THE PROBLEM OF THE ATONEMENT

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST

Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that Christ died to pay the penalty of man's sin and satisfies God's justice. Not in the three passages (Rom. 3:24-25; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13) usually cited to support this doctrine does it say explicitly that Christ paid the penalty of sin or satisfied the justice of God. In the Rom. 3:24-25 passage, propitiation is not the satisfaction of God's justice; neither is redemption the paying the penality of sin.

"3:24 Being justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
3:25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood...."
(Rom. 3:24-25 ERS; see also Isa. 32:17).
The redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 3:24) is deliverance from sin by the payment of a price, a ransom, which is the blood of Christ, that is, His sacrificial death. The price is not the payment of a penalty but it is the means by which the redemption from sin is accomplished.
"1:18Knowing that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, like silver or gold,
from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;
1:19but with the precious blood,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
even the blood of Christ."
(I Pet. 1:18-19 ERS; see also Heb. 9:14-15).
Redemption is deliverance from sin as a slave master by means of the death of Christ [His blood] as the price or ransom.
"In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the deliverance from our offences,
according the riches of His grace..." (Eph. 1:7 ERS).

"In whom we have redemption,
the deliverance from sins." (Col. 1:14 ERS).

According to the English translations of Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14, redemption is made equivalent to forgiveness of sins.
"In Him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according the riches of his grace..." (Eph. 1:7 RSV).

"In whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1:14 RSV).

But the basic meaning of the Greek word aphesis here translated "forgiveness" is "the sending off or away." Hence to redeem from sins is to send them away, to deliver from sin. Jesus "was manifested in order to take away sins" (I John 3:5 ERS). He is "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

Salvation is not just forgiveness. It is more than forgiveness of sins; salvation is also deliverance from death; it is the resurrection of the dead. Forgiveness of sins is not enough; man needs to be made alive to God because he is spiritually dead. And he is dead, not because of his own sins, but because of the sin of another, Adam. So the forgiveness of a man's sins does not take away spiritual death because the spiritual death was not caused by that man's sins. Thus forgiveness of sins does not remove spiritual death. But the removing of spiritual death does removes sins. Salvation as resurrection from the dead is also salvation from sin and thus it is also the forgiveness of sins. Thus to be made alive to God means that sins are forgiven.

This redemption from sin was accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ because His death is also the means by which we were delivered from death, the cause of sin. Since spiritual death leads to sin ( Rom. 5:12d ERS), sin reigns in the sphere of death's reign (Rom. 5:21). And since Christ's death is the end of the reign of death for those who died with Christ, it is also the end of the reign of sin over them. They are no longer slaves of sin, serving false gods. Sin is a slave master (Rom. 6:16-18) and this slave master is the false god in which the sinner trusts. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing Him personally. But we were set free from this slavery to sin through the death of Christ. For when Christ died for us, He died to sin (Rom. 6:10a) as a slave master. Sin no longer has dominion or lordship over Him. For he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7). That is, when a slaves dies, he is no longer in slavery, death frees him from slavery. Since Christ "has died for all, then all have died" (II Cor. 5:14). His death is our death. Since we have died with Him and He has died to sin, then we have died to sin. We are freed from the slavery of sin and are no longer enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we are made alive to God in Him. His resurrection is our resurrection. "But the life He lives He lives to God" (Rom. 6:10b). This is the life of righteousness, the righteousness of faith. And so we, who are now alive to God in Him, are to live to righteousness. For just as death produces sin, so life produces righteousness.

"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed." (I Pet. 2:24).
Christ bore our sins to take them away (to redeem us from sin) so that we might die to sin with Christ and be made alive to righteousness in His resurrection. Having been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ, we who are now alive in Him have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18), that is, slaves of Christ who is our righteousness (I Cor. 1:30). Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.

Since in those days of the Old and New Testament, slaves were also sold at the market, to buy a slave at the slave market could also be called "redemption." The context of the verbs translate "to redeem" is not the law court but the slave market and has nothing to do with "paying the penalty." The purchase price or ransom is not the penalty for breaking the law but is the means by which the purchase is accomplished. A ransom is given instead or in place of those who are to be redeemed or delivered; it has nothing to do with a substitute paying the penalty of sin to satisfy the justice of God. The context of the words translated "to redeem" or "redemption" is not the law or the courtroom but slavery and the slavemarket. The redemption of Israel from bondage in Egypt has nothing to do with a substitute paying the penalty of sin; and neither does the redemption in Christ Jesus by His death [His blood] have to do with a substitute paying the penalty of sin, but with delivering us from bondage and freeing us from the slavery of sin.

