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Worthy Is the Lamb That Was Slain: Penal Substitution and Christian Worship

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Worthy Is the Lamb That Was Slain: Penal Substitution and Christian Worship TMSJ 20/2 (Fall 2009) 215-230 WORTHY IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN: PENAL SUBSTITUTION AND CHRISTIAN WORSHIP Andrew V. Snider Assistant Professor of Theology By labeling penal substitution as “redemptive violence,” some have rejected the biblical view of the cross of Jesus as substitutionary and penal by claiming that His death was the ultimate example of pacifism. Others want to relegate penal substitution to the category of being only a metaphor of Scripture. Such distortions of the Bible have adverse effects on true Christian worship as a close survey of ritual offerings under the Mosaic Covenant reflect when carried forward into what the NT says about worship. Sacrifice has always been fundamental as a basis for true worship. The OT book of Leviticus devotes itself to explaining how sinful Israelites through sacrifices could make themselves pure in approaching a holy God in their worship. Four of the five offerings described there—the whole burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, and the sin offering—had the purpose of dealing with sin and with guilt. Holiness achieved through sacrifice was paramount in having one’s sacrifice acceptable by God and effective in worship. The effective offering was costly to the worshiper and brought him into covenant fellowship with God. In the NT Christ came to be the ultimate sacrifice in fulfilment of all the OT offerings. Beginning with John 1:29, the NT uses sacrificial imagery in a number of places in anticipation of His work on the cross, particularly in His institution of the Lord’s Supper. The author of Hebrews in particular portrays Jesus as the perfect atoning sacrifice in fulfillment of the OT system of sacrificial worship. Christian worship without the doctrine of penal substitution is impossible. * * * * * Introduction: The Message of Atonement The principle of penal substitutionary atonement has come under significant challenge in recent years, even among those who fall into the broad category of 215 216 The Master’s Seminary Journal evangelicalism. Widespread discomfort has arisen with viewing the efficacy of Christ’s cross in terms of bloody death that propitiates the wrath of God on behalf of sinners. The sentiment seems to follow that of the old laundry detergent commercial: “There’s gotta be a better way!” One recent example is Daniel Bell, who argues that the penal substitution interpretation of the atonement is an endorsement of what he calls “redemptive violence.” For Bell and those who adopt his ideology, the concept of penal substitution has been used by the church to sanction, or at least tolerate, all sorts of violence and abuse. But how does he explain the cross in light of the strong tradition in favor of penal substitution? An extensive quotation will paint a clear picture. Any effort to make the case that God does not demand blood cannot simply skip over the cross but instead must pass right through it. This is the case not just because efforts to circumvent the cross run against the grain of the tradition and jettison significant portions of scripture, but because discarding the cross and talk of atonement through the blood of the Lamb also undercuts the laudable goals of those who reject blood sacrifice. In other words, we need the cross of Christ in order to reject the logic of blood sacrifice.1 What, then, is the meaning of the cross? Bell continues to advance his agenda as follows: The work of atonement is God in Christ bearing human rejection and extending the offer of grace again, thereby opening a path for hum anity to recover bles sedn ess. In this sense, Christ's faithfulness even to the point of death on the cross marks not a divine demand for retribution, but a divine refusal to hold our rebellion against us. God offers us life and we reject it. God continues to offer it, in the form of love incarnate, and we crucify him. Yet even now, God will not lash out against us but instead raises Jesus up and sends him back with the same offer of life.2 The goal for Bell is clearly to deny that Christ’s substitutionary role on the cross was not only not penal, but rather the opposite—the ultimate example of pacifism.3 A similar approach is taken by Brian McLaren in A Generous Orthodoxy. To set up his understanding of the cross, he summarizes what it means for Jesus to be Lord: 1Daniel M. Bell, Jr., “God Does not Demand Blood: Beyond Redemptive Violence,” in God Does not..Entertain, Play Matchmaker, Hurry, Demand Blood, Cure Every Illness, Kindle e-book ed., ed. D. Brent Laytham (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2009) locations 478-81. Elsewhere Bell strengthens this assertion: “Far from reinforcing blood sacrifice and redemptive violence, Christ's work on the cross is nothing less than the divine refusal of blood sacrifice, as well as any notion that suffering violence is or can be redemptive” (ibid., 512-13). 