Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered that our doctrines are actually unbiblical. This causes us concern.
We have deemed this reconsideration our “Rethink.” Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?
It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were too lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.
Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.
We should note that there is more than one way to interpret doctrine, more than one way to think about the faith, and more than one way to read the Scriptures. We would not suggest that our way is the only way, or the right way; we are not Bible scholars. But we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to rightly divide the Word of God.
----------------------It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were too lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.
Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.
We should note that there is more than one way to interpret doctrine, more than one way to think about the faith, and more than one way to read the Scriptures. We would not suggest that our way is the only way, or the right way; we are not Bible scholars. But we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to rightly divide the Word of God.
We recently came across a doctrine we'd never heard of before, that the suffering of Jesus comes to bear on the wrath of God towards sinners. First, Dr. John Piper:
Our worship, and our love for Christ, ought to burn brightly when we contemplate that one man, one God-man, could endure enough in 33 years to provide a sufficient satisfaction in the justice of God for eternal salvation for so many wicked people.
...sins committed against an infinite Creator are infinitely grievous. It would therefore seem that, to take our eternal sentence, Jesus would need to be eternally punished. From this we might deduce that either Jesus is still being punished by the Father (which the Bible denies), or his death isn’t sufficient to atone for our sins, since he didn’t receive the eternal punishment we deserve.
These men needlessly wrestle with a question that is based on several false premises, including
- Jesus's suffering is related to God's justice
- Jesus substituted Himself in our place
- The Father punished Jesus for our sin
- Jesus paid our sin debt
Let's look at each of these in turn.
Jesus' Suffering Does Not Come to Bear On God's Justice
Jesus bears the marks of the crucifixion [Re. 5:6], which are simply horrific identifiers of the injury and torture He suffered. But these marks are never celebrated. His suffering is never celebrated. Rather, His sacrifice is celebrated [Re. 5:9]. His victory over death is celebrated [Re. 5:13]. His obedience is celebrated (Ro. 5:19, He. 5:8). But we don't find His suffering celebrated, only acknowledged.
His suffering was prophesied:
Is. 53:3-5 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
He suffered and was punished, but note that Isaiah clearly tells us that if we were to think God punished Him we would be wrong. His suffering and punishment was at the hands of men (Mt. 17:22).
And notice that He "took up" and "carried" the things that were "upon Him." Even in the OT Jesus was presented as our burden-bearer, the carrier of our evils. We discuss this in our third point below.
But although His suffering was necessary, it was not the agent of propitiation for our sins. The quantity or duration of His suffering had nothing to do with forgiveness of sin. Instead, the Bible tells us that His death was for our forgiveness, and this one-time event was all that's required:
He. 9:26-28 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Just to restate, Jesus' death, not His suffering, brings our forgiveness as the Lamb of God, whose spilled blood cleansed us from all sin:
He. 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Jesus Did Not Substitute Himself For Us
He died for our benefit, not in substitution for us. There is no verse in the Bible that tells us Jesus died in our place.
He was the Lamb of God, of which the OT sacrifices were types. A type is a representation or foreshadowing of a greater thing. This means that in order to understand Jesus' sacrificial death we need to understand the OT sacrifices.
The OT sacrifices were never regarded as taking the place of the offeror. The sacrifices were not regarded as guilty, and they were never punished. They never were intended to suffer. They were simply killed and their blood was spilled on the altar.
It needs to be clearly understood that the spilled blood was the effective agent of atonement:
Ro. 3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
Ro. 5:9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Ep. 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins...
He. 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Re. 1:5 ...To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood...
The blood is the agent by which we are cleansed of sin.
The Father Never Punished Jesus
We examined this false idea in detail here. Suffice to say, There is no verse in the Bible that tells us the Father punished Jesus. As we mentioned above, the Lamb of God carried our sins like a burden to the cross:
We examined this false idea in detail here. Suffice to say, There is no verse in the Bible that tells us the Father punished Jesus. As we mentioned above, the Lamb of God carried our sins like a burden to the cross:
1Pe. 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness...
The Greek word for "bore" is anapheró, to carry or bring up, to lead up. He did not "bear" our sins in the sense that He endured the Father's punishment, He bore our sin as one would carry out the garbage. He took our condemnation away:
"Took it away" is the Greek word airó, I raise, lift up, take away, remove. Jesus removed our sin by lifting it up and nailing it to the cross like a burden to be carried and discharged.
Col. 2:14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
Jesus Did Not Pay Our Sin Debt
Jesus did not pay the debt for our sins. There is no verse that tells us that. There is no verse that tells us sin is a debt to be paid. Go ahead, check the Scriptures for yourself. Jesus didn't die to pay for our sins, He died for our sins:
1Pe. 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Ga. 2:20 The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Ep. 5:2 ...just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1Ti. 2:6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men...
Tit. 2:14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness..."For " in all these verses is huper, which doesn't mean "in the place of." Jesus did not die in our place. Huper means on behalf of, for the sake of, concerning. It was for our benefit He endured the cross. It was for our benefit His blood was spilled. None of this was substitutionary. None of it involved an exchange of value. Jesus didn't pay anybody to redeem us, because no one was owed anything.
It was not a trade, it was a sacrifice.
He died to pay for us, not for our sins. This is a crucial distinction. Jesus spilled His blood to purchase us:
1Co. 6:20 For you were bought with a price.
1Ti. 2:5-6 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men — the testimony given in its proper time.
There was no exchange. No bargaining. Nothing changed hands. Jesus' death was not a financial transaction, it was a sacrificial transaction.
Nor was it some sort of legal transaction. There is no courtroom, there is no evidence presented, and there is no presumption of innocence. There is no prosecutor, no jury, and no defense attorney. Jesus does not walk into the courtroom and substitute Himself for punishment, for indeed, no legal jurisdiction would allow such a thing.
Jesus' death was not a legal transaction, it was a sacrificial transaction.
Neither financial nor legal. These concepts are not found in the Bible.
Conclusion
So, how did Dr. Piper and Mr. Menkis arrive at their conclusions? Well, if the Father punished Jesus in our place for our sin, then Jesus' punishment has to correspond to the magnitude of our sin. And punishment involves pain and suffering. Therefore, His suffering must be big enough and long enough to compensate for the grievous nature of our sin.
Or, they need to come up with a workaround since Jesus' was not punished eternally. You can read their convoluted reasoning in the links at the top.
However, if Jesus was not punished by the Father, if His suffering is not the agent of forgiveness, and if He did not die in our place, then no workaround is needed.
Perhaps, dear reader, you have begun to see how Jesus' death on the cross has been misrepresented. Once you see it you see it everywhere and can't unsee it.
This is the nature of deception, it blinds us to God's truth. These pernicious teachings have persisted for centuries, and those who adhere to them have even suggested that to dispute them is heretical. But those who search the Scriptures for themselves apart from preconceptions will find that too often that the truth has not been told to us.
That is the purpose of our rethinks. We might not have changed your mind, dear reader, but hopefully we've spurred you to study the Scriptures from a better vantage point.
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