What Jesus accomplished when he died for our sins is an important question, and it has long been a question wrestled with by theologians. Penal substitutionary atonement is a popular theory used to explain what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, especially in more recent history. Let’s examine this theory by comparing the two major components of this theory with what scripture says about Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins.
Some Important Groundwork -
It will greatly help us in understanding what Christ accomplished when dying for our sins if we first understand why we sin, and what God said would be the consequence of Adam’s sin.
Genesis 2:17: “But from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat from it; for in the day you eat from it, to die you shall be dying.” “To die you shall be dying” means that once Adam disobeyed God, he would begin to die and this would eventuate in his death. Adam would become mortal, as well as Eve and all of their progeny (all humanity). Paul gives us some helpful clarification on this in Rom 5:12: “Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and thus death passed through into all mankind, on which all sinned —“ This is a key passage for us in understanding why we sin (miss the mark); through Adam’s sin he became mortal and passed that mortality on to the rest of humanity. Because of this inherent mortality in all of humanity, we cannot help but sin. We sin because we are dying, not because of a supposed “sin nature”. The scriptures further support this truth: 1Cor 15:56a: “Now the sting of Death is sin...” Note, the scriptural truth is not that the sting of sin is death, but the other way around. This also gives us more insight into why “death” is our greatest enemy: 1Cor 15:26: “The last enemy is being abolished: death.”
Being humans born under Adam we inherit death, and sinning is a part of the package. Note that God did not tell Adam that the consequence of his disobedience would be eternal conscious torment, but death. It is also important that we understand what death really is. Death is not life somewhere else, or life as a spirit, or any other false explanation that denies death’s reality. The truth is the dead know nothing (Eccl. 9:5), the sensations of the dead have ceased, as they have ceased to be a living soul when their spirit returned to God and their body returns to the soil (Gen. 2:7). Scripture and the Lord Jesus liken the state of the dead to those that are asleep: John 11:11,14: “He said these things, and after this He is saying to them, “Lazarus, our friend, has found repose, but I am going that I should be awakening him out of sleep.” ... Jesus, then, said to them with boldness then, “Lazarus died.” Scripture never describes the state of the dead as a state of awareness, or likens it to “being awake”.
This true death is what Christ Jesus has come to save us from, and sin will be done away with as death is, as they are a package deal. We become worthy of death as mortals who cannot help but sin, but we must keep in mind the scriptural truth that we sin because we are first dying/mortal. I must add in here, that God had purposed and intended that Adam eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Rom 11:32: "For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all." God’s plan required that all humanity become sinners, so He could reveal His love to and for all.
Penal Substitution -
The definition of penal is “of, relating to or involving punishment”, and substitution means “the act of putting one thing or person in the place of another”. The idea proposed by this theory is that God punished Christ for our sins instead of us (in place of us) when Christ suffered and died on the cross.
Do we have a passage of scripture that states that God punished Jesus on the cross in our place? I contend that there is not. There are many passages that describe Jesus dying for our sakes and dying on behalf of sinners. We know that Christ was made a sin offering for our sakes: 2Cor 5:21: "For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our sakes that we may be becoming God's righteousness in Him." Christ dying for us and being made a sin offering for our sakes is very different than Him being punished instead of us. In fact, it was a sin (a missing of the mark) from the relative point of view that Christ was sacrificed on the cross as one who had never sinned (or missed the mark) himself. Christ was not deserving of death, but was obedient unto death (Phil 2:8). From the absolute point of view, Christ’s sacrifice was not a sin. His sacrifice was perfectly planned by the Father as the antidote for sin and death.
Punishment was not the driving factor in God sending Jesus, His Son, to die for our sins. I would say that punishment was not a factor at all. Love is the driving factor. The love of God for sinners in providing a sin offering and the love of Christ in giving Himself up as a ransom for all. To quote James Coram: “What Divine love readily provides, Divine righteousness readily accepts.” The lambkin (Christ) was slain from the disruption of the world in the mind of God (Rev. 13:8). From the moment sin entered God’s universe (by His own intention) at the disruption, God had in His mind His plan through which He would reconcile all back to himself, and that plan is through the blood of Christ: Col 1:20 "and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens."
God informs us that love was his motivation in sending Jesus to die for our sakes, not punishment: Rom 5:6-8 "For Christ, while we are still infirm, still in accord with the era, for the sake of the irreverent, died. For hardly for the sake of a just man will anyone be dying: for, for the sake of a good man, perhaps someone may even be daring to die, yet God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes."
If the theory of penal substitution was scriptural, it would require this passage to read something like this: “because of God’s great anger toward His creation that has sinned, an anger that must be satisfied through punishment, God sent Jesus to be punished instead of the sinner.” I pray that the reader can see how wildly different the thought is between what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5 above and what I wrote.
