I believe it is a type of Jesus’ death on the cross. But I believe that death was a sactificial atonement. The sacrifice of Christ was a substitution for our punishment. BUT that substitution did not require that Christ suffer the wrath of God that was due to us. It required His death, it did not require that Jesus undergo the wrath of God for us.
So, you don’t feel that death is punishment?
What I have been saying all along is that there is a difference between offering a sacrifice that takes the place of punishment due to us; and substituting an individual to undergo the punishment that we would suffer.
Excuse me, could you elaborate as to exactly what that difference is. people keep saying this but, I don’t know maybe I’m just a bit slow but I don’t see the difference
Consider the following analogy… A man commits a crime that is punishable by a $1,000 fine or 10 days in jail. He does not have the money, but a friend pays it for him. No one goes to jail. This is the nature of the sacrifice offered by Christ in the Atonement, except the crime is punishable by either “the body and blood of the Lord” or “eternity in hell by the prisoner.” Christ paid the ransom - and we were set free. The manner in which He paid it expresses to all of us the severity of the crime. But it does not mean Christ literally suffered the punishment that was due.
The fine paid by the friend would in every way be a penal substitute for the person who comitted the crime. The price due for the sins of man or the punishment due is death and Jesus literally paid that price. Jesus paid the price for our crimes, crimes that are punishable by death. This punishment was not meted out by a vengeful God to fulfill some sort of need to vent His wrath. But by a loving God who saw the dire straits of man and wanted to save him. Jn3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Originally Posted by RK
What these verses mean is that through the death of Christ the punishment due us for our sins has been atoned for. This is not obviously talking of the physical death of our bodies because we all die. This is talking of the eternal death due us through sin, because as the life He gives is eternal, so the death that He atoned for is eternal (the second death Rev.2:11, 20:6, 20:14, 21:8)
I don’t disagree with this, except to say that the ransom He paid on the cross is much greater than the one-for-one exchange you seem to think it is. The Ransom paid by Christ far exceeds whatever value the punishment due to us may have been worth.
So if you do agree with me on this or as you say you don’t disagree. You agree that the verses in question Rom15:21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
mean that Christ atoned for the eternal punishment due us by His perfect sacrifice. This eternal punishment is the wrath of God which is meted out for sin and as such is a vicarious penal substitution (not my term, but it seems to be what everyone is using).
Rom6: 23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
As for the value of the sacrifice relative to the value of the punishment due us is irrelavent. The fact is that this is the only reason that Christ became a man and that was to die for us
But that does not mean the ransom paid was a literal substitution of Christ for our punishment.
Yes it does.
The problem I have with your penal substitution argument is that you tend to miss the large gap between the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice (The Eternal, Omnipotent, Lord of the Universe-God experienced death on a cross for us!) and the punishment otherwise due, (damnation of a puny race of human beings in one tiny part of God’s immense creation). The ransom far outweighed the penalty
How is this relavent to the discussion?
but it was not a literal vicarious punishment.
Yes it was.
This tells us that the thing that we earn or our wages, or the punishment due us, through our transgressions, is death and this death is contrasted with the gift (gace) of Jesus Christ which is eternal life. The wages we deserve is eternal death. The punishment we deserve is eternal death.The life He gives us through His atoning sacrifice is eternal life. For me this says it all Jesus paid the price for our sins.
I’m with you to this point.
This is not on point with the original post. I’m happy to address it with you somewhere else.
How is this not on point? This is speaking to the wages of our sins (death) as contrasted by the literal substitutionary sacrifice or gift (grace) of Christ (eternal life)