The heart of the Christian gospel is the penal, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. As we should expect, this most salvific of all doctrines is taught throughout the Scriptures. It is pervasive, stated both propositionally and illustrated through many types and figures. This note considers a few examples of this foundational jurisprudential doctrine that C. S. Lewis so memorably describes as “deeper magic from before the dawn of time.”
Isaiah the prophet expresses the propositional teaching of the substitutional death of Christ when he writes that “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, with his stripes we are healed…the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:5-6). Likewise Paul the apostle states the proposition of penal substitution, writing that Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification,” (Rom 4:25) and that “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).
But the doctrine of penal substitution is likewise set forth typically throughout the Scriptures. It is bound up in the nature of the bloody sacrificial system, when God first slays the innocent animals to cover the guilty shame of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21); it is depicted ritually when the sinner is instructed in the law to bring a sacrifice and lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, thus confessing that the sacrifice is taking his place in bloody judgment as he goes forth free (Lev 1:3-4).
The possibility of a transference of judgment is suggested in the frightful self imprecation Rebekah pronounces when she urges her son Isaac to proceed with the wicked deceit of his father Isaac in order to steal his brother’s blessing, and so to venture the possibility of receiving his father’s curse instead of his blessing, “Let your curse be upon me my son” (Gen 27:13).
Anticipating nothing less than the love of Christ for His own people (John 11:49-52), Moses charges Israel with great sin in the matter of the golden calf and then begs God to forgive their sin if necessary by blotting his own name out of God’s book (Exod 32:30-32). Similarly, Paul so loved his Jewish kinsmen according to the flesh that he would have wished himself accursed if only Israel could be forgiven (Rom 9:1-3).
David’s great grief for his son Absalom is another illustration of the soul that would offer to die in the place of another. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam 18:31-33). David’s grief for his wicked son follows his mourning for the death of his innocent son, Bathsheba’s firstborn. In a striking anticipation of the death of David’s greater Son, the innocent son born to Bathsheba was appointed to die as a consequence of David’s sin (2 Sam 12:14) while David went forth free (2 Sam 12:13).
There is a further illustration of the transference of the curse in the account of Naaman’s leprosy. Elisha’s wicked servant Gehazi disobeyed his master in pursuing Naaman to ask for a money reward after the prophet had healed the Aramean warrior from his leprosy. Gehazi willingly received Naaman’s silver and clothes, but for his disobedience was made to receive his leprosy as well (2 Kings 5:19-27).
It is a matter noteworthy to all four Gospels that Jesus, the innocent (Matt 27:24-25), in His condemnation and death took the place of Barabbas, who was a notorious criminal (Matt 27:16-17; Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:18-25; John 19:38-40).
Finally, there is a magnificent dynamic of redemption that is unleashed after the terrifying curse cried out by the crowd in Jerusalem at Jesus’ trial before Pilate. To encourage the Roman governor in his unjust judgment, the people cried out, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matt 27:25). The implicit ambiguity of this statement is construed in grace when Peter announces the possibility of repentance to Israel, proclaiming that “the promise is to you and to your children!” (Acts 2:39).
In all of these things we see that the justice of Scripture is sure, that the guilty must suffer for sin (Exod 34:7). But there is a better jurisprudence, a “deeper magic” that reflects a more profound expression of love found in the cross of Christ, where He suffered our curse in order to give us His blessing, where He who had committed no sin became sin for us, where God kissed a guilty world in love, and death itself began “working backward.”