Contents

Three articles appear below:

• Editorial by Gordon Bull  [ Download PDF (97 kB) ]
• HALLELUJAH! WHAT A SAVIOUR: An explanation of Penal Substitutionary Atonement by Bruce Button  [ Download PDF (192 kB) ]
• The Central Importance of Christ’s Resurrection by Peter Sammons  [ Download PDF (182 kB) ]

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Editorial

Acts 20:28-31 “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.  I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.  Therefore be alert…”

It would not take much for me to convince you that the Apostle Paul’s fears have become a reality.  We live in a time when false teachers abound, their book sales soar, thousands flock to see and hear them and even more watch them on television.  The attack is coming thick and fast against the Church of Jesus Christ.

This attack in recent times has sought to deny the work of Christ on the cross known as penal subsitutionary atonement and the necessity of Christ’s resurrection.  (This denial is not a new one to the Church, but it is new to our generation.)  As Christians who have not had the benefit of Theological education, we would find it difficult to understand these doctrines, never mind trying to
defend them.  Therefore, in this issue you will find articles on these two doctrines, the first is on penal subsitutionary atonement, which is intended to explain this doctrine in a manner that this easy to understand.  The second article is aimed at helping us to understand the power of Christ’s resurrection, its relevance and benefits to our every day life as Christians.

May the Lord continue to strengthen and protect His Church, as He has faithfully done in ages past.  Let us, as we take refuge in the strength and protection of God, not lose heart or grow weary, but with greater resolve continue to stand for and boldly declare the truths of God’s Word.  Sola Scriptura!

Gordon Bull
– Editor

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HALLELUJAH! WHAT A SAVIOUR:  
An explanation of Penal Substitutionary Atonement

1.  INTRODUCTION
There is no doubt that the cross of Christ is foundational to Christianity.  One of the first verses that many of us memorized was John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV).  We sing hymns like, “When I survey the wondrous cross”, “We sing the praise of Him who died”, “There is a fountain filled with blood”, “Beneath the cross of Jesus”.  And through the ages, the symbol of the cross itself has come to be identified with Christianity.  One thing is clear: if we want to understand our faith we must grasp the meaning of the cross and of the atoning work of Christ.

This demand has become all the more urgent in recent years as self-confessed evangelicals have expressed strong and often emotive opposition to that understanding
of Christ’s atoning work which the Bible-believing, gospel-proclaiming church has confessed for many hundreds of years.  Probably the most publicized of these attacks has come from Steve Chalke and Alan Mann in their book, The lost message of Jesus, in which the traditional doctrine of the cross was characterized as  “cosmic child abuse – a vengeful father, punishing his son for an offence he has not even committed”.

Christians are rightly shocked by statements like this, and it is important for us to respond appropriately to them.  We must be careful of becoming unduly defensive (and thereby being forced to answer our critics on their own terms), or aggressive (forgetting that the message of the cross is a gracious message).  We aim not to fashion a stick to beat our opponents, nor to don the badge of orthodoxy so that we may receive the approval of our like-minded brothers and sisters.  We seek to listen afresh to the Spirit of God, speaking in Holy Scripture, so that we may stand in humble worship and adoration before our crucified and risen Saviour, and may find wisdom and power to proclaim his gospel more clearly to a lost and dying world.  Let us begin then, by listening to the Spirit in the text.

2.  THE BIBLE'S TEACHING REGARDING THE CROSS
There is no space for a comprehensive study, so I will attempt to get straight to the point by looking at some of Jesus’ own statements about his death in Matthew’s gospel.  In Matthew 20:28 Jesus states that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [1]  Now this statement was made to teach the disciples about humility in leadership, but it refers to the very purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth and giving up his life.  In this connection, there are two points which our Lord teaches: 1) that his death is a “ransom” (i.e. it is a price paid to purchase freedom); and 2) that Christ gave up his life “for many”, or “in place of many”.  In other words, Jesus taught that he would give up his life in place of the “many” to purchase their freedom.

This message is expanded upon in Matthew 26:26-30, where we read the words by which Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.  Before listening to Jesus’ actual words, let us note that that Last Supper was a Passover meal.  The lamb that the disciples were about to eat had been slaughtered by the priests in the temple, and its blood had been poured out at the altar; the participants were deeply conscious that they were celebrating God’s redemptive acts on behalf of his people Israel.  While everybody was gathered for the solemn occasion, Jesus took the bread and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  His meaning was clear: this broken bread would forever remind believers that Jesus’ broken body was the cause of their deliverance.  Then the cup of which the Saviour said, “...this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Just as in Matthew 20:28, Jesus teaches here that his death provides deliverance for “the many”.

