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Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul is unavailable, but you can change that!

In recent decades, the church and academy have witnessed intense debates concerning the concept of penal substitution to describe Christ’s atoning sacrifice. A number of theologians, New Testament scholars, and authors of popular Christian literature have taken issue with the concept, claiming that it promotes bloody violence, glorifies suffering and death, and inevitably amounts to divine child...

need no longer fear that we are still in our sins. The first matter that must be dealt with in any discussion like this, however, is to define the key term. What exactly is substitution? I am defining substitutionary atonement for the present purposes as Christ’s death in our place, instead of us. The “instead of us” clarifies the point that “in our place” does not, in substitution at least, mean “in our place with us.” (Jesus was, for example, baptized
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