Atonement Thoughts II

The orthodox, reformed view of the Atonement (Vicarious Penal Substitutionary Atonement) has faced much criticism in recent years (in fact for far longer than that). One accusation is that it puts across a God who is shockingly angry with His own Son which seems impossible as it pits God the Father against God the Son... this is Anti-trinitarian. Well Paul Wells puts sword to such an accusation with these words I read today.

"The mediator removes liability to penal judgment and guilt in the sense of condemnation leading to death. That Christ 'bore our sins' means He took on Himself their fatal consequences and died the death we ought to have died...

Surely God could never be angry with His own Son? That is wholly the case. God was never for an instant angry against the beloved Son. God was not at odds with Christ, He was at odds with sin. His anger was not pointed at the person of Christ like the anger of one person can be directed at another or at an object. In the particular function of mediator He accepted for others, Christ acted together with and for God and too the anger of God on Himself. Forgiveness is not wrung from a violent and a grudging God. Christ is the subject and the object of His own acts. By taking the anger of God against sin to Himself, and dying for it, He obtained forgiveness."

Such love Divine, O Saviour Mine

Simon