"Jesus suffers in His passion the torments inflicted upon Him by men, but in His agony He suffers the torments which He inflicts on Himself....This punishment is inflicted by no human, but an almighty hand, and only He that is almighty can bear it."
-Blaise Pascal
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
-2 Corinthians 5:20-21
Divine self-flagellation. Yikes.
Now if only we could canonize Pascal, that would make this whole penal substitutionary atonement debate a lot clearer.
Posted by: MijkV | April 01, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Melinda,
This comment is off topic, but I was wondering if you'll have another 24 blog post coming soon.
It would be great to hear your thoughts on Jack's decision to save the Port Authority employe's life, and whether that was the right decision given the circumstances.
Love everything you guys do here at STR.
Posted by: Damon | April 02, 2009 at 06:46 AM
MijkV, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by your comments...
Posted by: Jesse | April 02, 2009 at 09:22 AM
Sorry, I didn't mean to be cryptic.
My first line was an attack on Pascal's take on atonement--as if the only answer to our sin was divine self-flagellation.
After that I was only (albeit cynically) pointing out that the penal substitutionary atonement model always seems to need some kind of synthetic supplication (i.e. Pascal) to the scriptures. If only penal substitution were more explicit in the Bible like the way Pascal portrays it, atonement theology would be simpler.
Posted by: MijkV | April 02, 2009 at 10:53 PM
The Apostle Paul, I believe, explains this in, Romans 3:19-26, "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Posted by: Paul S | April 05, 2009 at 02:43 PM