God didn’t send Jesus to be punished instead of us, He sent Jesus to die for sin for our sakes, or on our behalf, and He did this out of love. God sacrificed His only Son, who was sinless and not at all deserving of death, to die for our sins and redeem/ransom us from death. To punish Christ in any way would be unrighteous, as Christ was sinless. God is always well pleased with His Son. “God’s indignation educates, but it does not save. It is not the goal and does not achieve the goal” -Dean Hough
We are included in Christ’s obedience unto death, like we were included in Adam’s disobedience. This is beautifully summed up by Paul in 1Cor 15:21-22: "For since, in fact, through a man came death, through a Man, also, comes the resurrection of the dead. For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified." Christ is called the “last Adam” in this same chapter, reinforcing the fact we are included in Christ as we were included in Adam: 1Cor 15:45: "If there is a soulish body, there is a spiritual also. Thus it is written also, The first man, Adam, "became a living soul:" the last Adam a vivifying Spirit." After Paul tells us that we sin because we inherit death through Adam in Romans 5, he again emphasizes the fact all are included in Christ’s sacrifice and that Christ’s sacrifice and the grace extended through it goes far and beyond what Adam’s disobedience brought in: Rom 5:16,18-19 "And not as through one act of sinning is the gratuity. For, indeed, the judgment is out of one into condemnation, yet the grace is out of many offenses into a just award. ... Consequently, then, as it was through one offense for all mankind for condemnation, thus also it is through one just award for all mankind for life's justifying. For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just."
God’s righteousness (His justice) is not revealed in “punishment for sin”. What does the scripture say reveals God’s righteousness? Rom 1:16-17: "For not ashamed am I of the evangel, for it is God's power for salvation to everyone who is believing -- to the Jew first, and to the Greek as well. For in it God's righteousness is being revealed, out of faith for faith, according as it is written: "Now the just one by faith shall be living.""
God’s righteousness is revealed in the evangel, and through the evangel God shares how He will make everything right. Paul again tells us that this good news (the evangel or gospel) manifests God’s righteousness, and God’s righteousness is what rescues us (not punishes us) from the fact none can be justified through law: Rom 3:21-24 "Yet now, apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest (being attested by the law and the prophets), yet a righteousness of God through Jesus Christ's faith, for all, and on all who are believing, for there is no distinction, for all sinned and are wanting of the glory of God. Being justified gratuitously in His grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus"
God’s righteousness in manifest through the evangel, that we will all be justified gratuitously in His grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus - His death for our sins, for our sakes on the cross and his subsequent resurrection. I want to repeat James Coram’s quote: “What Divine love readily provides, Divine righteousness readily accepts.” God’s righteousness demands that all that Christ ransomed on the cross be eventually saved from death, and Christ died for all sinners: 1Tim 2:3-6 "for this is ideal and welcome in the sight of our Saviour, God, Who wills that all mankind be saved and come into a realization of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus, Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for all (the testimony in its own eras),"
God guaranteed the justification (making righteousness) of all sinners Christ died for when God resurrected Christ from the dead: Rom 4:25; 5:1 "Who was given up because of our offenses, and was roused because of our justifying. Being, then, justified by faith, we may be having peace toward God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ,"
The website gotquestions.org in their article “What is the doctrine of penal substitution?” begins with this statement: “In the simplest possible terms, the biblical doctrine of penal substitution holds that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the punishment we ought to suffer for our sins. As a result, God’s justice is satisfied, and those who accept Christ can be forgiven and reconciled to God.”
I have already shown how Christ’s sacrifice was not a punishment in our place, but I want to point out how the writers at gotquestions.org don’t understand the implications of what they have written above. According to gotquestions.org in many of their other articles, the punishment humans must undergo for their sin is eternal conscious torment in a place called hell. Jesus was not, and is not being eternally and consciously tormented in a place called hell, so by their own admission, Jesus was not punished like humans are supposed to be. They then say that because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God’s justice is satisfied. Except, in their belief, God’s justice is not at all satisfied, because whoever God has not given faith to believe that Jesus died for them will still be eternally and consciously tormented in a place called hell…… Remember, the evangel is what reveals God’s righteousness, not “punishment”.
Proponents of penal substitution do not actually understand what they are promoting, and do not see the contradictions inherent to the view. This is beside the fact that it is unscriptural, contradicted by the many passages shared in (but not limited to) this article.