In the II Cor. 5:21 and Gal. 3:13 passages, "made to be sin" or "a curse" does not mean paying the penalty of our sins.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes,

"He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
(II Cor. 5:21 ERS).
Historically, there has been three interpretations of the phrase "made to be sin" in II Cor. 5:21:
  1. When Christ in His incarnation took on human nature, which is "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3), God made Him to be sin.
  2. Christ in becoming a sacrifice for sin was made to be sin, the word "sin" (harmartia) meaning a "sacrifice for sin" ( Augustine and the NIV margin "be a sin offering").
  3. Christ is treated as if He were a sinner, and as such Christ became the object of God's wrath and bore the penalty and the guilt of sin (the traditional Protestant interpretation).
In the first interpretation, it is assumed that Christ's death is a participation. on the behalf of and for the sakes of sinful humanity.
And in the second interpretation, the basic concept is sacrifice, but the scarifice has been usually assumed to be a substitution, not as a participation.
In the last interpretation, it is assumed that Christ's death is a vicarious act, a substitution in the stead of sinful humanity.
But this substitution interpretation must here be rejected because it is contrary to the explicit statement in the verse that He was made sin "for us," that is, "on our behalf" (huper hemos, NAS; see verses 14-15, and 20).

In what sense was Christ "made to be sin for us"?
The substitution interpretation assumes that Christ was made sin because man needs to be saved basically from sin.
This interpretation raises the problem of the need for salvation:
Why does man need to be saved?
Man needs to be saved because he is dead and needs life. Man is spiritually dead and is dying physically. Being spiritually dead, man is separated and alienated from God (Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21). Spiritual death is no fellowship with God, no personal relationship to God. Man does not know God personally, and because he does not know the true God, he turns to false gods, to those things which are not God and makes them into his gods (Gal. 4:8). The basic sin is idolatry (Ex. 20:2; Rom. 1:25), and man sins (chooses these false gods) because he is spiritually dead, separated from the true God.

Thus all men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12: "because of which [death] all sinned." Spiritual death which "spread to all men" along with physical death is not the result of each man's own personal sins. On the contrary, a man sins as a result of spiritual death. He received death from Adam, from his first parents. The historical origin of sin is the fall of Adam - the sin of the first man. Adam's sin brought death, spiritual and physical, on all his descendants ( Rom. 5:12, 15, 17). This death, inherited from Adam, is the personal, contemporary origin of each man's sin. Because he is spiritually dead, not knowing the true God personally, all men chooses something other than the true God as their God; thus they all have sinned.

This is why a man needs to be saved. He is dead spiritually and dying physically. Man needs life; he needs to be made alive, to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin is removed. And if death which leads to sin is removed, then man will be saved from sin. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and then secondarily from sin to righteousness. And since God's wrath, God's "no" or opposition to sin, is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18), the removal of sin brings with it also the removal of wrath. Salvation is then thirdly from wrath to peace with God (Rom. 5:1, 9).

SALVATION FROM DEATH TO LIFE

Because God loves man, He did not leave him in death but has provided for him deliverance from death by sending His Son into the world.

"For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have eternal life." (John 3:16 KJV)
Thus God in His love for man sent His Son to become a man, Jesus Christ, the God-man (John 1:14). He was the perfect man; He lived in perfect fellowship with God, His Father, and perfectly trusted God throughout His entire life (John 1:4; 8:28-29; 12:50; 16:32; 17:25). But He came not just to be what we should have been or to give us a perfect example; He came to die on our behalf in order that we might have life in Him. Jesus said,
"10:10I came that they might have life,
and have it more abundantly.
10:11I am the good shepherd:
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."
(John 10:10-11 KJV)

"Because I live ye shall live also." (John 14:19 KJV)

And the Apostle John said,
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world
that we might live through him." (I John 4:9)
God's Son entered not only into our existence as man, but He entered into our condition of spiritual and physical death. On the cross, He died not only physically but spiritually. For only this once during His whole life was He separated from His Father.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46 KJV),
Thus Christ by entering into our spiritual death,
He became sin for us and thus took away our sin.
He was forsaken for us; He died for us.
"By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us" (I John 3:16 ERS).

But God raised Him from the dead. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead we might be made alive with and in Him (Eph. 2:5). Hence Christ's death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection (II Cor. 5:15). He became identified with us in His death in order that we might become identified with Him in His resurrection and have life. He became like us that we might become like Him. The writer to the Hebrews wrote,

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,...
so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."
(Heb. 2:9 NIV).

