The Mystical Theology of Penal Substitutionary Atonement

It is vital to clarify the relationship between Orthodox mystical theology and Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA). The previous several studies of the Church Fathers, including liturgical hymnography, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. John of Damascus, St. Symeon the New Theologian, and St. Gregory Palamas, and also later writers such as Patriarch Jeremiah II's response to the Lutherans (with reference to St. John Chrysostom's Commentary on 2 Corinthians), Peter Mogila, and St. Philaret of Moscow, have amply demonstrated, along with other Biblical and theological considerations, also here and here, that PSA is part of the Orthodox understanding of the Atonement. And yet it remains that PSA’s connection with the “inner logic” of Christ’s sacrifice, as it relates to Christian life and praxis, may still appear obscure. Thus this study hopes to shed light on this necessary aspect of PSA, not only distinguishing it from non-Orthodox presentations, but highlighting how the Orthodox Church in her fulness draws fully from the wells of Christ’s Atonement not only as a past fact but as a present reality. In order to show this, the mystical theology of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, we will look together at its relation to theosis, which is to say its bearing on the relation of Christ’s indwelling, transformative presence and work in hesychia and nepsis.

To begin, sin emerges from (agreement with) the passions. Passions have and are energy, and in the Church Fathers passions are often discussed in terms of interior motions or movements. The fact that passions and sins are energetic means that their effect translates into objective reality and so are not simply abstract descriptions. Although evil has no intrinsic or ontological self-existence, passions and sins enact evil in terms of human ontology, which means that man incarnates sin and so gives real energy to evil. This energy, as such, is real and so cannot simply be “ignored” or “forgotten.” It has its own momentum, an energy that gets transferred throughout all of creation. 

God created a real world, and the passions, as internally disordered real energy, thus occur in the real world. In this way they have real effects, for sins are not written, so to speak, on a chalkboard such that the Lord will just “erase” them on behalf of Christ. Only an excessively abstract, arbitrary, and deneutered view of God’s Law would produce such a view. But sin does not exist in the abstract. One does not simply forget or erase a tidal wave. The tidal wave of sin energy, which is to say the real consequences of the passions and sins of man, must be dealt with in a correspondingly real way, and this is precisely where Christ’s atoning work comes into play.

All the energy of man’s passions, all of sin’s consequences, came crashing down on Christ. Remember, passions have real force and effect. They are put in motion by man, and so produce real misery (i.e. curse) and death. The inertial consequence of sin is curse and death, and Christ allowed this tidal wave of real misery and death to crash upon Him. He willed it in agreement with the Father so that the energy of sin, i.e. its penalty, would not destroy man as it did in the prefigurative days of Noah. This is why “in Christ” you are forgiven, the debt paid, the energy of the passions neutralized, the consequence of sin removed, the curse undone, and the blessing restored, for He bore all this destructive energy in His Body on the Cross: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree... By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The Father released the floodgates of divine justice upon Christ, in total agreement and unity with Him, so that man would not be destroyed by the energy man had unleashed through sin. In other words, when He went down into death, all the momentum of our sin, which He bore sinlessly, was neutralized and made to cease.

According to what might be termed the law of sowing and reaping (cf. Galatians 6:7), what man sowed in sin has a necessary consequence which Christ reaped on our behalf, for here also the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps” (John 4:37). What fallen man sowed of sin unto death, Christ reaped unto righteousness and eternal life. And so without Penal Substitutionary Atonement the realism of the energy of man’s passions and sins are simply ignored. Christ, however, reaps the sin that man labored to sow, Christ takes it on, the totality of sin’s destructive energy, which is to say the Law’s penal consequence, in order to defeat sin and death on our behalf. Without this understanding, sin is reduced to a play of words when in reality it is the force of death: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength (δύναμις) of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). This is why rejection of PSA typically entails a weak view of both the Law and sin, for they bear intrinsic witness to each other. 

To many, sin is just an abstract transaction that failed, an arbitrary justice that wasn't met, a nominalist description of what is not itself really that bad, and so in this view the truth regarding the intrinsic relationship between the energy of the passions and the consequence of sin, i.e. death, all according to the force of divine law, is ignored or treated as non-existent. What a travesty! God’s Law is not some abstract or nominalist code, and sin not merely a label randomly assigned to some actions and not to others. No, sin is an energy, a force that produces friction, i.e. suffering (curse), and death, and sin emerges from the agreement of the soul with the energy of the passions, the will’s alignment of the soul with evil, where the passions are rooted in the lies and deception sown into fallen human nature. The realism of sin and its consequences is uniquely retained in PSA, where the “penalty,” the just consequence, the seed sown, is reaped, borne, and suffered by Christ such that in Him the totality of man’s problem is met, and the complete solution delivered.