At this point, we need to ask, Why should deliverance and forgiveness of sins have come through Jesus’ death?  We can answer that question by looking backwards to the Old Testament and forwards to Matthew’s narrative of the crucifixion.  We begin with the backward look.  It is very likely that, in both Matthew 20:28 and 26:28, Jesus was alluding to that great “Servant Song” in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.  In that passage we read about the Lord’s Servant being made an offering for guilt (Is 53:10), pouring out his soul to death, and bearing the sin of many (Is 53:12).  Recognizing that Jesus is the Suffering Servant whom Isaiah foretold, we may read further in that passage and learn that “he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed . . . the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:5-6).  It is clear that there was punishment due to us, which Christ bore in our place.  Hence, “it was the will of the Lord to crush him” (Is 53:10).

Looking forward now, we see that Matthew has understood the punishment-bearing role of the Messiah and highlights it in his account of the crucifixion.  When we go to the Garden of Gethsemane we find that Je-sus is “very sorrowful, even to the point of death” (Matt 26:38).  It is not just the prospect of death which torments him (many men have faced death with confidence, knowing that they were dying for a worthy cause).  Rather, it is “the cup” which so disturbs the Father’s beloved Son.  The cup which represents the wine of God’s wrath in Isaiah 63:1-6.  And so we progress from Gethsemane to Calvary. Whereas John represents the cross as the glorification of the Lord Jesus (cf. John 17:1) and Luke emphasizes the saving power of the Lord, seeking and saving the lost even on the cross (Luke alone records the salvation of the thief), Matthew and Mark alone record Jesus’ cry of dereliction, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46).  The whole scene, from the scoffing, to the darkness, to the cry emphasizes the reality of judgment.  Jesus on the cross was drinking the cup of God’s wrath.  Thus Matthew shows how Jesus fulfilled the role of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, bearing in his person the “chastisement that brought us peace”.

It is important to reflect a little on this teaching regarding the cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  What we have found is that Jesus, in his death on the cross, 1) suffered the wrath of God; 2) paid a ransom to purchase freedom for “the many”; 3) brought about the forgiveness of sins for many by the shedding of his blood; 4) acted as a substitute for “the many” (Matt 20:28; Is 53:5-6).  How do these ideas fit together?  The Bible bears witness that God, who is perfectly holy, cannot look upon evil (Hab 1:13).  His nature demands that sin and evil be punished: his justice and holiness must be satisfied.  It is not as though God is subject to some principle outside himself – be it law, the moral order, honour, etc. – it is rather his own nature that demands satisfaction for sin.  Hence we read about God being provoked to anger (e.g. Jer 32:30-32; Ezek 8:17), about the Lord’s anger burning against those who provoke him (e.g. Josh 7:1; Hos 8:5) and actually consuming them in judgment (e.g. Deut. 4:24; Num 11:1; Deut 6:15).  However, we also read about God being satisfied when the sentence of judgment has run its course: “So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you.  I will be calm and will no more be angry” (Ezek 16:42).  When we relate this to the cross, thinking about Matthew’s presentation and the insight of Isaiah 53, we can only conclude that Jesus, as the representative substitute of the “many”, bore God’s wrath in their place until God was “satisfied” – of which the resurrection was proof.

This understanding of Christ’s atoning work is what has come to be known as “penal substitution” – it is “penal” because it involves the payment of a penalty, and it is a “substitution” because Christ acted as a substitute and bore the penalty in the place of the “many”.  There are most certainly other dimensions to the cross-work of Christ – for instance, the cross provides an example for our own behaviour (1 Pet 2:21-25) and, it achieved a magnificent victory over Satan, (Col 2:15) – but bearing God’s wrath in our place is at the heart of what our Saviour did for us.  What we need to say, then, is that mankind’s most significant problem is the wrath of God (cf. Rom 1:18-32), and the primary achievement of the cross was to render God favourable towards those who are united to Christ through faith.  Before I need an example for my own behaviour, and before I need deliverance from the power of Satan, I need to be restored to a relationship in which God is favourable towards me.   This aspect of the work of Christ is reflected in the use of the word “propitiation” by Paul (Rom 3:25) and John (1 John 2:2; 4:10): Christ’s death is the means by which God is “propitiated” or made favourable towards believers.