"2:14Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,
he himself likewise partook of the same nature,
that through death he might destroy him that has the power of death,
that is the devil,
2:15and deliver all those who through fear of death
were subject to lifelong bondage."
(Heb. 2:14-15)

He acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes. The Greek preposition huper does not mean "instead of" but "on the behalf of" or "for the sake of". And thus Chirst died on the behalf of all men, not instead of them;
"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,
that one died for all [huper panton, on the behalf of all],
therefore all have died," (II Cor. 5:14)
that is, in Christ who represents all.
"And he died for all [huper panton, on the behalf of all],
that those who live might live no longer for themselves
but for him who for their sake [huper auton, on the behalf of them]
died and was raised." (II Cor. 5:15).
Adam, acting as a representative, brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ, acting as our representative, on our behalf, brought a new creation in which those "who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life" (Rom. 5:17).
"15:21For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
15:22For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
(I Cor. 15:21-22)

"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature:
the old things are passed away;
behold, they are become new." (II Cor. 5:17)

Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
"5:18But all things are of God,
who reconciled us to himself through Christ...
5:19to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself...."
(II Cor. 5:18-19; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
This representative work of Christ should be understood, not as a vicarious act, instead of another, but as a participation, an act of sharing in the condition of another. Christ took part or shared in our situation. He entered, not only into our existence as a man, but also into our condition of spiritual and physical death.
"2:14Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood,
he himself likewise partook of the same nature,
that through death he might destroy him that has the power of death,
that is the devil,
2:15and deliver all those who through fear of death
were subject to lifelong bondage."
(Heb. 2:14-15)
He acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes.
And thus Chirst died on the behalf of all men, not instead of them;
"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,
that one died for all [huper panton, on the behalf of all],
therefore all have died," (II Cor. 5:14)
that is, in Christ who represents all.
"And he died for all [huper panton, on the behalf of all],
that those who live might live no longer for themselves
but for him who for their sake [huper auton, on the behalf of them]
died and was raised." (II Cor. 5:15).
The substitution interpretation of Christ's sacrifice does not understand this participation and just assumes a legalistic substitution interpretation of Christ's death as a paying the penalty of sin for us.

God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself. Since spiritual death is no fellowship with God (it is the opposite of spiritual life which is fellowship with God), then being made alive with Christ we are brought into fellowship with God. Hence, we are reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:17-19). The Greek word katallage, which is translated " reconciliation" in our English versions, means a "thorough or complete change." Hence it refers to a complete change in the personal relationship between man and God. Because man is dead, he has no personal relationship with God, no fellowship with God. When a man is made alive to God with Christ, he is brought into a personal relationship with God, into fellowship with God. His personal relationship to God is completely changed, changed from death to life. Reconciliation can, therefore, be defined as that aspect of salvation whereby man is delivered from death to life. And the source of this act of reconciliation is the love of God. It is a legalistic misunderstanding of reconciliation to say that God was reconciled to man. The Scriptures never say that God is reconciled to man but that man is reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10; II Cor. 5:18-19). The problem is not in God but in man. Man is dead and needs to be made alive. Man is the enemy of God; God is not the enemy of man. God loves man, and out of His great love He has acted to reconcile man to Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. It is true that God in His wrath opposes man's sin and in His grace has provided a means by which His wrath may be turned away. But this aspect of salvation is propitiation, not reconciliation. Reconciliation should not be confused with propitiation. God in reconciling man to Himself has saved man from death, the cause of sin, and hence He has removed sin, the cause of His wrath - no sin, no wrath. Christ's death is a propitiation because it is a redemption and it is a redemption because it is a reconciliation, salvation from death to life.

Jesus entered into our spiritual death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with and in Him (Eph. 2:5). And by saving us from spiritual death, Christ saves us from sin. It is by taking away the spiritual death which leads to our sin that God takes away our sin. Jesus died for our sins - literally - to take them away (John 1:29). What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:1-4), the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself, not just from its consequences. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and in the true God who sent him. Did we not "turn from idols to serve the living and true God" (I Thess. 1:9)? When we were spiritually dead, we trusted in and served those things that were not God: money, power, sex, education, popularity, pleasure, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, and received Him as our Lord, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).

SALVATION FROM SIN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

The death and resurrection of Jesus was the means by which God removed death - the barrier to knowing the true God personally and knowing His love. Now God reveals Himself to us in the preaching of the gospel, making us spiritually alive to Himself when we receive Jesus Christ who is life (John 14:6; I John 5:12). To be spiritually alive is to know God personally, and to know God personally is to trust Him. For "God is love" (I John 4:8, 16) and love begets trust. And this trust in God that God's love invokes in us is righteousness; the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:5, 9); faith relates us rightly to God. Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5). Righteousness is not a quality that we possess, neither is it merit that we have earned nor have been imputed to our account, but it is a right relationship to God; faith in the true God relates us rightly to Him. And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life ( Gal. 3:21). Thus by taking away death, God takes away sin. By making us alive to Himself, God sets us right with Himself through faith. Life produces righteousness just as death produced sin.

