A Hymn of Security Part 2
penal substitution (atonement) — A view of the atonement that understands Christ's death on the cross as paying the death penalty for sin on behalf of sinners.
As no one can succeed in his accusation when the judge absolves, so there remains no condemnation, when the laws have been satisfied and the penalty already paid. Christ is the One who once suffered the punishment due to us, and thereby professed that He took our place in order to deliver us. Anyone, therefore, who desires to condemn us after this must kill Christ Himself again’ (Calvin’s commentary on Romans 8:34).
A spillover from Calvinism into Arminianism has occurred in recent decades. Thus many Arminians whose theology is not very precise say that Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Yet such a view is foreign to Arminianism.… Arminians teach that what Christ did he did for every person; therefore, what he did could not have been to pay the penalty for sin, since no one would then ever go into eternal perdition. Arminianism teaches that Christ suffered for everyone so that the Father could forgive the ones who repent and believe; his death is such that all will see that forgiveness is costly and will strive to cease from anarchy in the world God governs
Suppose that for some reason a friend of mine has fallen afoul of the law and as a result has been taken to jail. I hear about his plight and immediately make my funds available to bail him out. In a very real sense I provide the price of redemption for him. All right. I get the bail, reach the prison, pay the money, and then go home. My wife asks, ‘Where is your friend?’
I say, ‘He’s in prison.’
‘In prison? But didn’t you take the bail money down there?’
‘Yes, I paid the money to redeem him, but he’s still in prison.
It hasn’t worked.’ What kind of redemption would that be? If redemption is accomplished, then those who are in bondage must be liberated. They cannot be held in captivity any longer. Therefore, the work of Christ is described in such terms that not only what he intends but also what he performed is expressed by it.
In dying on the cross of Calvary the Lord Jesus Christ as the substitute and representative for lost sinners bore in their place the full burden of their eternal condemnation for all their sin.’ If we really accept this definition and do not try to fudge on it after we have first made our commitment, then the question must arise: What will there be left to condemn in the last judgment if Christ died in that sense for all members of the human race? What kind of condemnation will be left? The answer would have to be, None. Therefore, all should be saved. But it is quite plain that all will not be saved. So obviously Christ died as a substitute to bear the punishment due only unto the sins of those people who will not be punished.
God cannot punish a sin twice. He cannot punish it once in the person of the Redeemer and then punish it later in the person of the perpetrator. If it was punished in the person of Christ, then it will not be punished in the person of the sinner. If it is punished in the person of the sinner, then it was not punished in the person of Christ. The work of Christ is precisely related to the sum total of all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and nobody else.
‘God imposed his wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the pains of hell for,
either all the sins of all men,
or all the sins of some men,
or some sins of all men.
But how about option number one, all the sins of all men? That is what the universal redemptionists say. ‘If the first,’ says Owen, ‘why then are not all free from the punishment of all their sins?’ You will say, ‘Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.’ But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then did he not die for all their sins? Let them choose which part they will.’3