[Ed. note: this is our sixth installment in the Bell Ringer of excerpts from the important Nordskog Publishing title Rebuilding Civilization in the Bible: Proclaiming the Truth on 24 Controversial Issues.]
This set of Affirmations and Denials was written primarily by the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen. With very few editorial changes by our committee, it remains essentially as Dr. Bahnsen wrote it.
How amazing that we should need to defend the very foundations of the Gospel from those who call themselves evangelical! Yes, there are those who call themselves Christians, yet deny the Cross of Christ. They teach a gospel different from that taught by the Bible; for from the first pages to the last, the Bible teaches salvation by judicial substitutionary sacrifice! When God clothed fallen Adam and his wife with coats of skins in the book of Genesis, we assume blood was shed in the process, and there we see substitutionary salvation. When we see the Lamb, “standing as if slain,” in the last pages of the Bible, we are reminded that the whole message is one of judicial and substitutionary salvation (Revelation 5:12). And the intervening chapters of the Bible are full of descriptions of sin offerings, of peace offerings, of atonement, priesthood, tabernacle, and of blood. Blood, countless barrels of blood! For what? It was substitutionary blood and it was the only hope held out to the race of fallen men. Yet sadly, there are those who still insist the Bible does not teach that Christ’s death was for judicial and substitutionary purposes. Jesus’ death, they say, means something else.
The historic orthodox Christian belief through the centuries has been that salvation in Christ is both “judicial” and “substitutionary,” because the holiness of God requires judgment for sin. Without judicial and substitutionary salvation and man’s repentance, sinners will be judged by God for their sin and rebellion, and cast into the Lake of Fire. The Gospel, the Good News, is that God saves guilty sinners, sinners who have violated God’s Law, and thus are judicially condemned in the court of God’s holiness, where they are held accountable for their guilty deeds. Guilty sinners have no ability to abrogate their guilt, nor pay the debt for their crimes against God and fellow humans. Therefore they must suffer the penalty of their sin, which penalty is the second death, the lake of fire (Psalm 49:7-9; Romans 1:32; 3:23; Revelation 20:14, 15). But wait! There is salvation in Jesus! Jesus has paid the price by taking upon Himself the judicial sentence of the sinner’s condemnation, becoming his substitute under the wrath of God, and submitting Himself to the death God Himself inflicted on the Cross (Isaiah 53:6, 10). In that process of substitution, Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to sinners, that is, legally, forensically, and actually (in the “heavenly book-keeping”), Christ’s righteousness is transferred over to the sinner’s “account.” Now all who call upon Him while recognizing that their only hope of salvation is in Him, receive the removal of their guilt and condemnation in exchange for the righteousness which is Christ’s. As it is written, God “made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus)” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So simple a child can understand it, and though this is indeed the message of the Bible, cover to cover, yet amazingly, there are those who are determined to resist the revelation of God’s saving grace, for they exchange the Gospel of our Lord Jesus for a non-judicial, non-substitutionary, non-forensic gospel. This exchange takes several forms.
One of those forms is the “moral influence” theory first advocated by Peter Abelard (1079–1142). This theory says Christ did not die as a payment for sins, but rather that, in the Cross, God showed how much He loved human beings by identifying with their sufferings and, in the process, gave us a model of extreme self-sacrifice which we should follow. In his landmark book, Christianity and Liberalism, ardent liberal opponent, Dr. J. Gresham Machen, shows that if the “moral influence” theory is true, then the only thing that makes the Cross of Christ significant is the significance we give it — “The uniqueness of this particular example [of Christ’s death], then, can be found only in the fact that Christian sentiment, gathering around it, has made it a convenient symbol for all self-sacrifice; it puts in concrete form what would otherwise have to be expressed in colder, general terms.”
Another non-Atonement theory called “the example theory” was promoted by the Socinians, the followers of Faustus Socinus (1539–1604). This theory also denies that God’s justice requires payment for sin for it claims that Christ’s death simply gives us an example of how we should trust and obey God perfectly, even if that trust and obedience leads to a terrible death.
There are other variations and combinations of these theories, but they all deny the judicial and substitutionary nature of salvation, and in so doing throw away the central truth of the Bible and the sinner’s only hope — that the blood of Jesus has been shed on behalf of guilty sinners to save us from God’s penalty of death for our sins, to save us from the present power of sin in this life after we are redeemed, and in heaven, to eventually save us from the presence of sin.
The Cross provides forgiveness of sins. How are sins forgiven? They are forgiven judicially (condemnation is removed, Christ’s righteousness is given to the sinner) by the substitution of Christ (“the Just for the unjust”) in place of the sinner. Without this truth, the Cross is reduced to a sentimental spectacle calculated to capture human emotions with the hope that people will turn to a better life — more kind, more caring, more self-sacrificial. But this false gospel is sentiment and warm fuzzy feelings without the substance of the reality that has transpired on behalf of mankind. Without the judicial and substitutionary Cross, the sins of sinners are left untouched, unforgiven, unatoned; the sinner is left guilty in his sins. The true Gospel says that to those who recognize their guilt and confess their need, there is blood poured out on their behalf, that they might be spared and given eternal life as a gift by his grace (Romans 6:23; 5:15). To all who will hear his voice, Jesus says, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28, ESV).