2Bell, Jr., “God Does Not” locations 532-38. 3A disturbing implication of Bell’s argument (and one that is not lost on Bell) is that those who continue to advocate the penal substitution view are somehow in favor of violence in general, or at least accepting of it. Penal Substitution and Christian Worship 217 We live in danger of oppression and deception, so Jesus comes with saving judgment. When God shines the light of justice and truth through Jesus, the outcome is surprising: the religious and political leaders often turn out to be scoundrels, and the prostitutes and homeless turn out to have more faith and goodness than anyone expected. Through parable, through proverb, through invective (“Woe to you!”), and most powerfully through the drama of his life story culminating in his death and rising, Jesus, wherever he goes, shows things to be what they really are—bringing a saving judgment-with- forgiveness (or justice-with-mercy) to all who will accept it.4 From this theological basis, McLaren then summarizes the meaning of the cross in terms of atonement: This is a window into the meaning of the cross. Absorbing the worst that human beings can offer—crooked religiosity, petty political systems, individual betrayal, physical torture with whip and thorn and nail and hammer and spear—Jesus enters into the center of the thunderstorm of human evil and takes its full shock on the cross. Our evil is brutally, unmistakably exposed, drawn into broad daylight, and judged—named and shown for what it is. Then, having felt its agony and evil firsthand, in person, Jesus pronounces forgiveness and demonstrates that the grace of God is more powerful and expansive than the evil of humanity. Justice and mercy kiss; judgment and forgiveness embrace. From their marriage a new future is conceived.5 McLaren espouses a view of the cross that is similar to Bell’s, but without the explicit commitment to an ideology of nonviolence. In both cases, a clear picture of postliberal soteriology in full bloom is evident. Other challenges to the penal-substitution theme of the atonement are less extreme. Authors like Joel Green and Scot McKnight do not want to deny penal substitution, but rather appreciate it as one of many metaphors in Scripture and church history that have been employed to describe the redemptive efficacy of the cross.6 Now, it is important to see the multicolored richness of the biblical doctrine of the atonement—indeed, Scripture does describe atonement via motifs such as ransom, victory, satisfaction, and example—but it is equally important to see that 4Brian D. M cLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/conservative, Mystical/poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-Yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004) 105. 5Ibid. 6Joel B. Green and Mark D. Baker, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament & Contemporary Contexts (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity 2000); Joel B. Green, “Kaleidoscopic View,” in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, ed. James Belby and Paul R. Eddy (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2006) 157-85; Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007). 218 The Master’s Seminary Journal penal substitution is the central and organizing theme.7 But can the penal substitutionary motif of the atonement be disposed of, reinterpreted, or pushed to the side so easily? What are the consequences of such a denial? This study will draw a connection between the doctrine of penal substitution and the worship life of the people of God. Within the biblical account of redemption, the worship of the faithful reflects the content of the faith—lex orandi, lex credendi. So the question is this: What does the doctrine of atonement look like as it is reflected in the worship of God’s people? And in light of this connection, can a denial or deemphasis of penal substitution stand?8 In order to address these questions, we will survey the ritual offerings prescribed under the Mosaic Covenant, noting the themes of atonement and substitution, and show that these acts formed the core of the worship of OT believers. From there, we will observe key thematic passages in the NT which demonstrate that the concept of sacrifice—and particularly the atoning sacrifice of Jesus—is still integral to worship that is acceptable before God. This study will show that the principle of sacrifice has always been fundamental to true worship. Consequently, because the reality of penal substitution arises directly from the theology of sacrifice, any denial or diminishing of the doctrine of penal substitution is devastating to worship as God intends.
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