3.  OBJECTIONS TO PENAL SUBSTITUTION
There have always been people who find the doctrine of penal substitution objectionable; this has traditionally been one of the key differences between liberals and evangelicals.  However, in recent years dissenting voices have been making themselves heard within the evangelical camp.  Steve Chalke and Alan Mann were quoted above.  One finds other inflammatory and irresponsible statements like this: “When Jesus was crucified it wasn’t an angry, vindictive deity hitting out, punishing him for offences that he hadn’t committed simply because someone, somewhere had to pay.” [2]  But one also finds less emotive statements, such as this rejection of the concept of propitiation in the New Testament:  “Propitiation is essentially a process by which one does a favour to a person in order to make him or her favorably disposed, but in the NT God is never the object of propitiation since he is already on the side of people.” [3]
 
The crux of the matter here is that those who object want to do away with any idea of punishment or the wrath of God.  It is sometimes said that God expects us to forgive freely, without demanding payment for offences committed against us (e.g. Matt 18:21-35), and therefore God’s forgiveness is also given freely without the need for any penalty.  However, this view tries to impose human logic on the clear revelation of Scripture and refuses to accept what God has said about himself: for the sake of his own name he must punish evil.  Ultimately, what lies behind this objection is a refusal to accept that we have a debt to God which we can never repay.  The gospel becomes a message that we are really not so bad after all (and therefore don’t really need to be saved), rather than a message that God has intervened in human history to deliver us with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.  As one writer has put it, we must proclaim “grace that emerges not from our belief in God but his belief in us, his reaching out to us in mercy rather than in wrath.” [4]  Well, if the source of grace is God’s belief in me, and if mercy is the doing away with all need for justice, then the Christian faith – and along with it all human communica¬tion – has lost its meaning entirely.

The other main objection to penal substitution that is popular at the moment is the idea that it would be unjust for God to punish his Son (or any other third party) for our sins.  Ezekiel 18 is quoted: “the soul that sins shall die”.  Sometimes the claim is further made that this doctrine, with its inherent support for injustice, lends support to evils like slavery and anti-Semitism.  Our first response is, once again, to insist that the clear revelation of Scripture must outrank any rationalistic attempt to extrapolate a Biblical principle beyond its intended sphere of application.  God has said: “upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:5-6).  Is this unjust?  It would be if the Father and the Son were not united in the being of the Triune God.  But since God is a Trinity, and since the Father and Son are one, Paul can say, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor 5:19, NASB).  As a result, God the Father did not punish any third party on the cross; rather, God in Christ bore the penalty of our sin himself.
 
4.  CONCLUSION
We conclude by asking how this doctrine leads us to worship.  I will make just two observations.

In the first place, it tells us that if we have put our faith in Christ we have been delivered from the wrath of God.  God’s wrath towards us has been spent, his jealousy has departed, he is no more angry.  This is not a matter of mercy without justice for justice has been fully satisfied; the holiness of God has been fully satisfied. When I cry out with Paul, “we have peace with God”, I am depending both on the mercy of God and on the righteousness of his character, for Christ has fully discharged my debt and I am assured that nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Let us worship and thank God for the absolute security that we have in Christ.

In the second place, this doctrine tells us of the love which is in the being of God: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).  For Christ to leave the glory of heaven, the perfect bliss of fellowship with the Father, to become man and to endure the wrath of his own Father; for the Father to give up his own Son for the sake of sinners who had no love towards him; here indeed is love. Let us bow down and worship.

– Bruce Button

[1]  Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.
[2]  See http://www.christianbookshops.org.uk/reviews/lostmessageofjesus.htm.
[3]  Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. 1996. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) United Bible societies: New York. Vol. 1, p.503.
[4]  See http://oneblogonelord.blogspot.com/2006/08/open-letter-to-evangelical-alliance.html.

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The Central Importance of Christ’s Resurrection

 The resurrection of Christ has always been under attack, right from the very beginning when the Jewish religious authorities ordered the Roman soldiers to lie about Christ’s resurrection, to the present day where it is once again being denied and ridiculed.  As Christians the resurrection of Christ is one of the pillars of our faith, and so in order to remind ourselves of the importance of the resurrection, the hope it brings us and its practical application to our lives, the Sola 5 Chronicles interviewed Rev. Peter Sammons (Germiston Baptist Church) on the subject.