DOCUMENT 7 Concerning the Judicial and Substitutionary Nature of Salvation
ARTICLES OF AFFIRMATION AND DENIAL ARTICLE I We affirm that the Christian Gospel is indispensably a message about the saving work of the historical individual, Jesus Christ,a who was fully Godb and fully man,c whose substitutionary death upon the cross secured justification for believers against the judicial condemnation of God which rests upon sin and sinners.d
We deny that Christianity is merely a metaphysical abstraction, ethical program, or social movement.
a. Luke 2:1-7; Rom. 5:18-19; 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Heb. 13:12 b. John 1:1-3; 20:27-28; 1 Tim. 3:16; Titus 2:13; 2 Pet. 1:1 c. Matt. 26:45; 28:9, 17; Luke 1:35; John 6:53; 14:7-11; 1 Tim. 2:5 d. Matt. 1:1, 21; Luke 24:39; Rom. 3:21-26; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:13, 14, 22; Heb. 9:26, 28; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:18
ARTICLE II We affirm that the Bible presents salvation as salvation from sin’s guilt and powera and that the measuring rod for sin is God’s holy and unchanging characterb as disclosed through the created order and man’s heart,c but verbally revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.d
We deny that sin is defined by divinely fluctuating feeling, simply a failure in cultural standards, or a failure in man’s attitudes or projects, such as self-esteem, positive perspective, affirmation of others, etc.
a. Matt. 1:21; Rom. 3:21-26; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:22; Heb. 9:26, 28; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:18 b. Lev. 11:44-45; 20:7; Joel 3:17; 1 Pet. 1:14-17; 1 John 3:5-6 c. Ps. 19:1-4; Rom. 1:18-21; 2:1, 14-16; Acts 14:17; 17:28-31 d. Exod. 20:1-17; Deut. 6:1-7; Isa. 1:10; Hosea 1:1; Amos 7:16; John 5:39; 2 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 22:18-19; etc.
ARTICLE III We affirm that as an affront to God’s righteousness, sin fully deserves the wrath of God, who imposes the just recompense and inescapable condemnation of death either upon sinnersa or upon an innocent Substitute who satisfies the justice of God in their place.b
We deny that the divine, wrathful, and just sentence of death upon sinners can be mitigated or set aside at the discretion of a holy and righteous God without the infliction of His announced penal sanction.c
a. Ezek. 18:4; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Heb. 10:26-31; Rev. 20:10-15; 21:8; 22:15 b. Lev. 1:4; 3:2; Matt. 1:21; Rom. 3:21-26; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:20-22; Heb. 9:26, 28; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:18 c. Ps. 49:7-9; Isa. 40:27; Ezek. 18:4; Heb. 10:26-31
ARTICLE IV We affirm that Jesus Christ, by His death, offered a substitutionary atonement, rescuing His people from the judicial condemnation of God upon their sin by fully bearing the penalty of their sin upon the cross, the righteous dying as a sacrifice for the unrighteous and being cursed in their behalf.a
We deny that the death of Christ was merely a utilitarian public example of sin’s ugliness and suffering, intended by God to deter others from immoral living, rather than being retributive in character.
a. Matt. 1:21; Rom. 3:21-26; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:21; Col. 1:20-22; Heb. 9:26, 28; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:18
ARTICLE V We affirm that the reconciling work of Christ removes God’s enmity and alienation against sinners who believe in Christ by paying the prescribed penalty which rests upon their objective, legal guilt before God.a
We deny that Christ’s saving work was merely an act of mediation or a compelling gesture of good will intended to restore communication between God and men as parties who do not trust each other.
a. Isa. 53:4-6; Mark 16:16; John 3:18; 5:24; 1 Cor. 15:3; Eph. 1:7; 2:13-22; 3:12; Col. 2:13-14; Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet. 2:24-25
ARTICLE VI We affirm that justification is a forensic transaction in which God not only acquits or pardons the sinner in consideration of Christ’s self-sacrifice for sins, but also imputes the positive righteousness of Christ to the legal account of the sinner, this righteousness being both alien and yet constitutive, thus serving as the basis in truth of God’s declared verdict of a righteous status for the believer.a
We deny that the atonement was merely a pathos-evoking example of God’s love, intended to have a subjective moral influence in the heart of believers and leading them to live self-sacrificially by imitation. We further deny that in the teaching of the Bible God’s justification of the wicked has a causative quality, that it replaces, elevates, or infuses the Adamic nature of the believer with the actual righteousness of Christ as sanctifying grace, and that it is in any way a divine assessment based upon the inward character of the believer.
a. Rom. 3:21-24; 4:1-8; 5:19; 7:18-25; 8:1-4; 10:3-10; 1 Cor. 1:30-31; 2 Cor. 5:21
ARTICLE VII We affirm that the judicial concerns of substitutionary atonement and forensic justification are indispensable to the rich and comprehensive work of God’s gracious salvation, which extends beyond the guilt of sin to its power, pollution, and consequences as well.
We deny that God’s saving work of sinners is restricted to the judicial concerns of substitutionary atonement and forensic justification. We deny any claim that God’s saving work fails to encompass also the breaking of sin’s powera and the reversing of sin’s consequences in the regeneration and sanctification of menb and subduing of creation,c and in the ultimate glorification of believersd and re-creation of the world.e
a. Matt. 1:21: Acts 13:38-39; Rom. 6:12-18; Col. 1:20-23; Rev. 1:5 b. 1 Cor. 1:2,30; 6:11; Eph. 2:1-10; 5:26; Col. 3:5; Titus 3:3-8; 1 Pet. 1:22-23 c. Gen. 1:28; Rom. 8:19-22; Heb. 2:6-9 d. Rom. 8:17, 30; Eph. 1:18; 3:6; Col. 3:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; Titus 3:7; Heb. 9:15; 1 Pet. 1:3-5; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:7 e. 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1
This article is an excerpt from Dr. Jay Grimstead and the late Dr. Eugene Clingmans’s Nordskog Publishing book Rebuilding Civilization on the Bible: Proclaiming the Truth on 24 Controversial Issues.
© 2022
No comments yet.