A common passage of scripture used as a proof text for penal substitution is 1 Peter 2:24, as the above gotquestions.org article also does: 1Pet 2:24: "Who Himself carries up our sins in His body on to the pole, that, coming away from sins, we should be living for righteousness; by Whose welt you were healed." In this passage, Peter, in partially quoting Isaiah 53:5 is reminding the Israelites of the dispersion (1 Peter 1:1) that Christ had to die for sin to be taken away. Christ’s suffering on the cross unto death, His blood being spilled, is what cleanses from sin and heals (Hebrews 9:22). What this passage does not say is that Christ was punished in our place as our substitute, that notion must be read into the text. No where in scripture is every sinner required to be punished by dying on a cross. The sinless Jesus Christ could never be our “substitute”, we as sinners could never be a spotless sacrifice for our own sins, not to mention the rest of humanity. To call Jesus our mere “substitute” is to grossly degrade His death on the cross for sin as the spotless and perfect, undeserving sacrifice that ransomed all.
[Paul, through the knowledge of his evangel given to him through the risen and glorified Christ Jesus goes into much more detail than Peter and reveals the scope of what Christ’s blood will accomplish, as we saw in Col. 1:20 and the other passages shared above.]
Atonement -
Was Christ’s sacrifice an “atonement”?
The word atonement is found in English translations of the Hebrew Scriptures as a translation for the Hebrew word kaphar, which means to cover, or to make a protective covering. We can see the word take on this meaning in Genesis 6:14 NASB: “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.” In this passage, both the words cover and pitch are translations of the Hebrew word kaphar. The Concordant Literal Translation demonstrates that they are the same word in its translation of shelter/sheltering at both occurrences in this verse: “…and you will shelter it from the inside and the outside with with a sheltering coat.” Shelter conveys the idea of a protective covering and fits well elsewhere the word kaphar is used, such as Leviticus 16:6: “Aaron will bring near the young bull of the sin offering which is for himself, and he will make a propitiatory shelter about himself and about his house.” The KJV translated kaphar as pitch both times in Genesis 6:14, and as atonement in Leviticus 16:6. Only cover and shelter really fit the meaning of kaphar in all use cases.
What is a common characteristic of these coverings/shelters that kaphar describes in the Hebrew Scriptures? It is the fact that all of these protective coverings were temporary in nature. The protective covering on the ark protected Noah and his family inside for over a year, but it would not have protected indefinitely. The sacrifices that Aaron and the other priests of Israel offered had to be renewed year after year. Even then, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies without being killed. These sacrifices failed to do what many claim the definition of atonement is : at-one-ment, making a person at one with God. What they did was provide a temporary shelter for the people of Israel, pointing toward the final and efficacious sacrifice of Christ’s blood: Heb 10:10-12 "By which will we are hallowed through the approach present of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. And every chief priest, indeed, stands ministering day by day, and offering often the same sacrifices, which never can take sins from about us. Yet This One, when offering one sacrifice for sins, is seated to a finality at the right hand of God,"
The high priest could only enter God’s presence once a year, after making a sin offering for himself while bringing in a blood sacrifice for the people of Israel. We, through Christ’s sacrifice offered once for all time, have direct access to God (Eph. 2:18).
The KJV uses the word atonement in one place in the Greek Scriptures, Romans 5:11: “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” This is a very poor translation, and most later English translations have reconciliation here. But this too fails to convey the true thought Paul was expressing when he used the Greek word katallage. The best translation of katallage is conciliation, not reconciliation. The keyword concordance of the CLNT has the English elements of katallage as DOWN-CHANGE and can be best defined as “a change that comes from tearing something down”. A shorter definition is “to appease”. In contrast, reconcile is the best translation of the Greek word apokatallasso, the English elements of which are FROM-DOWN-CHANGE. This can be understood as “to fully reconcile, meaning both sides of an estrangement are at peace with each other.” When two parties are both conciliated to each other, there is reconciliation. One party can be conciliated to the other, while the other is not conciliated in return. In such a scenario, there is no reconciliation. Apokatallasso is found in Colossians 1:20,22 and reflects God’s ultimate goal of reconciliation with all, as well as Eph. 2:16 regarding the body of Christ.
Here is the proper translation of Romans 5:11 from the CLNT: "Yet not only so, but we are glorying also in God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom we now obtained the conciliation." What is this conciliation that believers have obtained? It is the fact that God sent His only perfect Son to die for His enemies in proof of His love for them: Rom 5:8,10 "yet God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes. ... For if, being enemies, we were conciliated to God through the death of His Son, much rather, being conciliated, we shall be saved in His life." The greatest expression of love is to sacrifice your life for someone else: John 15:13 "Greater love than this has no one, that anyone may be laying down his soul for his friends." God cannot die, so to express His love He sent His Son Jesus to die for the sin of all. This is the ultimate action of appeasement, showing that He is not mad with His creation, but at peace with it.
