The Problems
Here is a definition of penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) from the Theopedia website:
Penal substitutionary atonement refers to the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners. God imputed the guilt of our sins to Christ, and he, in our place, bore the punishment that we deserve. This was a full payment for sins, which satisfied both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sinners without compromising His own holy standard.
PSA has been the dominant understanding of why Christ died on the cross in the west since the reformation, especially in protestant evangelical churches. I’m not writing this article to refute the theory, nor am I trying to fully represent PSA here, but as I meditate on it, I see some obvious problems: 1) It confuses the meaning of forgiveness; 2) It suggests that God needed to be changed; 3) It pits the Father against the Son; 4) It seems unjust.
1) God forgives our sins: If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Forgiveness happens when one does not demand punishment or payment owed from another. If Bill punches me in the face for no just reason, I can either punish him by punching back or by having him arrested, or I can forgive him by not punching him back or not having him arrested. It’s either/or — I can either have him punished, or not. It’s the same with a debt. If Bill owes me $10000, I can either demand payment, or I can forgive the debt; I cannot do both. If I forgive Bill, I am absorbing the punishment/debt into myself; the pain of the punch will only be felt by me, and the $10000 is my loss alone.
With PSA we have God both demanding punishment and God forgiving our sins. This is a contradiction. If God chooses to forgive us, He no longer demands punishment. If God demands punishment, He does not offer forgiveness. God is free to forgive us as He is not subordinate to some higher authority. If God chooses to forgive us, punishment/payment is simply no longer required of us, and God absorbs the punishment/payment into Himself.
Now, the obvious response to what I say above is: God absorbed our punishment/payment on the cross! I agree with that, but PSA suggests that the Father punished the Son on the cross. Is that true? If I forgive Bill, do I need to punch myself in the face, giving myself a second black eye? Do I need to burn another $10000? Does God, after absorbing the punishment/payment into Himself, have to punish Himself still?
2) John 3:16 says: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. It does not say: For God was so angry with the world that he punished his only son… God loved the world and had already decided to forgive humanity before sending Jesus. PSA suggests that God was unwilling to forgive until after Jesus was punished on the cross. This then suggests that God needed to be changed by the cross.
It is true that God will not compromise His justice. However, God does not compromise His justice by simply forgiving humanity. Forgiveness is not in opposition to justice. If God has been wronged by humanity (see Psalm 51), and He decides to forgive, thus not demanding, but absorbing, punishment/payment, there is nothing unjust about that.
“Propitiation means the turning away of wrath by an offering. In relation to soteriology, propitiation means placating or satisfying the wrath of God by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.”
Charles C. Ryrie (1999-01-11). Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth (Kindle Locations 5503-5504). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.
If it is in God’s nature to be merciful and forgiving, then nothing needs to happen to make Him be so. God was free to forgive before Jesus died on the cross. Is God some pagan deity who needs to be placated by sacrifices?
And Samuel said,
‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices,
1 Samuel 15:22
as in obedience to the voice of the Lord?
Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed than the fat of rams.
Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
Psalm 40:6
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
Psalm 50:12-15
for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and pay your vows to the Most High.
Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17
To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
Proverbs 21:3
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.”
Jeremiah 7:21-23
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6
2 (1) Return, Isra’el, to Adonai your God,
Hosea 14:2-3 CJB (vs. 1-2 in Christian bibles)
for your guilt has made you stumble.
3 (2) Take words with you, and return to Adonai;
say to him, “Forgive all guilt,
and accept what is good;
we will pay instead of bulls
[the offerings of] our lips.
“With what shall I come before the Lord
Micah 6:6-8
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?
3) Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 5:30) Jesus, the Son and second person of the trinity, and the Father are one (John 10:30). There is no conflict or disagreement within the trinity. It is not the case then that the Father wanted to punish but the Son wanted to forgive, or vice versa.
Nothing more needs to be said on this point, but I will expand it in the next point…
4) Let’s bring things down to a manageable level: Bill is arrested and found guilty of murdering 20 people. He is a serial killer and is sentenced to death. This mirrors humanity’s situation — we are all sinners and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
Let’s apply PSA to this situation. The judge demands punishment. As Bill is being pulled out of the courtroom and on to his demise, the judge’s son steps in and says he will take upon himself Bill’s guilt and die in Bill’s place so that Bill can be set free.
Is there any honest judge on the planet who would except this? Even if it were not his own son, but some other innocent man, would any judge be okay with this? Would the families of the victims accept it? Would society at large accept it?
And what of Bill, the serial killer? Will he not go out and kill again? And will not the blood of his new victims be on the hands of the judge who set him free?
And what would be the point of executing the innocent son? Would that change anything? Was justice actually accomplished with his death? Was his purpose only to be the receiving end of the judge’s wrath? Was he merely a whipping boy? Is the judge incapable of forgiveness, (though his son certainly is capable) unless he puts his own innocent son to death? Is that possible within the trinity? Can the trinity be separated by damnation?
[W]hen Christ looked up into heaven and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” the Father slammed the gates of heaven upon the Christ and responded, “God, your God, damns you!”
Paul Washer
Going back to point #1 and forgiveness, if Bill punches me, and I decide to forgive him, I do not demand punishment on Bill or on anyone else who might be in striking range. If I do demand punishment, punching an innocent man is not just.
One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
Proverbs 17:15
Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes [sin] may persons be put to death.
Deuteronomy 24:16
A Possible Solution
As I wrote above, I am not trying to refute PSA. I just see problems with it. What could be a possible solution to the problems shown above?
Scripture tells us that we are all sinners and that the wages of sin is death. “Wages” are a consequence of something, not a punishment for something. So, in forming a solution to the problems, I think it’s best to consider death as a consequence of sin, not a punishment. Just as a hangover is the consequence for a night of heavy drinking, so is death the consequence of sin. I will die, not because God wants to kill me, but because of my own sin.
God is free to forgive me whenever He chooses. He did not have to vent His wrath on Jesus first. God sent His Son into the world because He forgives us, not to be able to forgive us. God’s forgiveness is good and wonderful, but more has to be done for my salvation. I am still enslaved to sin. I am still on a path to death. I must die.
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (emphasis mine)
Jesus took on my nature and lowered Himself down into my world and took upon Himself the consequence of my (and everyone else’s) sin, and He was cursed, and He took me into Himself and died a brutal and bloody death on the cross. Where was I when Jesus died? I was in Him. And where was I when He rose from the dead? I was in Him, and I was born anew.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:5-11
No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness [Numbers 21], so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:13-16
God first forgave us our trespasses, then took that record of trespasses, which stood against us, erased it and set it aside by nailing it to the cross. That old man we were died on the cross so that we could be born anew in Christ. Now the powers can never again accuse us or condemn us. Christ has victory over all.
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Colossians 2:9-15
Jesus died to destroy death. He died so that I could die in Him. Jesus, through whom all things were made, brought the whole fallen world with Him on the cross, to destroy it. His resurrection was a re-creation of the world. Jesus is a new Adam, an unfallen man. He makes all things new, including us.
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs, granting life.
Christos Anesti ~ Eastern Orthodox Hymn
Does God have wrath towards sin and evil doers? Yes. Is there judgement and destruction awaiting those who reject Christ? Yes. Did Jesus die for our sin? Yes. Is PSA the best way to understand these things? I would say no.
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This is a huge subject, and there are many other atonement theories. Each theory has its strong points and its flaws. Perhaps I will write about those other theories. If I do so I will link to it here. If you’re reading this article (no one is reading this) you can find plenty of info about the other theories online.
**Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture references are from the NRSV**
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Pursuit of Percipience 
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