ONCE MORE, GOD PUNISHING HIS INNOCENT SON
"Christ
bore our sins by becoming one of a family under God's judgment. In the
previous section I made the point that Christ identified with a sinful
family and here I want to stress that he identified with a family under actual judgment.
Imagine a planet seething with rebellion and covered by a thunderstorm
that represents God's judgment on that human family. The Word who was
with God and who was/is God chose to become part of that family that is
under God's judgment and so He leaves heaven and enters into that storm.
As part of that family He shares the judgment that rests on that family but it's a matter of identification and not transference. The judgment remains on the family even while the holy Christ shares that judgment with them. They aren't exempt from it. It never passes from off them on to him. In sharing the death they die he has no complaint though he hasn't earned their death. In his death on the cross he confesses in the name of humanity (and in the name of God) that God's judgments on sin are holy and righteous. The pain and loss he endures are vicarious as he shares the hurt that exists because his family has sinned. The pain and loss he endures are representative because he does it in our name as well as for our sake. In our name and as our representative he offers his holy obedience even unto death as the only fit homage that answers God's holiness. In him (and only in Him!) the whole human family is represented before God. Hebrews 2:14-15 insists... His death rescues us and he expressly shared our humanity to share our judgment and as our representative defeat death and the Devil. In all of this, there is no suggestion that our personal judgment, death, or sin are transferred off of us and onto Christ. He doesn't sin our sin but he is put to grief because of our sin. He doesn't die a deserved death but he shares the deserved death that exists as part of the judgment on sinners. The chastisement that brought our peace and reconciliation fell on him (Isaiah 53) because he insisted in joining us under God’s judgment” (115).
The above is an excerpt from The Dragon Slayer.*
I've said a little about 2 Corinthians 5:21 in the little book. I for one am persuaded [I think beyond debate] that we must stop teaching that God punished an innocent person--ever! Much less did He punish his Holy Son who in dying did the will of the Holy Father and in doing it he meant to do it and in doing it he offered that dying act as an act of loving obedience and in doing that he sinlessly offered his sinless/spotless Self by the Holy Spirit [Hebrews 9:14].
Of course innocent people suffered with the guilty who were punished! We see that every day of our lives and judges often punish criminals with the result that their innocent children or others suffer because of it. But no judge who ever acted in righteousness ever punished some he/she knew was innocent. Had such a judge done so he/she would have been criminal in the act, they would have been unrighteous but God is not unrighteous in forgiving sin [1 John 1:9--faith and righteous].
I could live with penal substitution [barely] if it were being offered as a metaphor or an analogy but it is not offered as such. The claim is that God is holy and His holy law must be "satisfied" and that it cannot be "satisfied" without sin being punished to the nth degree. Sin must be punished out of existence, we are being told. Not only does it make God look like some unrighteous servant of a legalistic inner quality, it destroys the very notion of forgiveness; He punishes the sinner's sin out of existence and calls it "forgiveness". Then, perhaps worse, having punished an innocent and morally beautiful boy to the nth degree he still eternally punishes the sinners for their sins.
This is nothing as simple as [as one scholar has suggested] that pen sub is one golf club out of many that could be used. The theory is plainly false!
The idea that God punished Christ didn't come from God--Isaiah 53:4 puts it in the mouth of those who confessed they had missed the entire point!!!!!!!!!!
[If you wished you can purchase the little book via: weaverbethann@gmail.com
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