God, through the death of Christ for sin, tore down the enmity between us and God that was created when Adam sinned. This enmity was demonstrated when Adam and Eve hid from God after eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden because of this enmity, but not until God had sacrificed an animal to make clothing for them, pointing toward God’s ultimate solution for sin and death, the death of His own Son.
2Cor 5:18-19: "Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation." God was not reckoning the offenses of the world to them when He sacrificed His Son Jesus for their sins. God was not appeasing Himself or His own justice, through punishing His Son in our place on the cross. His was appeasing (conciliating) the world, through the grand display of His love for it, while they were yet enemies of (carrying enmity toward) Him! That is what conciliation means. That is what those that understand and believe the evangel are given as ambassadors to share with the world:
2Cor 5:20-21: "For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, "Be conciliated to God!" For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our sakes that we may be becoming God's righteousness in Him."
God has always been propitious and at peace with His creation. His conciliatory work in sending His Son to die for His enemies is the proof of this. Now, true ambassadors of God and Christ entreat “Be conciliated to God!” The righteousness of God demands that He save all sinners, as God is ultimately responsible for its introduction into His universe (and He has to be, as the Supreme Diety, otherwise another god of equal power was able to bring in sin and death without God being able to prevent it). The righteousness of God is that God works all together for good, centered on God giving His Son for sinners. Rom 8:28: "Now we are aware that God is working all together for the good of those who are loving God, who are called according to the purpose" Believers are aware of this now, and all will believe this in the future as they come to understand in God’s time what He has done for them in his act of conciliation. All will love God when they are conciliated toward God and there is reconciliation. All will understand that everything God has done is for their good, whether in His purpose they were vessels of indignation or vessels of honor during the eons (Romans 9:20-23).
Remember God’s ultimate plan, that He will accomplish through His Son Christ Jesus:
Rom 11:32: "For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all."
Col 1:20: "and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens."
Can God’s purposes fail?
Why did God require Israel to make covering sacrifices and follow the rest of the law? The apostle Paul informs us what the purpose of the law was: Rom 5:20: "Yet law came in by the way, that the offense should be increasing. Yet where sin increases, grace superexceeds," God used Israel to show themselves and the rest of creation that no one is able to be justified through law, what law does is bring an awareness of sin, or as A.E. Knoch puts in his commentary of this verse, “It’s [law] effect was to alter the character of sin so that it became an offense.” The law didn’t come to decrease sin, it increases it. God uses this to make people aware of how much they need a Saviour, which God is happy to provide.
So, Christ’s death for sin accomplished so much more than an “atonement”. It was conciliation that Christ accomplished. Christ’s blood is worth so much more than those of bulls and goats; to say they accomplished the same thing is to grossly degrade Christ’s sacrifice. The apostle Paul gives us this information concerning the accomplishments of God through Christ, as it is in his (Paul’s) evangel that these wonderful truths are revealed.
Conclusion-
I believe the scriptural evidence makes it abundantly clear that theory of penal substitutionary atonement fails in every measure to describe what God through Christ accomplished on the cross. Christ’s sacrifice was not penal, God was not punishing His Son, expressing indignation, but love as Jesus was made a sin offering for our sakes. Christ’s sacrifice was not substitutionary, Christ did not die “instead” of us but for us and we were included in Him the second Adam, just as all were included in the first Adam. Christ Jesus is our Champion.¹ Christ’s sacrifice was not an atonement, His death does not merely provide a temporary protective covering, but it accomplished conciliation. Through His sacrifice God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself.
Here is a quote from Stephen Hill’s video series The Bloody Truth: “Why did Jesus have to die to save us? It was the best possible way for the Father to demonstrate his love for us and to glorify his Son. Christ is worthy of all headship and Lordship, offering his sinless life for all.” Christ will accomplish the justification and reconciliation of all as Lord of all. As Lord of all, Christ Jesus has the authority to vivify (make alive beyond the reach of death) all sinners, thus all will be saved from our greatest enemy, death.
Be conciliated to God!
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1. See Stephen Hill’s video series and book The Bloody Truth where Stephen refutes penal substitutionary atonement and explains how Christ is our Champion: Video 1, Video 2, Chapter 1 of his book can be found Here and the rest can be found Here.
A great talk by Guy Marks titled “Atonement contrasted with Conciliation” from the Concordant Publishing Concern is a very worthwhile listen.
An excellent series by Aaron Welch in which he comprehensively refutes Penal Substitutionary Atonement: A refutation if the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement (part one)
All scripture references are from the Concordant Literal New Testament or Old Testament unless otherwise indicated.