God not only acted in Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Himself, that is, to deliver us from death to life, but also to redeem us from sin.

"In Whom [Christ] we have our redemption through His blood,
the deliverance from our offenses,
according to the riches of His grace..." (Eph. 1:7 ERS)

"In whom we have redemption,
the deliverance from sins." (Col. 1:14 ERS).

This redemption from sin was accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ because His death is also the means by which we were delivered from death, the cause of sin. Since spiritual death leads to sin ( Rom. 5:12d ERS), sin reigns in the sphere of death's reign (Rom. 5:21). And since Christ's death is the end of the reign of death for those who died with Christ, it is also the end of the reign of sin over them. They are no longer slaves of sin, serving false gods. Sin is a slave master (Rom. 6:16-18) and this slave master is the false god in which the sinner trusts. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing Him personally. But we were set free from this slavery to sin through the death of Christ. For when Christ died for us, He died to sin (Rom. 6:10a) as a slave master. Sin no longer has dominion or lordship over Him. For he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7). That is, when a slaves dies, he is no longer in slavery, death frees him from slavery. Since Christ "has died for all, then all have died" (II Cor. 5:14). His death is our death. Since we have died with Him and He has died to sin, then we have died to sin. We are freed from the slavery of sin and are no longer enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we are made alive to God in Him. His resurrection is our resurrection. "But the life He lives He lives to God" (Rom. 6:10b). This is the life of righteousness, the righteousness of faith. And so we, who are now alive to God in Him, are to live to righteousness. For just as death produces sin, so life produces righteousness.
"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross,
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed." (I Pet. 2:24)
Christ bore our sins to take them away (to redeem us from sin) so that we might die to sin with Christ and be made alive to righteousness in His resurrection. Having been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ, we who are now alive in Him have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18), that is, slaves of Christ who is our righteousness (I Cor. 1:30). Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.

What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:1-4), the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself, not just from its consequences. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and in the true God who sent him. When we were spiritually dead, we trusted in and served those things that were not God: money, power, sex, education, popularity, pleasure, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, and received Him as our Lord, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).

Thus by taking away death, God takes away sin. By making us alive to Himself in Christ, God sets us right with Himself through faith in Christ. Thus life produces righteousness just as death produced sin. Since Christ's death is our death, His death is our death to sin;
Christ's death as a sin sacrifice took away our sin.
That is, Christ was made to be a sin-sacrifice for us by dying our death to sin, and thus to save us from sin, to take away our sin (John 1:29).

And Christ's death was made a sin sacrifice to take away our sin
"in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (II Cor. 5:21b)
That is, that we might be set right with God in the risen Christ. As we have already seen, the righteousness of God is the activity of God to set us right with God; that is, to save us from sin (trust in false god) to righteousness (trust in the true God). Christ participated in our spiritual death to save us from sin (trust in a false god), so that we could participate in the risen Christ, being saved from death to life and hence being saved from sin to righteousness (trust in the true God).

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

This Biblical concept of the righteousness of God must be carefully distinguished from the Greek-Roman concept of justice. The righteousness of God in the Scriptures is not an attribute of God whereby He must render to each what he has merited nor a quantity of merit which God gives, but it is God acting to set right man with God Himself. Luther's apparent identification of the righteousness of God with the righteousness from God lead eventually to the equating of the righteousness from God with Christ's righteousness, that is, the merits of Christ, which Christ earned by His active obedience before He died on the cross and is imputed to the believer's account when he believes. Scripture is often misinterpreted in terms of this identification. For example, Paul's statement that
"in him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Cor. 5:21b)
is interpreted to mean that the righteousness of God is the righteousness from God. Therefore, the believer is righteous by the "righteousness of God in Christ" which is interpreted as the merits of Christ that was earned by Christ's active obedience before He died on the cross. Thus righteousness is misunderstood as merits and the righteousness of God as the justice of God. But the righteousness from God is not the righteousness of God. These are different though related ideas and must be carefully distinguished. Now since the righteousness of God, as we saw above, is God setting right the wrong, then the righteousness of God here is the deliverance or the saving of us from our sins in Him, in Christ's death and resurrection. But the righteousness from God is the righteousness of faith. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians,

