While engaged in this, I came across one individual who insisted PSA did not exist until it was “developed by Anselm in 1100.” He wrote,
“PSA is an atonement theory developed 1000 years after Christ. The idea of God having to kill and punish His son in order to forgive, makes him look like a pagan deity demanding appeasement by a sacrifice. Christ willingly laid down his life as a self-giving sacrifice to take on death and defeat it for us in our place. The sinless one was not subject to death and therefore crushed Satan’s power and took the keys of death back. Christ didn’t become “impure” as some say with PSA. If God commands us to forgive someone without recompense, then why doesn’t He In this atonement theory? … substitutionary atonement was developed by Anselm in 1100. It was first thought of [as the] 'satisfaction theory' then later evolved to be penal in the reformation.”
I tried to explain that not only is PSA biblical, and that the early Church believed and taught it; but this person was having none of it. They knew what they believed and they did not care what the truth is.
I call people like these Eli’s, so named after a friend from years ago named Eli, who once said to me, “You present a good argument Bob, and you have all of the facts, but I have to say, I don’t care what the truth is, I know what I believe.” Bless his heart.
If I had to hazard a very subjective guess as to why so many are against the PSA, it would be that the 16th century Reformers and those who followed in their footsteps believed in the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus Christ, and they taught it persistently and still do so today. But what about my claim to these people that not only did the early Church teach PSA, but it can be found clearly and explicitly set forth in the Bible? How true is that?
What is the Penal Substitutionary Atonement?
To begin with, let’s take a look at exactly what the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus Christ is. To do this I plan to lay it out for you piece by piece.
1. We must first ask why PSA is even necessary. It is because we are sinners. As a result of the Fall of Man, every human being is born with a sin nature. Not simply an inclination toward sin, as we can always change our inclinations; but, we cannot change our nature. Sin is inherent in our nature. It is simply who we are. We are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners.
God has stated time and time again throughout the Old Testament and the New, that because we violate God’s commands we deserve His wrath; and that includes an eternity in Hell with no hope of reprieve. That is the singular penalty for sin. That is what we deserve, and that is what we owe God because of our sin.
2. Jesus repeatedly stated that if we place our sincere faith and trust in Him and in what He has done for us, He will save us from our sins and grant us eternal life (Romans 10:9-10). This is what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. But what about the penalty we must pay because of our sin? Nowhere in Scripture do we read that the penalty is simply waived. No. That penalty must be paid.
3. Throughout the Old Testament we see that the penalty that must be paid in order to forgive sin is death through the shedding of blood. Scripture also teaches us that the shedding of animal blood and the death of those animals is not sufficient to forgive sin. In the Old Testament (and beyond for those who live by the law) animal blood and death only postpones the inevitable. It cannot forgive sin, but rather covered it and then only for one year.
4. The only way to pay the penalty for sin is for a human being to be sacrificed for sin, and not just any human being. The sacrificial human must be completely and totally free from all sin from the moment of their conception and throughout their entire life. That excludes me and it excludes you. Now, some people balk at the idea of a sacrificial human. It sounds almost like the Mayans or Aztecs or some other pagan society. But we must remember two things. First, that it is God Almighty, our Creator, who has established that rule; and second that God automatically excluded every single human being except one.
5. Enter God. God is the only one entirely free from sin. But God is not a man, He is spirit, a non-corporeal essence. Enter Jesus, the second Person of the Triune Godhead. He is fully God, the one true God, as are God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In order for Jesus to be become a sacrifice for our sins, He must first become a human being. Thus, we have the Incarnation where Jesus became truly human, while at the same time remaining truly God. He is the only one ever born that has two complete and distinct natures. He has a Divine nature, and He has a human nature. It’s not that Jesus as God died for our sin, God cannot die; but, Jesus as a human being can and did die for our sin. But how did that work?
