Today I read an article posted on Facebook by Christians
Tired of Being Misrepresented called “Penal Substitution is Dying, Thank God!”
by Michael Hardin (Patheos
- Penal Substitution) that has raised a renewed desire in me to voice my
opinion about the manner in which the Gospel Message is presented in our modern
Christian churches.
Before I dive in, I need to first apologize for my obvious
lack of intelligence and connectedness to the modern-day Christen Intelligentsia
that the writer of the article is obviously a part. To tell you the truth I had to look up too
many words and read the article too times before I began to get the gist of
what was being said. Due to my obvious
minimalist vocabulary I am certain to have misunderstood the finer innuendos
and subtleties the author was attempting to achieve through the very impressive
use of some big, and I think, very important words. For this I apologize in
advance.
“Penal Substitution” was my first roadblock. “what in the hell…?” Or maybe it is hell, or the avoidance there
of-but not really. What the author was
discussing was the Gospel of Sin and Salvation that Jesus represents in his
death on the cross. The Sacrificial Lamb
who has died for our sins. I get it. “I Have Been Washed in the Blood of the Lamb”
has never been one of my favorite songs but, even with a casual read of the
Bible, you find most of the writers referring to this Sin Debt that Jesus has
paid. You can’t disregard it.
The mistake, I believe, the author is making is that he
refers to this “payment” as a throwback to olden days atonement practices where
animals were butchered on an alter to pay for a sin. Atonement is completely different than what
Jesus’ life, ministry and death were about.
Atonement only asks for a payment – it does not require a change of
action.
John the Baptist in announcing Jesus’ called for a “Repentance
of Sins” not an Atonement of sins.
Repentance requires a change… a change of heart, a change of direction,
a change of attitude. Repentance has us
turn and walk a different path.
Atonement does not. Because of
this, I believe that comparing Jesus to the practice of Atonement is simply
wrong. Jesus always spoke about change.
The real problem with the article, however, is not this misapplication
of Jesus’ life as a holy scapegoat, nor is it the misrepresentation “God is
angry at sinners who have broken covenant with God by disobeying the Law of
God. God needs to have his anger propitiated.”
(another big word I had to look up).
The main problem is that the author took a very real issue facing our
churches today and destroyed any possibility of having important dialogue
focused on change.
The Gospel of Sin and Salvation is real. To say otherwise is to disregard 90% of the
Bible. The issue in our modern churches
is that Sin and Salvation are the only aspects of the Gospel message being
taught. Week after week we hear about
how sinful we are and that our only hope for eternal life is to repent of these
sins, naming Jesus as our savior. It is
the ONLY message we hear. I for one am
getting very tired of being called a sinner and I believe many people,
including the author agree. No matter
how truthful my sinfulness may be there
is more to my life with Christ than just the fact that I am a sinner.
I have repented. Doesn’t that mean that I can now move on in
life as a disciple of Christ, teaching, healing, leading, loving, feeding, and
clothing people in need? Do I not now
need to be humble, merciful, forgiving, understanding, loving and a peacemaker? When we read the Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew 5, does Jesus stand up and call everyone sinners? Does he call us to repent or atone? No, he calls us to ministry. He calls us to be involved in kingdom of
heaven work. Not the kingdom of heaven
at some far distant time but the kingdom of heaven “at hand” – now.
If the discussion in Christendom today is to be meaningful
in a world of great need, we need to turn our focus to the missional aspects of
the Gospel message. We do not need to
have debates of sophistry where we try to destroy bits and pieces of our belief
structure. We need to rally around the
teachings of Christ and be Christ in the world today.
Gary, that was great. I was struggling with the Atonement issue in a Facebook question I had a few days ago and you just now explained it perfectly. I needed to be reminded that there is a difference between atonement and repentance because the churches I grew up in focused more on atonement. I agree with you about the modern churches constantly teaching that I am a sinner in need of salvation. This teaching has made me leave so many churches because for the love of Pete, let's move on. I do not need to be told on a weekly basis that I am a sinner but modern churches have lost the idea of church being a place for believers not the unsaved. Instead of people going out into the world to save the world and bring them to the church to grow deeper, we have become lazy letting the church save them but the deeper gets overlooked. I have yet to be in a Mega-church that conducts it in a believer fashion.
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