In looking closely at Paul’s letter to the Colossians, I am struck by the imagery used to describe what Jesus has accomplished in the lives of sinners:<\/p>\n\n\n
[The Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:13-14)<\/p>\n\n\n
It’s an incredible metaphor: Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission – scooping up the weary, the battered, and yes the wrong-doers trapped in Satan’s dark territory and delivering them safely into the Kingdom of Light.<\/p>\n\n\n
Other images of God “rescuing” (undeserving) individuals from danger and darkness are prominent on the pages of the Old and New Testament.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
The most obvious in the Old Testament, of course, is the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n
And off the top of my head, I can think of two from Jesus Himself:<\/p>\n\n\n
Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd who would leave the 99 sheep to go after the one who wanders away.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
And Jesus tells the story of a father who receives his battered son back from a distant land, welcoming him into the safety and\u00a0 comfort of his home and even throwing a party.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
So, here’s the question that strikes me tonight as I think of the rescue motif:<\/p>\n\n\n
How does “rescue” fit with the image of God desiring nothing so much as to pour out His righteous wrath on sinners?<\/p>\n\n\n
Is it God’s intent to rescue us and then <\/i><\/b>prosecute us for their sins? Save, then smash?<\/p>\n\n\n
But we are saved a second time only when – thank goodness – He is willing to pour out His wrath on His own Son instead? The Son who rescued us?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
So in the end, God sends His Son to rescue us and then smashes Him in our place?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
I just don’t understand how people rationalize a belief in Penal Substitutionary Atonement.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In looking closely at Paul’s letter to the Colossians, I am struck by the imagery used to describe what Jesus has accomplished in the lives of sinners: [The Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,147,149,166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kingdom","category-penal-substitutionary-atonement","category-psa","category-rescue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9330,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9329\/revisions\/9330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}