"3:8b For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,
in order that I may gain Christ
3:9and be found in him,
not having a righteousness of my own, based on law,
but that which is through faith,
the righteousness from [ek] God that depends upon [epi] faith,..."
(Phil. 3:8b-9).
Thus the righteousness from God is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13) which is that right personal relationship to God that results from faith in the true God (Rom. 4:3). Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:
"4:3 For what does the scripture say?
'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'
4:4Now to one who works,
his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due.
4:5And to the one who does not work
but trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned as righteousness....
4:13The promise to Abraham and his descendants,
that they should inherit the world,
did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith."
(Rom. 4:3-5, 13)
Faith in God is reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:5). That is, to trust in God is to be righteous. This is the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:13) and the righteousness from God (Phil. 3:9). That is, the righteousness of faith is not merit placed to the account of the believer, but it is the right relationship of the believer to God by faith. The righteousness of faith is the act or choice of a man to trust God and the righteousness of God is the act or activity of God to set a man right with God Himself by faith. The righteousness of God is what God does and the righteousness of faith is what man does in response to God's activity. Thus the righteousness of faith is not the righteousness of God.

Now the righteousness of faith is the righteousness from God. Since this act of faith by a man is possible only when God acts to set a man right with God Himself by the righteousness of God, then the righteousness of faith is the righteousness from God.
But as we just saw, this righteousness of faith is not the righteousness of God. Thus the righteousness from God is not the righteousness of God. Luther's apparent identification of the righteousness from God with the righteousness of God was wrong and unscriptural.

The misintrepretation of this Scripture (II Cor. 5:21b) is based on a legalistic misunderstanding of the righteousness of God as the justice of God. But as we saw above, this justice is not the Biblical concept of the righteousness of God. This legalistic misunderstanding of the righteousness of God reduces and equates the righteousness of God to justice, that is, the giving to each that which is his due to them with a strict and impartial regard to merit (as in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics). It is this concept of righteousness that gave Luther so much trouble.

Now this idea that the righteousness of God is the justice of God, that is, that attribute of God which requires that God punish all sin and reward all meritorious works, also leads to the misinterpretation of the first part of II Cor. 5:21
("For our sakes he made him to be sin who knew no sin,"),
that the sinless Christ was identified with the sin of the sinner, including the guilt of that sin and its consequence of death, of separation from God, and He paid the consequences of that sin by His death on the cross. This intrepretation is based on the penal substitution theory of the atonement.
But this substitution interpretation must here be rejected because it is contrary to the explicit statement in the verse which says that he was made sin "for us", that is, "on our behalf" (huper hemos, NAS; see verses II Cor. 5:14-15, and 20), not "instead of" as a substitute.
But since the phrase "made sin" may mean "scarifice for sin" (or "sin-offering"), Paul may be only intending to say no more than that the death of Christ was made a sin-offering. But Christ was made to be a sin-sacrifice for us to save us from sin, to take away our sin (John 1:29). Thus Christ was made a sin sacrifice to take away our sin
"in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor. 5:21b ERS).
That is, that we might be set right with God in the risen Christ.
And as we have already seen, the righteousness of God is the activity of God to set us right with God; that is, to save us from sin (trust in false god) to righteousness (trust in the true God). As Christ was made a sin-scarifice for us, He participated in our spiritual death to save us from sin (trust in a false god), so that we could participate in the risen Christ, being saved from death to life and hence being saved from sin to righteousness (trust in the true God). Thus "we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor. 5:21b ERS). That is, that we might be saved ("the righteousness of God") in the risen Christ.

And when Apostle Paul writes to the Galations,

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law,
having become a curse for us -- for it is written,
'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Gal. 3:13),
Paul does not mean that Christ paid the penalty of sin as our substitute, but that Christ's death was to deliever us ("redeemed") from our sins and to save us from the wrath of God ("the curse of the Law", see Gal. 3:10). And Christ being made a curse for us, does not mean that Christ died as a substitute, in our place, paying the penalty of our sins, but that Christ's death was "for us", on our behalf (huper hemos). The Scripture that Paul here quotes (Deut. 21:23) does not mean that being made a curse was for another's sins but because he was being hung on a tree for his own sins (Deut. 21:22). And since Christ was hanging on the tree (the cross) was not because of His own sins (He was without sin - II Cor. 5:21), but was on our behalf to redeem us from our sins and from God's wrath against our sins (Rom. 1:18). Paul does not say that Christ took our curse but that He became a curse to redeem us from the curse of the law. Christ's death sets us free from the law and from its curse.

