Penal Substitution vs. Christus Victor

In preparing a sermon for this week on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, I stumbled across an interesting essay by Derek Flood. Penal Substitution vs. Christus Victor is a web article that is being turned into a book. It deals with the theology of Atonement as it has been understood in Evangelical circles. He comes out at a very Orthodox conclusion which I found interesting. Also, there was a response article that showed up in Evangelical Quarterly magazine that deals with Substitutionary Atonement and the Church Fathers. All very fascinating stuff.

The Lamb

I think the clearest  revelation is that Substitutionary Atonement is NOT synonymous with Penal Atonement. The Scriptures and the Fathers speak of substitutionary atonement. But to say they all speak unanimously of the Reformed concept of Punitive/Judicial/Retributive Atonement is to misspeak.

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