Consider one man's opinion of Jesus - "I could accept Jesus as a martyr, as an embodiment of sacrifice and a Divine Teacher but not as the most perfect man ever born. I was not ready to accept that Jesus by his death and his blood redeemed the sins of the world." These words belonged to Mahatma Gandhi who repeated praised Jesus as an exemplary teacher, but remained unwilling to believe his death paid the penalty for our sins. Sadly, many today understand the cross as only a beautiful example of selflessness or as only a great victory. While Jesus certainly is our example (Hebrews 12:3) and His death won victory over death (1 Corinthians 15), the heart of the cross must be that Christ died in our place for our sin as an atoning sacrifice.
The Bible's summary statements of the cross's significance and meaning can be fairly represented with the phrase "penal substitutionary atonement." Let's explore what these words mean.
Penal. Jesus died on the cross to bear or to pay the penalty for our sin. Paul succinctly taught, "the wages of sin is death" and that ever since Adam's sin "death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 6:23, 5:12). The human condition, therefore, is not neutral but sinful. Because God is perfectly holy and just He will punish sin fully, which means eternally, and the natural plight or condition of man is one deserving God's just wrath. That's why John taught, "whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him," (John 3:36). Sin is not something God can just ignore because it is primarily rebellion against Him and His rule. When I lie or when I steal or break some other command of God, it's worse than lying in court (perjury) or stealing national secrets from the Pentagon. I am lying against and stealing from God Himself. Therefore, our sin must be punished to the full, an eternal punishment for crimes against the Eternal One. That's why the natural destination of sinful man is not heaven, or some neutral holding place, but hell. Apart from God's gracious intervention, the just penalty for our sin is the eternal experience of God's wrath as conscious torment in hell, "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched," (Mark 9:48). This is the penalty Jesus paid on the cross. Jesus paid the penalty with His suffering and death, enduring God's just wrath. Praise Jesus!
Substitutionary. Jesus died on the cross in our place. When God's people were slaves in Egypt, God appointed a series of plagues to move the stubborn heart of Pharaoh to release His people. The final plague would see the firstborn children of Egypt slaughtered in a night. The firstborn Israelite boys would have suffered the same fate, but God provided a means of escape. If they killed a lamb and spread its blood over their doorposts, the angel of death would pass over their homes, and spare the firstborn. The lamb died in the place of the children. This is perhaps one of the clearest pictures of a substitute, and such beautiful foreshadowing of Christ that when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming for baptism he declared, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Jesus, like the Passover Lamb, would die in the place of God's chosen children all over the world. God decided to reveal Jesus in heaven to John as a slain lamb (Revelation 5:6). Paul called Jesus "our Passover Lamb" (1 Corinthians 5:7). And Peter referenced Isaiah 53 when he taught that Jesus "bore our sins in his body" and that "by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). When Jesus died on the cross, He was not dying as a martyr or a victim, but as a willing substitute. He was being treated as if He committed all of my sin and yours and experiencing God's full penalty or wrath. Was the cross violent? Absolutely! It was violent and gory and horrible because that's what our sins deserve. Praise Jesus, he died as our substitute, taking our place.
Atonement. There were many sacrifices appointed in the Old Testament, but one of the most important was the sacrifice of atonement. Israel was made up of sinful people and the temple was where the Holy God dwelt in their midst. How could a Holy God live among a sinful people without annihilating them? The relationship would have to be often repaired with sacrifices to satisfy His justice and remove their sin. So, God instituted the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). Mark Driscoll in his very helpful book Death By Love helped me understand this day. First, a bull was sacrificed as a burnt offering. Then, two goats were used. The first goat was slaughtered and its blood splattered everywhere, including in the Holy of Holies where God symbolically lived among His people. The second goat was touched with bloody hands and then released to die on the wilderness away from the people. The first goat symbolized the way the people's sins were punished and God's wrath satisfied. The Bible refers to this as propitiation. The sacrifice satisfies God's just demands and wrath. The second goat symbolized the removal of the people's sins. Theologians call this expiation. Their sins were removed. Jesus fulfills the image of both goats and succeeds in giving His life as a once-for-all-time sacrifice. Thus, John said that God "sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Jesus satisfies God's wrath with His sacrificial death on the cross. Like the second goat, Jesus died outside of Jerusalem on a hill, showing that in His death our sins are removed. Jesus's death propitiates God's wrath and expiates our sin, thus atoning for us. The atoning death of Christ repairs the broken relationship between the Holy God and us sinful people for all time so that "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" time (Hebrews 10:10). Praise God, Jesus died as an atoning sacrifice.
So, the heart of the cross is that Jesus died as the penal substitutionary atonement. Jesus died on the cross in our place to atone for us by paying the penalty for our sin. May this always be the primary or central way Christians understand the cross. Jesus is our example, but His is an impossible example to follow unless my sin is first dealt with and God's Holy Spirit comes to live in me, changing me from the inside out. Jesus did die to win victory over death, but His death is only a victory if sin is dealt with in full so that death no longer has the final say over me. Without penal substitutionary atonement, Jesus's example on the cross is impossible to follow, and His victory is limited to this life alone. Praise God that Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sin.
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