6. Remember the penalty we owe for sin mentioned in #1? We are still required to pay that penalty because God requires it. Now back to Jesus. He agreed to take upon Himself our sin (He who knew no sin, became sin), and pay that penalty, our penalty, for sin (He became our propitiation, more on that in a minute). And that is the essence of Penal (a penalty is owed) Substitutionary (He substituted Himself for us in the payment of that penalty) Atonement (where He agreed to be our propitiatory sacrifice).
The Penal Substitutionary Atonement in Scripture and the Early Church
Here are a few of the Scriptures that teach one or more aspects of the PSA:
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21, NASB95
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. – Isaiah 53:4-6 NASB95
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. – Isaiah 53:10-12 NASB95
And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. – 1 Peter 2:24 NASB95
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; – 1 Peter 3:18 NASB95
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” – Galatians 3:13 NASB95
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. – Colossians 2:13-14 NASB95
Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. – Hebrews 9:26 NASB95
You can find the doctrine of the penal substitutionary atonement in the Letter to Diognetus (c. 125AD), as well as in the writings of Clement of Rome (c.96AD), Polycarp (c.135AD), Justin Martyr (c.160AD), Irenaeus (c.180AD), Clement of Alexandria (c.195AD), Ambrose (d.c.250AD), Athanasius (AD 296-373), Eusebius of Caesarea (d.339), Augustine (354-430), Gregory the Great (d.604), and many, many others. The Christian Church has believed and taught the Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Christ since its inception, and it has done so for the simple reason that the Bible teaches it.
The Propitiation
It seems to me that most of this will be agreed upon by the majority of PSA critics. Where they stumble, however, is the idea that Christ suffered in our place (in spite of the above passages teaching this very thing). This aspect of the PSA is known as the propitiation. Here are three passages that clearly and explicitly teach the propitiation:
Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation (Greek:hilastérion) in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; – Romans 3:25 NASB95
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation (Greek:hilaskomai) for the sins of the people. – Hebrews 2:17 NASB95
And He Himself is the propitiation (Greek:hilasmos) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. – 1 John 2:2 NASB95
Propitiation: In the Romans 3:25 and 1 John 2:2 verses above, the word is drawn from the Greek root word hilaskomai (see Hebrews 2:17 above). Hilaskomai (and therefore both hilasmos and hilastérion) means to “placate or appease or to make atonement. In the context of the New Testament, it refers to the act of making amends or reconciling with God, often through a sacrificial offering. This term is closely associated with the concept of propitiation, where God's wrath is appeased through a substitutionary sacrifice, ultimately fulfilled in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.” (Strong’s, Thayers, Bible Hub)
So you can see by these three verses, that Jesus was the propitiation or appeasement for those who believe in Him, taking the wrath of God that we deserve for us, and in our place. And this was all done according to God’s good pleasure, His perfect will (see Isaiah 53:10).
Why is Penal Substitutionary Atonement an Essential Doctrine?
If Jesus did not die in our place, taking our sins upon Himself in our place, as a propitiation or appeasement of God’s wrath; then we are still in our sins, and we still have a penalty to pay to God. A penalty that we will never be able to pay in full, and so will be condemned to Hell for all of eternity.
Furthermore, since the Bible very clearly and explicitly teaches PSA, as we have seen, any Jesus that is not a penal substitutionary atonement for our sin is, quite simply, a Jesus that is someone other than the Jesus of the Bible, the second Person of the Triune Godhead.
If you reject the PSA, then you are rejecting the Jesus of the Bible, and replacing Him with a counterfeit Jesus, who is made in the mind of man, in man’s image rather than in God’s image.
Conclusion?
The Penal Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus, as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of all who would believe in Him, is a thoroughly biblical doctrine. It is taught throughout the Bible, and has been taught by the Christian Church throughout it’s entire history, from the Apostles to the early Church fathers to the Reformation to today. To deny it is to deny Jesus Himself. To deny it after learning what it is and seeing it in the Bible demonstrates a lack of salvation.
If you have read through to the end of this overly long blog post (and I apologize for its length), then you now have a good working knowledge of PSA. If you still deny it, I urge you to repent of that, as well as of your other sins, and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ – the Jesus of the Bible – for the salvation of your soul.