A liberal Baptist challenges Substitutionary Atonement:<\/p>\n
The substitutionary theory of the atonement is not the Christian gospel. The only time Paul discusses at length how the death of Jesus is involved in our salvation, he talks about our participation in Jesus\u2019 death, not substitution. Paul says that we died with Christ, and in dying with Christ we died to sin \u2014 \u201cour old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin be destroyed\u201d (Romans 6:6).<\/p>\n
So how does this work? By believing the substitutionary theory of atonement? Of course not. We are set free by trusting that our little, ego self no longer has power over us, and by walking in (being faithful to) the new life of the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4). New Testament faith is primarily about trusting in and being faithful to the way of Jesus, which is the way of love.<\/p>\n
Richard Rohr says: \u201cChristians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control, power, money, pleasure, and security. Then they tend to be pretty much like everybody else. We often gave them a bogus version of the gospel, some fast-food religion, without any deep transformation of the self.\u201d<\/p>\n
What does this \u201cbogus\u201d gospel look like? Consider what the late Charles Caldwell Ryrie, a former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and author of the Ryrie Study Bible, says in his book, So Great Salvation : \u201cThe issue is, How can my sins be forgiven? What is it that bars me from heaven? … The answer is sin. Therefore, I need some way to resolve that problem. And God declares that the death of His Son provides forgiveness of my sin… Through faith I receive Him and His forgiveness. Then the sin problem is solved, and I can be fully assured of going to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is salvation primarily about forgiveness of sin debt and going to heaven? Is salvation even about such things at all? We do not need to be saved from our sin debt, we need to be saved from our actual sins. If God is God and not subject to some outside law of retributive justice, then God can forgive sin unconditionally and freely. God doesn\u2019t need a sacrificial victim to bear sin\u2019s penalty and punishment in order to forgive. If Jesus taught us anything he taught us that God is not a strict Judge presiding in a court of law, but rather, a loving Abba who loves unconditionally and forgives freely. Substitutionary theory imposes conditions on God\u2019s love and forgiveness that make God seem petty and punitive.<\/p>\n
The penalty of sin is not the problem. It is the power of real sin (greed, jealousy, pride, envy, hatred) over our lives that is the problem. And this problem is not solved by simply believing in some divine arrangement which the theory of substitutionary atonement resolves. Believing in a theory doesn\u2019t change us or make us more loving persons.<\/p>\n
Salvation (real transformation) occurs when we are saved from our egotism, love of power and control, consumerism, greed, violence \u2014 what Paul calls \u201cworks of the flesh,\u201d (manifestations of the false self), so that our true self can experience and express God\u2019s liberating love. Paul says, \u201cThe only thing that counts, is faith working through love\u201d (Gal. 5:6). And once again, in the same letter, \u201cThe whole law [the whole requirement of God for humanity] is summed up in a single commandment, \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself\u2019\u201d (5:14). That\u2019s what salvation looks like.<\/p>\n
Ryrie, advocating substitutionary theory as the gospel, says that one can believe that what Jesus taught on earth \u201cwas good, noble, and true, and it was\u201d; one can believe that Jesus wants to \u201crun our lives, and \u201che is able to do that\u201d and \u201cwants to,\u201d; but these issues, according to Ryrie, \u201care not issues of salvation.\u201d He claims, \u201cThat issue is whether or not you believe that His death paid for all your sin and that by believing in Him you can have forgiveness and eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The late Dallas Willard, a professed evangelical, raises serious objections to this understanding of substitution, salvation and faith in his book, The Divine Conspiracy . He points out that this idea of thinking that God would transfer Christ\u2019s merit account to ours, and our sin debt to Christ simply \u201cupon inspecting our mind and finding that we believe a particular theory of the atonement to be true \u2014 even if we trust everything but God in all other matters that concern us\u201d is foundationally flawed. Willard asks, \u201cCan we believe that being saved has nothing whatsoever to do with the kinds of persons we are?\u201d Willard rightly considers it \u201cunfathomable\u201d that God would devise a plan of salvation that \u201cbypasses the awesome needs of present human life … with our kinds of problems: psychological, emotional, social and global,\u201d and \u201cleave human character untouched.\u201d I wish more evangelicals would read Willard.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just common sense. What kind of persons and what kind of world does God want? Surely whatever salvation involves it would involve our transformation into the persons and society God wills. Does God want persons who are simply forgiven? Or does God want persons who are not only forgiven, but are quick to forgive others, because they have a forgiving heart? Does God want persons who believe theories, or does God want persons who return God\u2019s love and love others as they love themselves?<\/p>\n
Salvation is a process of becoming more loving like God. As we are daily saved from our sins \u2014 our selfishness, impatience, anger, envy, lust for power \u2014 we are free to love others as we love ourselves. Loving God and loving others is \u201cmuch more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices\u201d (Mark 12:33), and on these two love commandments \u201chang all the law and the prophets\u201d (Matt. 22:40). Jesus told the gatekeepers of his day, \u201cGo learn what this means, \u2018I desire mercy, not sacrifice\u2019\u201d (Matt 9:13). It really is that simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A liberal Baptist challenges Substitutionary Atonement: The substitutionary theory of the atonement is not the Christian gospel. The only time Paul discusses at length how the death of Jesus is involved in our salvation, he talks about our participation in Jesus\u2019 death, not substitution. Paul says that we died with Christ, and in dying with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142,176,434,570],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}