The introduction of these legalistic concepts into the interpretation of these passages (II Cor. 5:21 and Gal. 3:13) obscured their meaning and interpretation. Apart from the clear and explicit statement of Scripture, it cannot be assumed that this legalism is what these verses mean. Since this legalism is contrary to the clear and explicit statements of Scripture, any interpretation employing these legalistic concepts is suspect. In fact, the Scripture explicitly rejects the principle of vicarious penal sacrifice upon which this interpretation depends.

"The person who sins will die.
The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity,
nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity;
the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself,
and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
(Ezekiel 18:20 NAS; see also Deut. 24:16; Jer. 31:30).

THE LEGALISTIC MISUNDERSTANDING OF GOD

The legalistic misunderstanding of salvation and the death of Christ is based on and grounded in a legalistic misunderstanding of God. Since legalism is basically an absolutizing the law, either by identifying God with law or making the law stand by itself apart from God and above God, legalism is fundamentally a misunderstanding of God. It conceives of God entirely in terms of the law. The will and mind of God are subject to the law, whether the law is conceived as existing externally apart from God and above Him or as the eternal and essential nature of God. The law is the eternal, objective order, lex aeterna, to which the will and mind of God conforms as the Lawgiver and Judge. In legalistic Christian theologies, the law is not external and above God but it is internal and in God, the very essential nature of God. The law is the essential being of God; God is Law. According to these theologies, God's will is immutably determined by His eternal and unchanging nature; it is the expression of His essential being. [1] God acts freely (?) in accordance with the inner law of His own essence. He does not will the good because it is good; for then the good would be above God. Neither is the good good because God wills it; for then the good would be arbitrary and changeable. God acts freely but not whimsically; He acts always in accordance with the inner law of His being. [2] Thus God's being is understood in terms of the law.

According to this understanding of God's being, the holiness and the righteousness of God is understood in terms of the law. The holiness of God is the eternal conformity of His will to His being which is law; it is the purity and moral perfection of God's being. [3] Holiness is accordingly the fundamental attribute or, more exactly, the consummate infinite moral perfection of all the attributes taken together. Each attribute has its own perfection; holiness is the infinite moral perfection of the whole together. It is not one attribute among others but is the total moral perfection of the Godhead that sets Him transcendently apart and above all the creatures. As such, holiness is the regulative principle of all of them. Accordingly God's love is holy love; His power is holy power; His will is a holy will.

"Love must have a norm or standard,
and this norm or standard can be found only in Holiness." [4]
In His eternal and essential nature, God is Holy.

Righteousness is understood legalistically to consist in the conformity to the law of right and wrong. [5] The absolute righteousness of God is the infinite moral perfection of God and as such is equivalent to the holiness of God. In His eternal and essential nature, God is righteous. God is immutably determined by the law of His own being to act righteously in His relationships with man. This exercise of the divine will in relationship to man, determined by God's infinite righteous nature, has been called the relative righteousness of God. [6] God's righteous nature expresses itself in the form of the law and in all its essential principles of right and wrong, the law is an immutable transcript of the divine nature. This relative righteousness of God is called rectoral, when viewed as exercised in administering the affairs of His government, in providing for and governing His creatures. This relative righteousness of God is also called distributive,

"when viewed as exercised in giving unto each creature his exact proportionate due of rewards and punishments. It is called punitive or vindicatory when viewed as demanding and inflicting the adequate and proportionate punishment of all sin, because of its intrinsic ill deserts." [7]
God, because of His own eternal and essential righteousness, must reward all good because of its own intrinsic merit (remunerative justice) and He likewise must visit every sin with a proportionate punishment because of its own intrinsic demerit (retributive justice). According to this legalistic theology, to do otherwise God would be unrighteous and unjust. Absolute justice which is the eternal being of God requires and demands the reward of good and the punishment of sin. As the Judge, God shows His righteousness by visiting divine retribution upon sin and unrighteousness. No evildoer can escape; all will receive what is due to them and the precise deserts of their evil. Because of the holiness of the divine nature, God hates sin with a holy revulsion and is impelled by the demands of His righteousness to pour out His wrath. God must display His righteousness in judging and punishing sin; not to do so would be a reflection on His righteousness. [8]

There is little place in this view of God for love, mercy, or grace. These were totally absent from the legalistic philosophy of the Greek and Roman philosophers and have little place in the legalistic Christian theologies. [9] In the definition of God in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the goodness of God is mentioned but the love, mercy, and grace of God are totally absent.

