Why the Cross Is Under Fire
Christians have always known that the cross would offend. Paul called it unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23). What is new is where the sharpest objections come from today. They come from inside the church, from pastors and writers who speak warmly of Jesus and recoil from the way the Bible explains His death.
Few people doubt that Jesus died. The question is why. Did He die to show us God's love? To expose human violence? To leave us an example of forgiveness? Or did He die in our place, bearing the penalty our sins deserved? Scripture says He showed love and left an example. Then it says more: Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3).
The teaching that Christ, in the place of sinners, bore the penalty their sins deserved, satisfying God's justice and turning away His wrath, so that God can forgive and justify everyone who believes.
We hold this as the heart of the Gospel. The Substitutionary Atonement sets out the doctrine in full and weighs the other theories of the cross. This study takes up the charges now being brought against it.
Did Jesus die only to change our minds about God, or did He die to take our place before God?
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For Deeper Study
- The Cross of ChristAmazon John R. W. StottAn evangelical Anglican classic that sets substitution at the heart of the cross and answers the objections to it.
- The Atonement: Its Meaning and SignificanceAmazon Leon MorrisA readable study of the Bible's key words for the cross, including propitiation and redemption.
- The Nature of the Atonement: Four ViewsAmazon James Beilby and Paul R. Eddy, eds.Penal substitution, Christus Victor, and two other views argued by their own advocates, each answered by the others.
- Christianity and LiberalismAmazon J. Gresham MachenThe 1923 classic by a Presbyterian scholar, with a searching chapter on what salvation means when the cross is reduced to an example.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Substitutionary Atonement
Christ died in the place of sinners, bearing the penalty of sin so that whosoever believes may be forgiven and declared righteous.
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