Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (Paul’s concern from 2 Corinthians 11:4)
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The False Filter |
The Biblical Filter |
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The word OR the Word |
The Word THROUGH the word |
The focus of chapter 3 appears to be on showing that the longstanding doctrine of what he calls “penal substitutionary atonement (PSA)” is not scriptural. I’m not speaking to the doctrinal wording, but only to what the Bible teaches. So, we are going to ask the Scriptures three questions:
1. Was Jesus’ crucifixion penal, meaning, was it a punishment for sin?
2. Was Jesus’ crucifixion substitutionary, meaning, was Jesus a substitute who died in the place of someone else?
3. Was Jesus’ crucifixion an act of atonement, where he atoned for the sins of the people he was dying for?
Or, in one summary question, did Jesus die as our substitute to atone for our sins?
As we explore the answers to these
questions, we will also look to see if BJ agrees or disagrees with what the
Bible gives as its teaching on the matter. And I hope we will all agree with
whatever we can see for ourselves about the word, the Word, and the claims of
the BJs.
So, here
we go: the way BJ started his path out of “the quagmire” (p. 44) was when he
heard a voice while doing contemplative prayer, and this voice told him, “Stop
telling people I was punishing my Son. That is not what was happening.”
BJ goes so far as to call this “my own
Damascus Road intervention” (p. 44). To make such a claim is to say that he had
been just as wrong as Saul of Tarsus was in persecuting Christ, that his
contemplative prayer voice was God speaking to him just like Jesus spoke to
Saul, and that whatever he now felt was his assignment in writing these books
(which we have already seen are full of errors) was at the level of Jesus
commissioning Saul to be his apostle to the Gentiles. That’s the only Damascus
Road intervention in the Bible (Acts 9), and BJ is claiming that for himself! I
already know that is not the case, so it is telling us a lot that the author
would make such a boast.
However, we must also determine what voice
was speaking to BJ. If it led him to understand God’s word better and to
appreciate things he had not noticed before, perhaps the voice was from God (I would never claim to know for certain what happened during someone else's experience).
However, if this voice led him to contradict, deny, and distort Scripture, we
must acknowledge where this author himself is coming from. Paul was already
dealing with people presenting their “another Jesus” and “different gospel” in
his day, so we must be prepared to admit when we are seeing the same things
today.
Now, even though the entrance to this
chapter is heading in the wrong direction, let’s test what BJ claims he got
from God. He begins presenting his case against the penal substitutionary
atonement of Christ with Isaiah 53:4-5 in the NASB,
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities. (p. 45)
First off, this isn’t the whole of verses
4-5, and it isn’t the whole section that speaks about the suffering, death,
burial, and resurrection of the coming Messiah. Here are those two verses along
with verse 6 that completes the thought. I will show them alongside the ESV for
reference:
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Isaiah 53:4-6 (ESV) |
Isaiah 53:4-6 (NASB) |
4 Surely
he has borne our griefs
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4 However,
it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore,
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5 But he
was pierced for our transgressions;
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5 But He
was pierced for our offenses,
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6 All we
like sheep have gone astray;
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6 All of
us, like sheep, have gone astray,
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Now, before I comment, let’s look at what BJ
says about this passage of Scripture. “WE considered him stricken by God, BUT…
Implication: WE were wrong. He was NOT stricken by God. He was stricken by
us—by violent human beings. WE did it, just as the Gospels and the book of Acts
say over and over” (p. 46). It should be obvious right away that he’s got this
quite wrong.
First, yes, “we” (meaning the people who
watched his crucifixion) thought that the Messiah was being punished by God.
That’s what the Scriptures of their day told them, that if someone was
afflicted it would be for their own sins, not those of someone else. If Jesus
was being afflicted by God (as “we” thought), that would mean in “our” minds
that he had done the wrong and was being punished for it.
Second, for some reason, BJ did not start
with the first part of the sentence. It tells us the truth of what was
happening first, and then what “we” thought it was because we didn’t know the
truth. So, before the “we” come on the scene, the prophet had already presented
the picture, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (ESV) or,
“However, it was our sicknesses that he himself bore, and our pains that he
carried.” Guess what, that tells us the truth about what was happening during
Christ’s crucifixion. Jesus was bearing on himself the griefs and sorrows of
sin that belonged to us. That is substitutionary (one man suffering because of
others)!
When it then shows the “we” thinking that
this was God punishing him for being a
sinner, it is after setting the scene with what was really happening,
that Jesus was suffering for our sins, not his.
But then it continues with the same very
clear emphasis. BJ twists the “But” to mean, “BUT… Implication: we were wrong.
He was NOT stricken by God. He was stricken by us…” Note that very clearly. The
author wants us to believe the “But” means it is an “implication” that Jesus
“was NOT stricken by God”. But is that what the clear words of this passage
say? No, not at all! The “But” actually leads to the clear declaration, “But he
was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (ESV),
or, “But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings”
(NASB).
