Our discussions of atonement this semester have centered around the four major atonement theories: ransom, satisfaction, moral influence, and penal substitution.

Some Basics of Penal Substitution

Penal substitution centers around the idea that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for our sins. God transferred the guilt of our sins to Christ, and Christ bore the punishment that we deserved, in the crucifixion. Penal substitution sees the entire human race as criminals, relying on Christ to be innocent and cleansed from sin.

Under penal substitution, Christ’s purpose was to bring order. This theory is a product of the Reformation. Penal substitution is a response to a culture that focused and the law and a need for order in a time of political and social upheaval. Anselm’s Satisfaction theory seemed like too much of a commercial transaction.

Some key theologians in discussions of penal substitution include Martin Luther, John Calvin, Faustus Socinus[1], and Hugo Grotius. Luther wrote:

“He sent his Son in to the world, heaped up all the sins of all upon him and said to him …You be the person of all people, the one who has committed the sins of all people…Now the law comes along and says I find that sinner taking on himself the sin of all people; I see no other sins but those in him. So let him die on the cross! And so it attacks him and kills him. This done, the whole world is purged of all sin.” [2]

It’s very “an eye for an eye.”[3] A crime was committed. The law looks for someone to carry the punishment, and since all of that sin was transferred to Christ, Christ dies for our sins. In case that legalism isn’t depressing enough, John Calvin’s penal substitution musings recall that Christ had to die for our sins so that we might escape “God’s dreadful judgement.”[4] Ouch. I experience God as merciful, gracious, and patient; and I preach, teach, and live accordingly. “Dreadful judgement” sounds like something that happens in a bad religious horror movie or how people justify loving their neighbors in a way that has rules and conditions… Anyway…

Arguments Against Penal Substitution

Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) wrote a book questioning many theories atonement but focused most pointedly on penal substitution. He didn’t understand why God couldn’t simply forgive sins and why God would insist on punishing the guilty party: “There is no creditor who, according to the strict letter of the law, is not able to forgive his debtors part of the debt or the whole debt, having received no satisfaction.”[5] Socinus saw substitution as unjust. He further supported this argument by citing scripture passages: “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent – the Lord detests them both.”[6]

Jens Soering’s The Convict Christ

Jen Soering’s book talks about Jesus’ dying as convicted felon, driving the point home with phrases such as “capital punishment” and “common criminal.” Soering doesn’t let the reader comfortably separate Christ dying on the cross for our sins and sin that is the brokenness of our criminal justice system. When God decided to make Godself vulnerable in human flesh, he did so as a death row inmate. The author is Christ-like himself in his counter-cultural challenge to acknowledge our sins and where we might be disowning Christ by not loving him in “the least” of our own as we’re called to in Matthew 25:36-40.[7]

“To see Christ’s self-sacrificial death as the ultimate expression of love is comfortable and familiar – though not especially challenging, since none of us really expect to have to give our own lives for our brothers [and sisters]. But to see Jesus’ execution as the sum and substance of evil is strange and unsettling, since it calls into question our own criminal justice system. For how can we justify using police and court procedures today that are virtually identical to those used to prosecute Christ two thousand years ago?”[8]

Here are some depressing facts[9] to drive Soering’s point home:

• The U.S. imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.
• The United States has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners.
• The total incarcerated population in the U.S. is a staggering 2.4 million — a 500% increase over the past 30 years.
• At the end of 2007, 1 in 31 adults was behind bars, on probation or on parole.
• Parole violators accounted for more than 35% of all prison admissions in 2000. Of those, only one-third were returned for a new conviction; the rest were returned for a technical violation, such as missing a meeting with the parole officer.
• A first-time drug offense carries a sentence of 5-10 years. In other developed countries, that sentence would be six months of jail time, if any at all.
  • African-Americans comprised 12% of regular drug users, but almost 40% of those arrested for drug offenses.
• Conservative estimates put innocent people who plead guilty between 2% and 5%, which translates to tens of thousands of innocent people behind bars today.

‘Cause let’s be real here. The Church has this terrible history of blaming Jews for the crucifixion. That’s the real “dreadful judgement:” our own hypocrisy.

One of my most embarrassing moments in South Africa involved coming home from work on May 2, 2011 and having to assure my housemates that not every American was standing in the streets cheering over the death of another human being, even one who had committed such unfathomable atrocities.

It’s quite a counter-cultural charge we’ve got here: preaching the gospel against the law, only to be convicted and punished to save the community you’re fighting for.

Who would dare spend their whole life preaching the gospel against the law, only to be convicted and punished to save others?

Wait a second… Didn’t I just hear about that somewhere? Maybe some traveling I did recently?

“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.” – Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

In my adventures on the other side of the world (specifically: South Africa), I received stories of the fight for justice. The men and women of the anti-apartheid movement risked their lives in the dangerous fight for equality, humanity, and dignity for their brothers and sisters and children. Fr. Michael Lapsley brilliantly summed up the necessity of the anti-apartheid movement, when we met him, saying “Apartheid was a way of death carried out in contrary to the Gospel of Life.”[10]

Nelson Mandela is a particularly powerful example of someone who lived his whole life preaching the gospel against the law, only to be convicted like a criminal. Just like Jesus!

Each in their own way, they both rose again.

 

 

 

[1] Seriously? How cool of a name is “Faustus Socinus”!?! Maybe I just like it because it sounds like the kind of name a character on The Ghost of Faffner Hall would’ve had…

[2] Table Talk

[3] Exodus 21:24

[4] John Calvin’s Institutes 2:16:5

[5] Atonement YouTube Dictionary of Theology 1

[6] Proverbs 17:1

[7] “I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’”

[8] Jens Söring, The Convict Christ: What the Gospel Says About Criminal Justice (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, ©2006), 3.

[9] The hard truth: “19 Actual Statistics About America’s Prison System”

[10] January 11, 2016