross. • He died on the cross, not as punishment but as a sacrifice for sin.

38. John 1:29-31 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.' I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water."

39. John 1:32-34 And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."

40. John 1:35-36 Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

41. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

42. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!" For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

43. Therefore • Jesus did not die in my place or yours. • It was His place, and His alone, to die on that cross. • He died on the cross, not as punishment but as a sacrifice for sin. • He did this that we might realize both the enormity of sin and the magnitude of His love and His Father’s love for us and that we might be motivated to love them in return.