So, what came after the “But” was not a
correction of the idea that the Messiah was smitten and afflicted by God, but that he was being pierced and crushed for our sins and not his own. It
doesn’t correct the notion that God was doing this, but the wrong belief that the
Messiah was dying for his sins when he was really dying for ours. So far, that
sounds substitutionary and penal.
The next half of verse 5 says, “upon him was
the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed”
(ESV), or, “The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His
wounds we are healed” (NASB). Here there is a punishment, which makes it penal.
Something negative was done to Jesus that brought about a positive outcome for
us, which makes it substitutionary. And the result of this is the peace and
healing of the people in question, which, in Isaiah’s context would be atonement
for sins, or making people right with God. Now, that clearly shows BJ is wrong,
but we’re not done.
The next verse says, “All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (ESV), or, “All of us,
like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way” (NASB).
This far into Isaiah’s prophecy, everyone would know what this meant, that it
was we (the people), who were the ones in the wrong. We were the
sinners. We were the ones who should have been punished.
HOWEVER!!! “and the LORD (Yahweh) has laid
on him (the Messiah) the iniquity of us all”, or, “But the LORD (Yahweh) has
caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.” We couldn’t have it clearer.
The people are the sinners. The people are guilty before Yahweh. So, what
happens? Abba Yahweh lays on Jesus our iniquity. That means Jesus’ Abba is
doing this. It means it is a punishment for sin (penal). It means it is
substitutionary since we are the sinners but Abba Yahweh put the punishment on
Jesus. And it is atoning because it brings us to have peace with God.
Now, if that isn’t clear enough that Jesus’
death on the cross was penal, substitutionary, and atoning, let’s look at
how clearly it is stated a few verses later in Isaiah 53:10,
Yet it was the will of the LORD (Yahweh) to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD (Yahweh) shall prosper in his hand. (ESV)
It was Abba
Yahweh’s will to crush Jesus (for our sins as stated above). It was Abba
Yahweh’s will to put Jesus to grief (to carry out griefs). We cannot escape
this. BJ says it was the people who crucified him, which is partly true. But we
cannot escape the clear teaching of scripture that Jesus died a death that was
a punishment for sin, it was our sin and not his, he died in our place, and in
doing so he atoned for our sins and secured our reconciliation with God.
Well, it appears that is as far as I can
make it on this day’s journal journey. However, let’s answer our three
questions based on what we found for ourselves in Isaiah 53:
1. Was Jesus’ crucifixion penal, meaning, was it a punishment for sin.
Answer: Yes, absolutely!
2. Was Jesus’ crucifixion substitutionary, meaning, was Jesus a substitute who died in the place of someone else?
Answer: Yes, absolutely!
3. Was Jesus’ crucifixion an act of atonement, where he atoned for the sins of the people he was dying for?
Answer: Yes, absolutely!
And, since
BJ went up to bat to prove those three things are all false, I would say he has
thoroughly struck out once again!
What is the positive ending to such a sad
look at someone’s efforts to distort Scripture? How about the way Isaiah
concludes chapter 53 (the very proof text BJ used because of the voice he heard
during the non-Christian practice of Contemplative Prayer). I will continue
using just the ESV for a final attempt at brevity!
“Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see
and be satisfied” (vs 11), which means that after Jesus’ anguish on the cross
he would see the fruit of his work (the people he has saved through his death
and resurrection) and be satisfied to be the “firstborn among many brothers” as
Paul put it (Romans 8:29).
“by his knowledge shall the righteous one,
my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their
iniquities” (vs 11). Wow. Jesus would make many people “accounted righteous”,
you know, as in atonement! And he would do this by bearing THEIR sins,
iniquities, transgressions, failures, even false beliefs (as in,
substitutionary)! What a glorious hope of salvation that agrees with everything
we have in the Scriptures of the New Testament and the Old!
“Therefore I will divide him a portion with
the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out
his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors” (vs 12). This speaks
of the victory that was ahead of the Messiah, that even though everyone considered
him as dying for his own sins, he would see this glorious people of God who
would be that “great multitude that no one could number” the apostle John wrote
about in Revelation 7.
And, finally, “yet he bore the sin of many, and
makes intercession for the transgressors.” The conclusion tells us that this
was penal because Jesus was punished. It was substitutionary because it was our
sins and not his. And it was atoning because the intercession he presented made
“many to be accounted righteous”, you know, just like we read about in the
gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ our Lord!
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
A More Christlike Word © 2021 by Bradley Jersak Whitaker House 1030 Hunt Valley Circle • New Kensington, PA 15068 www.whitakerhouse.com
Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way. Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.
Definitions from the Bible Sense Lexicon (BSL) in Logos Bible Systems
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