The Meaning of the Atonement

When I first moved to Raleigh to begin pastoring Capital Community Church in 2019, another pastor in town asked me about my theory of the atonement. I told him that I taught the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. This is the view that states that: Jesus Christ died on the cross as a sin substitute, receiving the wrath of God for His people.

Upon hearing this, the pastor retorted, “You can’t preach that doctrine here. People will say that you are teaching ‘divine child abuse.’” I responded, “Without the justice of God being satisfied and the wrath of God being paid for our sins, there is no hope of salvation.” After the conversation, I was reminded that many desire to skirt the primary teaching of Scripture on the atonement to avoid something fundamental about God. God’s wrath.

The Atonement and Big-God Theology

At the heart of the atonement is one’s view of God. Some believe God will simply forgive evil in the end—that God could allow everyone into Heaven if He willed. But this fails to understand something absolutely vital about God. God is just. All the way down. God is justice just as He is love. Justice is not part of who He is. Justice is who He is. The Psalmist says, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne” (Ps 89:14). Moses said of Yahweh, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice… just and upright is he.”

To understand the cross, we must understand our God's extraordinary, perfect justice. No sin in the history of the universe will ever go unpunished. God is just. He is pure. He is righteous. And from this justice flows one of the most sobering realities in all the Bible. In order to put this justice into action, God has designed a “lake of fire” which awaits the Devil and his angels (Matt 25:41) and all those whose names are not written in the book of life (Rev 20:15). The eternal punishment of the wicked is the demonstration of the perfect justice of God.

This is terrible news for sinners, which we all are (Rom 3:23). Every man after Adam deserves God’s divine justice and wrath. Except one. Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead, was sent on a rescue mission to save His people from the just penalty of their sins (John 3:16). And He lived a righteous life under the law without one sin (2 Cor 5:21). It was God’s perfect love that propelled this mission of redemption. The Apostle Paul said, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

The Cursed

One of the realities that the critique of “divine child abuse” levied against the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement fails to take into account is that Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross. Jesus Christ willingly gave His own life. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” (John 18:11). Even when He died, John records, “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). Jesus was not a victim of God’s justice; He was a willing participant. He willingly drank the cap of God’s wrath in love to save His people.

The cup that the Father had given Him was a cup of divine cursing. It was a cup filled with God's full-fledged wrath due to sin. Paul famously said, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13). At the cross, Jesus was cursed because of the perfect justice of God. But not for Himself! Paul says, “becoming a curse for us.” His curse was our curse. What would take us eternity in Hell to pay, He paid for His people in six hours at Golgatha. The resurrection is proof positive that the Father accepted the Lord’s sacrifice for His people (Rom 4:25). 

Atonement 

The word atonement was coined by the reformer William Tyndale to describe what took place at the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ provided the means of at-one-ment. With the justice of God satisfied against sin and with the righteous life of Christ lived for His people, all who trust Christ in faith will have their sins forgiven and will be credited with Christ’s righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). This justice satisfied and this righteousness given (theologically called “double imputation”), enables us to have a relationship with the God who is perfectly just. We will gaze upon His righteousness clothed in Christ’s righteousness. We will appreciate God’s justice as we stand on Christ’s perfect payment for justice.

The Christian is then able to press into the Holy Place, so to speak. We can know God and have a relationship with Him (John 17:3). Not through endless bloody ceremonies like those in the Old Testament, but through the perfect blood of Christ, which was spilled for us (1 John 1:7).

The best way to make much of this atonement is by pressing into knowing Him. And to do so knowing that this grace of knowing Him was infinitely costly to Him. It is nearly impossible to grasp this infinite grace and mercy, which would prompt God to satisfy His own justice at such a price. But there it is, in transcendent glory at the cross. The place where God’s justice and love meet. The place where atonement was made. The place where terms of peace were procured so that the sinner could be in the presence of an infinitely righteous God. In this way, the cross is the banner of God’s glory. Perfect justice. Perfect love. All displayed for us to marvel at.