In view of this the question is not whether talk of penal substitution is better than talk of victory, but how adequate each picture is. We might find that both are helpful ways of discussing the cross, or neither is. This seems to me to be a vital insight, for several reasons. To start with, the New Testament does not confine itself to one set of images or ideas when it discusses the cross. Instead, even individual verses pile different images on top of one another in a sometimes bewildering mix.