In a short blog post entitled How Does "Dying for Our Sins" Work?, author Brian Zahnd raises some good philosophical questions which are hard to answer by those who hold to Penal Substitutionary Atonement
(PSA is the belief that on the cross God the Father poured out His wrath against His Son who was carrying the sins of the world. Proponents of PSA hold that only after His wrath was satisfied could God forgive sinners.)
Zahnd does a great job of contrasting what Scripture conveys about the work of Jesus on the cross with the main tenets of Penal Substitutionary Atonement.
A couple of quotes about this contrast:
Jesus does not save us from God; Jesus reveals God! Jesus does not provide God with the capacity to forgive; Jesus reveals God as forgiving love.
The cross is not about the appeasement of a monster god. The cross is about the revelation of a merciful God. At the cross we discover a God who would rather die than kill his enemies. The cross is where God in Christ absorbs sin and recycles it into forgiveness.
The cross is not what God inflicts upon Christ in order to forgive. The cross is what God endures in Christ as he forgives.
[DO NOT read the comments section at the bottom of Zahnd's post - unless you enjoy the spectacle of Christians insulting each other over "wrong beliefs".]
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