Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Penal substitution

Christ bears, in the place of his people, the judicial penalty their sin deserved, so that God is 'just and the justifier'.

'Penal' (relating to punishment) + 'substitution'.

Isaiah 53:5, 10; Romans 3:25–26; Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Made central by the Reformers (Luther's Galatians commentary; Calvin, Institutes II.16); confessed in the Reformed and Lutheran standards; rejected by the Socinians; modified by Grotius ('governmental').

Guards free forgiveness without trivialising sin: the cost is really borne. Its coherence depends on a Trinitarian frame — the Son willingly, the Father giving his own Son, not a third party punished.

The 'divine child abuse' objection; whether the NT makes it central; Eastern Orthodoxy and much of Anabaptism reject the framing.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.