Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Why Penal Substitution Matters
Today Jeremy traces how the cross satisfies God’s justice while revealing God’s love, moving from Anselm to the Reformers, and from Passover to Isaiah 53. He shows why penal substitution is the core of atonement and how it changes how we love hard-to-love people.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02:So he didn't have to die, but he showed us his love by giving his life for us, and that's why we love others.
SPEAKER_01:That's why we love people who are unlovely. Right? Why? Well, I mean, because God loved them.
SPEAKER_02:God loved them so much he sent his own son to pay for their sins. You mean that nasty coworker that I can't stand? And I wish we'd just get fired, and I keep trying to set up so they'll get fired. Yeah, God loved them too. So much that if they were the only human in the in the world, Christ would have come and died for them. See, that's that's how much is love. So we love others. See? So there is an example that he laid down that should influence us. So this view does have a truth to it. See, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater, can you? You can say, it's wrong. That's not the right view. Yeah, that it is the wrong view. I get it. Right? But the idea that the cross should influence us isn't truth. It should change how we view other people and it should change how we live our lives. But that's still not enough. That's not going to get you to heaven. Just morally improving isn't gonna help that at all. So this view, in a sense, was really a significant step backward for from Anselm because Anselm said, Well, hey, look, God has to be satisfied. And he does. It's just not his honor that needs to be satisfied, it's his justice. So at the time of the Reformation, the penal substitutionary, the fourth view, became prominent and is stuck with us to this day, right? This is a view that we all hold in modern Orthodox conservative churches. So the reformers, 16th century, developed Anselm satisfaction theory. They realized that truth and they clung to it. They saw that Christ died a substitutionary death on the cross to satisfy, there's the word satisfy, God's justice. So we say penal, it's a penal substitutionary theory. Penal is the legal aspect, right? Because it's satisfying God's justice. Substitution means he's doing it in our place, right? We owed God, but Christ is making the payment to satisfy God's justice. And this allows God to justify sinners freely without compromising his own justice. So take a look at Romans 3.26 real quick.
SPEAKER_01:Romans 3.26. Well, back up to there's so much in this man.
SPEAKER_02:I just teach Romans 3 today. But this is really good section 24, 3.24, Romans, 3.24, Romans 3.24. Being justified as a gift, see, justification is a gift of God, by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, there's a word we'll look at next week, redemption, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation. There it is, the satisfaction. We'll look at that word too, in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate God's righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed. It's talking about the spiritual sphere, right? That Christ was satisfying on the cross for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just. See, he's got to maintain his justice. He can't compromise. He can't say, well, you know, I'll just set that on the side, backburner for a while, my justice, and I'll just justify people on the basis of I love people. You know, I just really love people. I'd like to be with these people. He can't do that because then his justice is never satisfied. There's this there's this payment that hasn't been made. See, so he's not gonna justify just on the basis of love, so that he would be just and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus. See, he doesn't compromise at all. He's just because the penalty's been paid by Christ.
SPEAKER_01:So there's no more penalty to be paid. Now he's free to justify anyone who has faith.
SPEAKER_02:Because Christ's work has freed him to do that, so to speak, right? So that's the penal substitutionary view. This penal view of the atonement is substitutionary, and it's directed towards satisfying God's justice, not just his honor or something like that. Is this obvious from the Old Testament? We'd say Exodus 12. What is Exodus 12 about? We've been through it the last few weeks. You know, you got the ten plagues, and then the night of the Passover, they first Passover, they go out, right? They go out of Egypt. Um, what what the blood of what did they put on the doorpost and lentil? I mean the blood of a lamb, right? Male, unblemished, one year old, right? They take that blood. If the angel of death saw it, they'd pass over, right? So was there a substitution being made? Yeah, it was the lamb in substitute for the firstborn son and firstborn of their herds, their flocks. Okay. Isaiah 53.6 is worth looking at. Isaiah 53.6.
SPEAKER_01:These are all worth looking at, but the point is to get the point through and see it clearly.
SPEAKER_02:Isaiah 53, 6. This is one of the passages that say when we do communion, turn in your Bible to this passage. And as we're passing out the elements, just read through this chapter. Okay? Because it says, remember, when we take Lord's supper, we're supposed to do what? Remember. How do you remember? Well, you read the words and that reminds you of things, right? It's remembering. Isaiah 53, 6. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Now that's Israel, but by the way, it also applies to the whole human race, right? Every one of us. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. This is 700 years before the Messiah died, but it's prophetic of his the death that he would die. And is that not a substitutionary death? The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. What we owed, he paid, right? That's substitution. Also, verse 12, come down a few verses. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great. This is the Messiah. He will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. See, he was bearing our sin. He didn't have any sin of his own to die for, right? He was bearing his own our sin. So it's substitutionary and it's penal. He's paying the price that we'd owed. So the penal view point two here of the atonement says the main issue is the legal penal requirement. That's the fundamental thing that's going on in the cross. So while he did pay a ransom, right? He wasn't paying it to Satan, he was paying it to God. It was to God that it was owed because God requires the blood, the life. Second, it was a satisfaction, right? Anselm said that. It wasn't a satisfaction of God's honor, though. It was a satisfaction of God's justice. Third, it is to influence men, the moral influence view, but not to moral improvement. It's to influence men to believe in Christ. And then for those who have believed in Christ to love as he loved us, see. But the penal view puts all it puts the focal point on the legal aspect. It is the core of the truth. I just don't want the other truths to get lost, see? Those other truths are there. But this view is the core of what is happening on the cross.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.