"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being,
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth." [10]
Where love is allowed a place in this legalistic view of God, it is reduced to an affection or emotion which must be subordinated to God's holiness and righteousness in order not to become sentimentalism, a sympathy which tolerates human imperfection. A. Hopkins Strong says in his Systematic Theology;
"The rationality of his [God's] love involves moreover
a subordination of the emotional element to a higher law than itself,
namely, that of holiness. Even God's self-love must have
a reason and a norm in the perfections of his own being...
The immanent love of God is a rational and voluntary affection
grounded in perfect reason and deliberate choice...
Love is not rightfully independent of the other faculties
but is subject to regulation and control...
In true religion love forms a copartnership with reason...
God's love is no arbitrary, willful, passionate torrent of emotion...
And we become like God by bringing our emotions, sympathies,
affections under the dominion of reason and conscience...
Since God's love is rational, it involves a subordination
of the emotional element to a higher law than itself,
namely, that of truth and holiness...
Love requires a rule or standard for its regulation.
This rule or standard is the holiness of God." [11]

According to this legalistic theology, God's love is conditioned and limited by his justice; that is, God cannot exercise His love to save man until His righteousness (justice) is satisfied. Since God's justice requires that sin be punished, God's love cannot save man until the penalty of sin has been paid, satisfying His justice. God's love is set in opposition to His righteousness, creating a tension and problem in God. How can God in His love save man from sin when His righteousness demands the punishment of sin? This is the problem that the death of Christ is supposed to solve. According to this legalistic theology, this is why Christ needed to die; he died to pay the penalty of man's sin and to satisfy the justice of God. The necessity of the atonement is the necessity of satisfying the justice of God; this necessity is in God rather than in man. And since this necessity is in God, it is a absolute necessity. If God is to save man, God must satisfy His justice before He can in love save man. It is not surprising that in the popular mind this abstract problem of the antinomy between love and justice in God is reduced to a concrete opposition between God the Father who wants to punish sin and God the Son who wants to forgive sin. That this is not true is clear from Scripture: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). But this is the way the popular mind has seen this abstract problem.

THE LEGALISTIC MISUNDERSTANDING OF DEATH TO SIN

Legalism has distorted the relationship of death to sin. Death is always the result of each man's own personal sins. The Biblical concept of sin as basically trust in a false god, idolatry, is misunderstood as basically a transgression of the law, the breaking of the rules and a falling short of the universal divine standard. According to legalism, sin is considered to be a crime against God, and the penalty for these crimes is spiritual, physical and eternal death. Until the penalty is executed at the last judgment, man is under the burden of an objective guilt or condemmation which must be satisfied by the execution of the penalty. And in addition to this objective guilt there is a subjective guilt of a bad conscience, which may or may not correspond to the objective guilt. This objective guilt has been conceived in terms of a debt which man owes and/or as demerit on man's record. Thus man needs to be saved because he is a guilty sinner.

This legalistic concept of death is a misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of death. In the Scriptures, death is not always the result of each man's own personal sins. According to Romans 5:12-14, all men have received spiritual and physical death from Adam but not eternal death.

"5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world,
and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men,
because of which all sinned: -
5:13 For until the law sin was in the world;
but sin is not imputed where there is no law.
5:14 But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who had not sinned
after the likeness of the transgression of Adam,
who is a type of Him who was to come." (Rom. 5:12-14 ERS).
Since Adam, man is not responsible for being spiritually dead because he did not choose that state. He received spiritual death from Adam just as he received physical death from Adam. But man is responsible for the god he chooses. The true God has not left man without a knowledge about Himself.
"1:19 Because that which is known of God is manifest in them;
for God manifested it to them.
1:20 For since the creation of the world
the invisible things of Him,
both His eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
so that they are without excuse." (Rom. 1:19-20 ERS).
This knowledge about God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. He knows that his false gods are phonies. But this knowledge does not save him because it is knowledge about the true God, and not a personal knowledge of the true God which is eternal life (John 17:3). But even though man is not responsible for being spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance from it is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he will receive the wages of his decision, eternal death.
6:23 For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:15-23)
If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the results ("the wages of sin") of his wrong decision or sin, eternal death, separation from God for eternity.

Romans 6:23 does not mean that sin must be punished and that death is the penalty of sin. The meaning of this verse must be determined by considering its context, the previous verses from 15 to 22. The context of this verse is not the law-court but slavery. Sin is personified as a slavemaster. Verse 14 says that sin will no longer have dominion or lordship (kurieusei) over the Christian, because he is now under grace. Verse 16 speaks of yielding oneself as a slave - either to sin or to obedience [to God]. Verse 17 speaks of having been slaves to sin but now (verse 18) being slaves of righteousness. Verses 20-21 asks what return did they get from the things that they did as slaves of sin. Paul says that the end of the slavery to sin is death. Verse 22 says that the end result of being a slave of God is eternal life. Then in verse 23 Paul summarizes his argument by saying that the wages of sin, that is, the wages paid by sin as a slavemaster, is death. But God does not pay wages, but gives a free gift, eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

