6.5.26 – Ahead of, Not Instead of, Part 1

Atonement is not God's wrath being pacified by death. Atonement is the holy life overcoming the forces of death. Atonement is cleansing; it is the holding together of the relationship between heaven and earth, so that God's presence can dwell with His people. Jesus is the atonement for the whole world. John says His indestructible life is the answer to the death-dealing condition every human being lives in. He is the cleansing, the consecration, the living water. He is the meeting place where heaven and earth come together, and He is more than enough. That is more atonement than Penal Substitutionary Atonement ever offered.

Some say this is absolute heresy. "You're going to answer for this one day. This is a demotion of Jesus. You're pulling back His glory. You're softening the cross." Here is what I actually said: His obedience was real. His faithfulness was real. He merited the fullness of the Spirit by walking the path no one else could walk. He confronted the forces of death and overcame them. His life is indestructible. He is the cure prepared before the wound. He is the atonement for the whole world. That is not a smaller Jesus; that is a larger Yeshua.

Here is the story most people have received: You are under the wrath of God. Your sin demanded a penalty. God's justice required payment before He could forgive and show mercy. So He sent His Son to take the penalty in your place. Jesus absorbed the wrath, paid the price, took your punishment that was rightly aimed at you. Because of His blood, you go free. That is the gospel as most people have received it, and that is Penal Substitutionary Atonement. The question I have been asking is: Is that the story the Bible has been telling, or is that a story we have been telling about the Bible and about God?

Two roads—they do not lead to the same place. One road says plainly that God needed someone to punish. The penalty had to land somewhere, so God aimed it at His Son instead of you. Substitution. The cross is where divine wrath was finally satisfied, and forgiveness became legally possible. The other road says: God so loved the world that He sent His faithful Son into the place where death had ruled—into the sickness, the shame, the violence, the grave. The Son walked that road faithfully all the way through and emerged with a life death could not hold. He went ahead of us, not instead of us. His life becomes the path we are called to walk. That is participation.

These two roads—substitution and participation—do not produce the same disciple. They do not read the same Bible. They do not honor the same Jesus. Substitution ends at the cross; participation begins at the cross. Now, at the end of these studies, I want you to see why the second road is the road the Scriptures have walked us down all along.

More tomorrow 😊

Shalom,
Alan

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