Penal Substitution’s Tension with the Trinity and Christology
- Penal Substitution’s Tension with the Trinity and Christology - The Christological Boundaries We Cannot Cross Any account of the atonement must remain within the boundaries of orthodox Christology. However we describe Christ’s saving work, we are not free to adjust the doctrine of Christ in order to make our theory function. Our doctrine of the atonement cannot contradict our doctrine of Christ. What we say about what God accomplished in Him must remain consistent with who He is. If Penal Substitutionary Atonement claims that Christ was condemned in our place, then this is not merely a debate about soteriology. It is a question about the identity of Christ Himself. And when Christology is at stake, we must begin where the Church did: with the Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451). The Council confessed: “We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the...