Safeguarding God's Simplicity

In Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution, the authors make the point that the doctrine of penal substitution preserves the harmony of God’s attributes, thus safeguarding his simplicity. 

[Penal substitution] preserves our understanding of God as a perfect being, all of whose attributes are in perfect harmony: love, goodness, justice, holiness, truthfulness and so on. It would be misleading to say something like ‘At the cross God’s mercy triumphed over his justice.’ That would imply that a conflict existed between God’s attributes, such that his mercy ‘won’ while his justice was frustrated. By contrast, penal substitution maintains God’s mercy and his justice, his love and his truthfulness. All are perfectly fulfilled at the cross. The writer of Psalm 85 expresses this beautifully, declaring that when the Lord saves his people, 

Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
(v. 10)

In more technical terms, penal substitution preserves what is often called the doctrine of God’s simplicity. … [This] refers to the truth that he is not composed of different ‘parts’ as though he could be dismantled somehow into separate components. We cannot speak of God’s love as though it were a ‘part’ of God, separate from his holiness. Rather, all of God’s attributes are in harmony with each other: his holiness is a loving holiness, a merciful holiness; his justice is a truthful justice, a holy justice, and so on. Within this framework, none of God’s attributes should be regarded as more ‘central’ or ‘essential’ than any of the others.

Most often, I think, those who argue against a penal substitutionary atonement make God’s love his central attribute. “God is love,” is the assertion; it’s love that wins, even over God’s other attributes. There’s no need for his justice to be expressed or his wrath to be satisfied. Or so they say.

The beauty of penal substitution, is that God wins because all that he is—all of his attributes—“are perfectly fulfilled at the cross.” 

A Catechism for Girls and Boys

Part III: Questions about Salvation

79. Q. What is it to believe in Christ?
      A. A person believes who knows that his only hope is Christ and trusts in Christ alone for salvation. 

(Click through to read scriptural proof.)

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Status Report: June

Sitting…on the couch in the living room.

Drinking…an after supper cup of Earl Grey tea and eating chocolate sandwich cookies.

Longing…for a little summer weather. We’re still back in April, temperature-wise, and it’s a little depressing. Our summer is so short; we can’t afford lose any of it.

Waiting…for it to warm up a bit before I plant seedlings in the garden.

Hoping…the Twins keep winning. 

Enjoying…our long daylight hours. They almost make up for the short days in the middle of winter. (Want to know what the late night light is like? Here’s a photo taken two weeks ago at 11 pm.)

Planning…to take it easy this summer. No trips, no outdoor painting projects. I’m going to garden, enjoy my grandbabies, read, take long walks and see what else I feel like doing. The past year was a busy and sometimes difficult one, with several trips, one death, two births, three dental surgeries (two more yet to come), and one month-long illness. I’ve decided I need a bit of break. Besides, babies are more important than trips and painting projects, right?

Remembering…summers past: 

• the summer my oldest daughter was a baby and my mother bought her a kiddie pool.
• the summer my oldest son, then four, spent his days trying to catch grasshoppers in the bush behind the house. I don’t think he ever caught one. He says he caught one, but if he did, he didn’t get back to the house with it.
• the summer my oldest daughter was 6, and she brought home a jar of tadpoles from Paddy’s Pond so she could watch them turn into frogs. And they were turning into frogs until her younger brother reached up onto the counter to pull the jar over so he could peek at them, spilling jar, water, and tadpoles all over the floor. 
• the summer my youngest daughter’s best friend ended up in our backyard hanging from the monkey bars by the seat of her pants while we were all inside eating our supper. That’s the summer the same friend told me she had a new trick to show me and before I could react, jumped on the business end of a rake. You know how that ended. I was, after this, happy she wasn’t my daughter, but only my daughter’s friend.

Telling…these stories to youngest son as I write them. He’s not heard them before. He’s missed out on the family stories, I think, by not having his father around. 

Thanking…God for memories, stories, children, summer, pond life. Thanking him for his care through happy and sad, hectic and quiet, life and death.

Copying...Lisa.