{"id":2650,"date":"2007-05-08T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T02:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/2007\/05\/the-atonement-romans-1-3-and-penal-substitutionary-atonement\/"},"modified":"2017-09-16T18:28:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T17:28:13","slug":"the-atonement-romans-1-3-and-penal-substitutionary-atonement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/the-atonement-romans-1-3-and-penal-substitutionary-atonement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Atonement – Romans 1-3 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I have recently shared my own definition of Penal Substitutionary Atonement<\/a>, as well as that given by the authors of Pierced For Our Transgressions<\/em><\/a>. For the next few posts I will be giving a brief overview of some of the key passages in the Bible that help us to understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross. I will begin with a bird\u2019s eye view of the book of Romans.<\/p>\n

We have already quoted from the early chapters of Romans, which clearly portray the problem of sin<\/a>. Sin, we are told, in Romans 1 gives rise to God\u2019s wrath. But already in chapter 1, Paul introduces the good news he will elaborate on later: <\/p>\n

\u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, \u2018The righteous shall live by faith.\u2019\u201d (Romans 1:16-17)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Any theory of atonement must take these verses seriously. Implicit in them is the idea of imputation of righteousness by faith. Instead of our righteousness, there is a righteousness \u201cof God.\u201d It is particularly poignant coming as it does before a whole section that makes clear that we do not have righteousness at all and are all in a terrible position before God.<\/p>\n

We are told in verse 9 of chapter 2, \u201cThere will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil . . .\u201d Then in chapter 3 we are told: <\/p>\n

\u201cNone is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.\u201d (Romans 3:10-12)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, we are prepared for one of the most important few verses in Scripture: <\/p>\n

\u201cBut now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it \u2014 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God\u2019s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.\u201d (Romans 3:21-26)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, I recognize that this passage has been a battleground. Many leap straight into a discussion of the word \u201cpropitiation\u201d here and what exactly it means. Much ink has been spilled on that subject. I have read some material on it, and am convinced that it does indeed mean \u201cturning away of wrath.\u201d Rather than spend time looking at the meaning of that Greek word, I want to use two principles \u2014 those of interpreting in context and the principle of redundancy of communication.<\/p>\n

A paragraph like this should, of course, be viewed in the context of the whole book. As such, it is clearly offering a solution to the problem of the universality of sin and God\u2019s wrath towards it. We, therefore, cannot divorce it from the concept of God\u2019s wrath, however culturally challenging it may be to talk about God being righteously angry against sin.<\/p>\n

If we were to delete the word propitiation<\/em> from that verse, leaving a blank space, what would we fill in its place? Clearly we are told that people can be made righteous by an external act of God. We are told that \u201credemption\u201d is paid \u2014 which clearly means there is a cost involved. We are told that God was active in \u201cputting forward\u201d Jesus and that his blood must be received by faith. Quite how blood deals with the problem of sin which has been so central to Romans without it having some kind of penalty element and some kind of substitution baffles me. The blood has to have dealt with sin.<\/p>\n

We are then told that the whole process was to demonstrate that God was righteous. He has passed over sin in the past \u2014 surely an \u201cunrighteous\u201d act people might think. But no, something about the cross reveals that God is just \u2014 his justice has been satisfied. Without the cross, says Paul, God could not have been both just and the one who declares sinners to be righteous simply on the grounds of their faith.<\/p>\n

To me we need nothing more. Romans has shown us our state \u2014 the horror of the fate we deserve, has declared that Jesus did something to take away that fate on the cross, that by faith in Him we can be declared righteous, and that this takes place in such a way as to protect God from the charge of being \u201cun-just.\u201d Surely that is penal substitution. Surely no other system accounts properly for these verses!<\/p>\n

Continues with \u201cThe Atonement \u2013 Romans 4-5 on Penal Substitutionary Atonement\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have recently shared my own definition of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, as well as that given by the authors of Pierced For Our Transgressions. For the next few posts I will be giving a brief overview of some of the key passages in the Bible that help us to understand what Jesus accomplished on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,213,132],"tags":[540],"class_list":["post-2650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atonement","category-atonement-2007-series","category-romans","tag-atonement"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Atonement - Romans 1-3 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have recently shared my own definition of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, as well as that given by the authors of Pierced For Our Transgressions. 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I am the author of the Transformed by Jesus: Spiritual Renewal series of books, which ask: \u2192 Is the Easter story true, and what does it mean? Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything \u2192 Why is change so difficult? What causes the resistance? The Traitor Within: Understanding and Healing Our Deceitful Hearts \u2192 How does transformation happen over time? Amazing Grace: How Faith Grows in the Human Heart \u2192 What are the first steps on a journey of faith? Hope Reborn: How to Become a Christian and Live for Jesus These books bring together medical, psychological, social, and faith-based insights, advocating for a biopsychosocial\u2013spiritual model of wellbeing. My qualifications and training reflect this integrated background: \u2192 British MB BS medical degree (equivalent to an MD in the USA) \u2192 Postgraduate qualifications in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFFM, DipPharmMed) \u2192 Theological training courses run by Newfrontiers","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/adrianwarnock"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/author\/awarnock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}