Please can you in simple terms, explain why Chirst's resurrection from the dead is of central importance tot the Gospel?
I believe the whole of the Christian faith stands or falls on the fact of Christ’s resur-rection and the veracity of the biblical accounts thereof.  If Christ’s resurrection was not a fact, consider the following implications: Firstly, the whole New Testament is unreliable.  If the gospel accounts of the resurrection are fictitious, then nothing else in the gospels can be trusted.  There is nothing in them that any rational person can believe concerning the incarnation, the life, the miracles, the teachings, the promises, the death or even the person of Jesus Christ.  In short, the core of our faith, the person and work of Jesus Christ, would be a farce!

The book of Acts could not be trusted as an accurate historical account of the early church, written by a respected and trusted historian.  It begins fictitiously “He presented himself alive to them after his suf-fering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days” (Acts 1:3) and continues in similar vein with Him appearing to Saul/Paul (Acts 9:1-5; 22:1-11; 26:12-18) and their preaching centering on the fact of the resurrection.

All of the New Testament writers regard the resurrection as fact.  Seven out of the nine writers refer to it directly as a fact, not as fiction, a hoax, a myth or a legend.  The other two refer to Jesus Christ as being alive, which presupposes a belief in the resurrection.

Secondly, Jesus himself was a liar or mentally ill.  That is, of course if you still believe the gospels are giving an accurate account of his words.  After all he confidently asserted that he would rise from the dead.

Thirdly, his ministry was a failure.  The purpose of His incarnation was to give us life (John 10:10), to raise us up at the last day (John 6:38-40, 44).  If he did not rise from the dead, how can he raise us up?  If Christ did not rise, then he is dead and so will we be.

Fourthly, there is no “good news”.  Consider what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3-6.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials”

If Christ was not raised, then “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” has NOT caused us to “born again” through it.  There is NO “living hope” or imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for us.  We are NOT being guarded for a salvation ready to be revealed, AND there is no basis for rejoicing in the various trials that cause us grief!
 
Paul was correct when he said “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor 15:14-19).
Without the resurrection, Christ’s birth is insignificant, His ascension is a lie, His return is a pipe dream, we have no advocate interceding on our behalf before the throne, we have no hope of life after death, his teachings are mere moralistic philosophy, the Old Testament prophesies are hollow and it’s history books are no more significant than any national history.

Without the resurrection, Albert Schweitzer was right in “The Quest for The Historical Jesus” (1906).  Jesus is a pathetic spectacle, an immeasurably great man crushed by the wheel of history.

Why should the resurrection be one of the greatest points of hope, comfort and encouragement for Christians?
Because it is the ultimate proof that greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. He defeated death and him who holds the power of death and thereby freed us from our fear of death (Heb 2:14 &15).

In death, man is at his most powerless while Satan is at his most powerful.  Our Lord in His weakest state took on Satan in his most powerful battle zone, went head to head with him and defeated him.

If He has defeated Satan, our worst enemy and death, our last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26, Psalm 89:48), and if death has been swallowed up by victory ( 1 Cor 15:54) then there is nothing that we need fear.

As Peter says, through the resurrection we have a LIVING HOPE. It is living, because our faith is not mere wishful thinking, positive suggestion or power of positive thinking.  It is not adherence to the teachings of some dead religious philosopher or observance of religious rituals and rites.  Our faith is a robust faith, a living relationship with the robust conquering, risen, living Christ.

It is a living hope because as we go through the trials and troubles of this life, Peter assures us that through the resurrection of Christ we can rejoice because we know that through them we are being refined.

What difference has Christ's resurrection made in regards to a believer's battle against sin and temptation?
In order to best answer this question we must understand the inseparable link between the Holy Spirit in us and the risen Christ.  In John 14 & 16 Jesus’ promises of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16&17; 16:7-15) are wrapped up in His promises that through His resurrection and ascension, He will not leave us as orphans, but will come to us and be with us and IN us (John 14:18-20; 16:16).  Thus, the coming of the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost and at the rebirth of every believer since then, is simultaneously a coming of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit who lives in us is the Spirit of the risen Jesus Christ (Rom 8:9-11).

Notice how the Romans 8 passage above, flows contextually out of Paul’s struggle with sin in Romans 7 and his desperate cry in verse 24 “who will rescue me from this body of death?”.  The answer comes in the form of verse 25 through to chapter 8.  So the key to our struggle with sin and temptation is to be found in the person of the risen Christ working through His indwelling Spirit (Rom. 8:5-17).

