The Atonement – Romans 1-3 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement

Last updated on: September 16, 2017 at 6:28 pm by Adrian Warnock

The Atonement – Romans 1-3 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement 2017-09-16T18:28:13+01:00 Adrian Warnock

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I have recently shared my own definition of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, as well as that given by the authors of Pierced For Our Transgressions. For the next few posts I will be giving a brief overview of some of the key passages in the Bible that help us to understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross. I will begin with a bird’s eye view of the book of Romans.

We have already quoted from the early chapters of Romans, which clearly portray the problem of sin. Sin, we are told, in Romans 1 gives rise to God’s wrath. But already in chapter 1, Paul introduces the good news he will elaborate on later:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

Any theory of atonement must take these verses seriously. Implicit in them is the idea of imputation of righteousness by faith. Instead of our righteousness, there is a righteousness “of God.” It is particularly poignant coming as it does before a whole section that makes clear that we do not have righteousness at all and are all in a terrible position before God.

We are told in verse 9 of chapter 2, “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil . . .” Then in chapter 3 we are told:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

Thus, we are prepared for one of the most important few verses in Scripture:

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-26)

Now, I recognize that this passage has been a battleground. Many leap straight into a discussion of the word “propitiation” here and what exactly it means. Much ink has been spilled on that subject. I have read some material on it, and am convinced that it does indeed mean “turning away of wrath.” Rather than spend time looking at the meaning of that Greek word, I want to use two principles — those of interpreting in context and the principle of redundancy of communication.

A paragraph like this should, of course, be viewed in the context of the whole book. As such, it is clearly offering a solution to the problem of the universality of sin and God’s wrath towards it. We, therefore, cannot divorce it from the concept of God’s wrath, however culturally challenging it may be to talk about God being righteously angry against sin.

If we were to delete the word propitiation from that verse, leaving a blank space, what would we fill in its place? Clearly we are told that people can be made righteous by an external act of God. We are told that “redemption” is paid — which clearly means there is a cost involved. We are told that God was active in “putting forward” Jesus and that his blood must be received by faith. Quite how blood deals with the problem of sin which has been so central to Romans without it having some kind of penalty element and some kind of substitution baffles me. The blood has to have dealt with sin.

We are then told that the whole process was to demonstrate that God was righteous. He has passed over sin in the past — surely an “unrighteous” act people might think. But no, something about the cross reveals that God is just — his justice has been satisfied. Without the cross, says Paul, God could not have been both just and the one who declares sinners to be righteous simply on the grounds of their faith.

To me we need nothing more. Romans has shown us our state — the horror of the fate we deserve, has declared that Jesus did something to take away that fate on the cross, that by faith in Him we can be declared righteous, and that this takes place in such a way as to protect God from the charge of being “un-just.” Surely that is penal substitution. Surely no other system accounts properly for these verses!

Continues with “The Atonement – Romans 4-5 on Penal Substitutionary Atonement”

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