Penal Substitution (Atonement)
Christ stands in the sinner's place and bears the penalty sin deserved
Penal substitution teaches that Christ bore, in the place of sinners, the penalty their sin deserved, so satisfying divine justice. It is prominent in much Protestant theology and was articulated by Reformers such as Calvin. The traditions differ on its centrality: it is debated or de-emphasized in Catholic theology and especially in the Orthodox tradition, which tend to frame the atonement in other terms.
How it traveled
- Reply to Faustus the ManichæanHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the GospelGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
- XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvationNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
- Seventeen Occasional SermonsNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
- The Wisdom of God Displayed in the Way of SalvationNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the Gospel · John Calvin
4. When we say, that grace was obtained for us by the merit of Christ, our meaning is, that we were cleansed by his blood, that his death was an expiation for sin, “His blood cleanses us from all sin.
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Seventeen Occasional Sermons · Jonathan Edwards
4. As great as this wrath is, it is not greater than that love of God which you have slighted and rejected. God, in infinite mercy to lost sinners, has provided a way for them to escape future misery,
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Commentary on Galatians · Martin Luther
Jerome and his present-day followers rack their miserable brains over this comforting passage in an effort to save Christ from the fancied insult of being called a curse. They say: “This quotation fro
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Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
6. If we read, "Cursed of God is every one that hangeth on a tree," the addition of the words "of God" creates no difficulty. For had not God hated sin and our death, He would not have sent His Son to
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XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvation · Jonathan Edwards
1. Then was Christ in the greatest degree of his humiliation, and yet by that, above all other things, his divine glory appears. Christ’s humiliation was great, in being born in such a low condition,
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An Invitation to Holy Communion · Thomas à Kempis
AS I offered Myself willingly to God the Father for your sins with hands outstretched and body naked on the cross, so that nothing remained in Me that had not become a complete sacrifice to appease th
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Seventeen Occasional Sermons · Jonathan Edwards
1. That at the same time that he had such a view of the dreadfulness of his sufferings, he had also an extraordinary view of the hatefulness of the wickedness of those for whom those sufferings were t
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The Wisdom of God Displayed in the Way of Salvation · Jonathan Edwards
In this way of salvation wonderful glory redounds to God, as the effect of divine wisdom. 1. By this contrivance for our redemption, God’s greatest dishonour is made an occasion of his greatest glory
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The Wisdom of God Displayed in the Way of Salvation · Jonathan Edwards
The wisdom of God hath made Christ’s humiliation the means of our exaltation; his coming down from heaven is that which brings us to heaven. The wisdom of God hath made life the fruit of death. The de
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XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvation · Jonathan Edwards
It is true that Christ’s willingly undergoing those sufferings which he endured, is a great part of that obedience of righteousness by which we are justified. The sufferings of Christ are respected in
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Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the Gospel · John Calvin
1. All that we have hitherto said of Christ leads to this one result, that condemned, dead, and lost in ourselves, we must in him seek righteousness, deliverance, life and salvation, as we are taught
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Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
Book XIV. Faustus abhors Moses for the awful curse he has pronounced upon Christ. Augustin expounds the Christian doctrine of the suffering Saviour by comparing Old and New Testament passages. 1. Fa
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XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvation · Jonathan Edwards
As there is the same need that Christ’s obedience should be reckoned to our account, as that his atonement should; so there is the same reason why it should. As if Adam had persevered, and finished hi
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Seventeen Occasional Sermons · Jonathan Edwards
4. God can save any sinner whatsoever, without any prejudice to the honour of his truth. God passed his word, that sin should be punished with death, which is to be understood not only of the first, ‘
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The Enchiridion · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 41.—Christ, Who Was Himself Free from Sin, Was Made Sin for Us, that We Might Be Reconciled to God. Begotten and conceived, then, without any indulgence of carnal lust, and therefore bringing
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XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvation · Jonathan Edwards
II. There is in him a conjunction of such really diverse excellencies, as otherwise would have seemed to us utterly incompatible in the same subject. III. Such diverse excellencies are exercised in h
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For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
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who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
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For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
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Seventeen Occasional Sermons · Jonathan Edwards
2. Another circumstance of Christ’s agony that shows the strength of his love, is the ungrateful carriage of his disciples at that time. Christ’s disciples were among those for whom he endured this ag
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