It is very plain from verses Rom. 6:17 and 18 that the slavery of sin was a past experience for the Christian. He has now changed masters. If he had remained under his old master, sin, that master would have eventually paid off in only one kind of coin, death. But since they have changed masters, they are not now in a position to collect wages from the old master, sin. And it does not say the they get wages from their new master, God. But they get a free gift, something that could not be earned, eternal life. What kind of death did they receive from their old master? Eternal death, eternal separation from God. That eternal death is meant here is clear from the second half this verse: "...but the gift of God is eternal life..." Paul is not here talking about spiritual or physical death but only about eternal death, the end result of the slavery of sin. Romans 6:23 says nothing about the penalty of sin, that is, that sin must be punished. True, the end result of the slavery of sin is eternal death.
But that does not mean that sin must be punished before the sin can be forgiven. If the sinner repents and turns from his idolatry and to the true God in faith, he will be freely forgiven. And if he does repent and believe, he will not still be liable to be punished for his sins.

"18:21 But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins
which he has committed and keeps all my statues
and does what is lawful and right,
he shall live; he shall not die.
18:22 None of the transgressions
which he has committed shall be remembered against him;
for the righteousness which he has done he shall live.
18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,
says the Lord God,
and not rather he should turn from his way and live? ...
18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
says the Lord God; so turn, and live."
(Ezek. 18:21-23,32; see also Ezek. 33:11).
Here is the error of legalistic understanding of death. It says that sin must always be punished even if the sinner repents and believes (trusts) God. This contradicts the plain and clear teaching of God's Word (Ezek. 18:21-23; 33:10-20; Lam. 3:31-33; Isa. 55:6-7; II Chron. 7:14; II Pet. 3:9). Do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not saying that God does not punish sin. He does. This is not the error. The error is to say that God cannot forgive sin before or until he has punished sin. The error is that God must always punish sin before sin can be forgiven. That is, that before God can in love forgive the sinner, He must of necessity punish the sin. This is false. Man needs to be forgiven but paying the penalty of sin is not forgiveness. When sin is punished, it is not freely forgiven. The punishment of sin is the execution of the results of sin; forgiveness is free dismissal of the results of sin. If sin is forgiven, it is not punished and if sin is punished, it is not forgiven. Forgiveness through punishment is a contradiction. The punishment of sin is not forgiveness of sin and forgivenss of sin is not its punishment.

According to this legalistic teaching, this necessity of punishment is grounded in the justice of God. This justice requires, it is said, that the penalty must be paid before guilt can be removed. The guilt of sin cannot be freely forgiven, but only can be taken away by paying the penalty, which alone can satisfy justice. Justice demands that sin must be always punished. According to this legalistic theology, God is not free to forgive the repentant sinner until the sin is punished. God's freedom is thus limited and his love is conditioned by his justice. As we have seen, this legalistic concept of justice is a misunderstanding of the righteousness of God.

The legalistic preoccupation in Christian theology with death as the necessary penalty of sin has distorted the Biblical concept of spiritual death as separation from God and of eternal death as eternal separation from God. Separation from God is far more serious than the penal consequences of sin as God is more important than the law. But not only is death misunderstood but life is also misunderstood as the reward for meritorious works. Life as fellowship and communion with God, that is, a personal relationship to God, is lost sight of in the legalistic preoccupation with the law and its meritorious observance.

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END NOTES FOR "THE LEGALISTIC MISUNDERSTANDING OF GOD

[1] Archibald Alexander Hodge, Outlines of Theology
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), p. 154
(question 60), p. 411 (question 13).

[2] Ibid., p. 153 (question 58).
See also Henry Clarence Thiessen,
Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1949), p. 129.

[3] A. A. Hodge, Outlines in Theology, p. 163.

[4] A. Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology
(Philadelphia: Judson, 1907), vol.1, p. x.
See also Carl F. H. Henry Notes on the Doctrine of God
(Boston: W. A. Wide Co., 1948), p. 113.

[5] James I. Packer, "Just, Justify, Justification," in
Baker's Dictionary of Theology, ed. Everett F. Harrison
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1960), p. 305.

[6] A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, pp. 153-4 (question 59).

[7] A. A. Hodge, Outline of Theology, p. 154, question 59 (underlining ERS).

[8] Packer, p. 305.

[9] Note the brief treatments of the love of God in
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. 1871;
A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, 1878;
A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, 1907;
Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, 1918.

[10] Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 54.

[11] Strong, Systematic Theology, pp. 264-265.
See also Henry, Notes on the Doctrine of God, chap. VIII.