I really like this
Richard has written a very clear and succinct post on the penal substitionary theology of the cross, including some solid thinking about the different models of understanding the death of Jesus:
We should approach this as the writers of the New Testament did. They did not begin with a theory of human sin and the way it would need to be addressed. No one was reading Isaiah 53 and saying, “When this Suffering Servant comes along to die on our behalf, all will be well.” No, the New Testament is written knowing that “the answer” is Jesus. Those first Christian communities knew themselves to be save. They experienced God’s grace through Christ. So in a real sense they work back from the answer to a statement of the question, a statement that is bound to be incomplete, or at least metaphorical.
This is an example of complex theology expressed clearly and simply - something that happened only too rarely in my theology class at college.
November 23rd, 2004 at 7:45 pm
Thanks for the link and the kind words. More important still, by reading what I’d written on your site I spotted a misprunt that had eluded me before. So that’s three thank you’s!