Rebecca Stark is the author of The Good Portion: Godthe second title in The Good Portion series.

The Good Portion: God explores what Scripture teaches about God in hopes that readers will see his perfection, worth, magnificence, and beauty as they study his triune nature, infinite attributes, and wondrous works. 

                     

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Friday
May302008

Supremely Silly Smartypants Notions

in%20my%20place%20condemned%20he%20stoodJ. I. Packer, in the introduction to In My Place Condemned He Stood, explaining why those who refer to the doctrine that Christ’s death is penal substitution as “divine child abuse,”  as some have done, are impertinent and foolish:

It was with [Christ’s] own will and with his own love mirroring the Father’s, therefore, that he took the place of human sinners exposed to divine judgment and laid down his life as a sacrifice for them, entering fully into the state and experience of death that was due to them. Then he rose from death to reign by the Father’s appointment in the kingdom of God and from his throne to send the Spirit to induce faith in himself and in the saving work he had done, to communicate forgiveness and pardon, justification and adoption to the penitent, and to unite all believers to himself to share his risen life in foretaste of the full life of heaven that is to come. Since all this was planned by the holy Three in their eternal solidarity of mutual love, and since the Father’s central purpose in it all was and is to glorify and exalt the Son as Savior and Head of a new humanity, smartypants notions like “divine child abuse” as a comment on the cross are supremely silly and as irreverent and wrong as they could possibly be.

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Reader Comments (4)

I love J. I. Packer.

May 31, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKim from Hiraeth

I was amused and intrigued by your post title, and I really like the quote.

May 31, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterrosemary

This is my new favorite phrase!

BTW, have you ever thought of doing a series highlighting your favorite passages from theological works, past and present? I don't recall you having done anything like that before.

June 1, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterBrandon

Nope, haven't done that! I should do more quotes, though. I planto quote a bit more from this book as I read it.

June 1, 2008 | Registered Commenterrebecca

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