Eph. 1:18 – 23 says that the power of God for the saints, is the power of God which raised Christ from the dead, using four different Greek words to describe that power (v19).  In Philippians 2:13 therefore the power by which God is at work in us to “will and to act according to his good purpose” is the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the power of the resurrection and the risen Christ.

How does Christ's resurrection give a believer confidence in prayer?
Because he ever lives as our permanent high priest, interceding for us (Heb. 7:24&25) Rom 8:34 “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us”.  Again this ministry of the risen Lord must be understood in connection with the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, when we don’t know how or what to pray (Rom 8:26), the Spirit / the risen Christ intercedes for us.

Death is someting that almost all people fear, how does Christ's resurrection serve to eliminate this fear of death for believers?
The apostle Paul in 1 Cor 6:14 tells us that the same power that rease Christ from the dead will also raise us, who believe, from the dead.  In 1 Cor 15, he speaks at length about resurrection from dead, how should we understand our death and resurrection from dead, in light of what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians?
I will answer these questions together.  People naturally fear death because it is
the greatest weapon in Satan’s arsenal.  It was our first enemy “The day you eat of that fruit you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17) and it is our last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26).  Death is our universal and common enemy, no one can escape it (Heb. 9:27, Psalm 89:48; James 4:14).

Scripture speaks of two deaths.  The first death is physical, universal and inescapable.  The second death (Rev. 2:11, Rev 20 & 21) is spiritual and eternal, but it is avoidable through faith in Christ.  That is what Jesus meant when he said “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25&26).
 
The moment Christians die, we enter paradise with our Lord (Luke 23:43).  At the final resurrection our bodies will be raised anew, perfected and reunited to our souls.  We have this glorious hope through the death and resurrection of Christ.
 
Most Christians don’t fear death because they know they will be alive with Him. However, many do fear the process of dying.  As Woody Allen said “I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens”.  I have news for Woody Allen, he will be there and he ought to be afraid – especially of what comes after it happens (Heb 9:27).

But for Christians, the process of death itself should hold no fear because Jesus is
our “good shepherd” (John 10:11) who lay down His life for us.  More than that, He is our “great shepherd” who was brought back from the dead (Heb 13:20) and He is also our chief shepherd” who will appear at our death, to give us the crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4).  Therefore, with the Lord as our shepherd (Psalm 23) we need “fear no evil” because we will only walk through the VALLEY of the SHADOW of death and HE WILL BE WITH US, HIS ROD AND HIS STAFF WILL COMFORT US.

As Christians we do not die alone!  Christ said I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you, and that means in the process and after the event of death as well.

The sting of death has been removed (1 Cor 15:55-57, Hosea 13:14).

For many Christians the only time we give the resurrection any thought is over the Easter weekend.  Why is it of great importance that we daily remember and live in the light of the resurrection of Christ?  Please can you list some practical ways we might be able to do this.
It is of great importance because as stated right at the beginning, the whole of the Christian faith stands or falls on the fact of Christ’s resurrection and the veracity of the biblical accounts thereof.

Without the fact of the resurrection, the biblical doctrines pop like balloons and are left flat and meaningless, shot down with a simple “so what”. Because of the resurrection: death no longer has dominion, Satan’s power is broken down; the sting of death is removed; our final enemy, death is defeated; our hope becomes a living hope, an eternal hope; we have the hope of receiving new resurrection bodies like His; our assurance is given substance; our victory is secure and He is crowned with many crowns.

As to HOW we are to practically remember and live in the light of His resurrection, there is no magical formula, just three suggestions:
1.  Daily cultivate your relationship with Him, which is only possible because He is alive
2.  As often as possible, realistically evaluate how the resurrection validates everything we do as Christians and as Churches.  According to Paul (1 Cor 15:12-19), without the resurrection, our preaching is ineffective (v14), our faith is futile (v14 & 17), our witnessing false (v15 & 16), His forgiveness is meaningless (v17), our future is pointless (v18) and our religion is senseless (v19).
3.  Give the resurrection the focus it deserves in our corporate worship services. How often do we begin our services with a liturgy celebrating His being alive?

Thank you, Rev. Sammons for your time in answering these questions.  What a joy it is to know that Christ has indeed risen from the dead, and our hope is a living one, let us all strive to focus daily on birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ, and all that which it has brought us.