God doesn't merely forget sin, He forgives it. He doesn't forget and so forgive, He forgives and so forgets. The Father and the Son agreed that all the weight, energy, and force of man’s sin would crash on the Rock that is Christ, and so willed Christ to the Cross in order to funnel and meet it all there. This is the “bruising” of the Suffering Servant, the “crushing” He bore on our behalf. 

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. ... 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:4-7, 10-11)

In other words, the tidal wave of sin-energy fell upon Him and crushed Him, and by being crushed on our behalf, suffering the punishment for our sin in our place, the tidal wave of sin-energy was dissipated and undone. It is forgiven in Christ because Christ met all its inertial consequences, demands, and ramifications, all of its, if you will, fluid dynamics (δύναμις). The totality of the Law's demands and consequences are totally met in Christ, and so in Christ sin is forgotten because it ceases to exist in Christ; it is destroyed, killed. This is why “in Christ” you are forgiven, for He destroyed death by death, which is to say the energy of sin meets Him and dies with Him. Once defeated, He rose from the dead, having exhausted all the inertial demands of sin, i.e. death. This reality is recapitulated in each Christian through Orthodox praxis, for in stillness and watchfulness the man of faith mystically encounters the need for, and the living power of, the Cross. 

The historical and the mystical or inward Cross are one Cross, one reality both historical and transcendental, and that Cross is both Christ’s death and our death, the surrendering of Himself and our self to the Father, and so His life-giving death is mystically the substance of our stillness. Stillness in this way expresses our co-crucifixion with Christ, for “we know that our old self was crucified with (συσταυρόω) him” (Romans 6:6). All the energy of our passions crash there on the Rock of His peace, are poured into that holy stillness, and His peace meets us and dissolves the energy of our passions there. This is the recapitulation of Penal Substitutionary Atonement in the heart of man: He takes our sin and gives us His peace. What He did historically He does also presently in a transcendental unity of history and eternity. 

Christ is our peace, the substance of our stillness, and so this is not a mere natural stillness that is being referred to. His death is our death, and so in Christ’s death, in the stillness which is the laying down of our self-life, all our passions are healed inasmuch as they are placed there on that Cross to die. It is here where the soul touches the Cross, in the depths of stillness, that peace of God which passes all understanding (νοῦς) and puts to naught the wisdom of the wise. It is here where one finds healing from the fever of the passions. The Cross of Christ and inner stillness thus form a mystical unity, and the death of sin in Christ is in this way recapitulated in man when he practices watchfulness and stillness according to the Orthodox phronema. 

In the state of peace all the energetic motions of passion are brought to a standstill, and in the space of peace they meet Christ, and so they are drawn out and neutralized in His light. This is the mystical or inner reality of Penal Substitutionary Atonement as it is received and recapitulated in the heart. The grace of God carries your sin and all the energy of the passions, and neutralizes them, giving peace where there was anger, love where there was separation, faith where there was fear, joy where there was sorrow. The stillness of Christ in you suffers all this on your behalf so that where there was death, now there is life, for the Spirit of Christ, being the sum and substance of all true stillness, is present in and as stillness.

To conclude, the inner logic of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, which is to say its mystical dimension, works in man to take the energy of passion into stillness, where it is neutralized and where new life is touched. Stillness mystically participates in the Cross of Christ, where the indwelling Spirit of Christ is the sum and substance of one's stillness. This peace which passes all understanding is the experiential dimension of Christ's atoning work being transcendentally applied in and to the soul, sanctifying and making it holy, unto theosis. Through the passions man is ensnared in the carnal mind, which is death (Romans 8:6), and since passions are internal energies, stillness is their functional death. This is how the peace of Christ is made to rule in the heart (Colossians 3:15), for the inner unity between Christ's vicarious atonement and one's present state in Him are made manifest as peace. As the penalty of all sin was placed on Christ and there healed, so in stillness all the energy of the passions are placed on Him (for you have been crucified with Christ; cf. Galatians 2:20) and so cancelled by that same peace of Christ. The historical peace of the Cross is felt as present peace in the heart.

-Fr. Joshua Schooping

A Point of Agreement: Penal Substitutionary Atonement in the 16th/17th Century Orthodox Responses to Protestantism

Orthodox responses to the Reformation, whether this be the official responses to Lutheranism or Calvinism, take issue with several basic Protestant positions, but what is not among them is a critique of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. In fact, Patriarch Jeremiah II wrote to the Lutherans, urging them to “consider the following” Orthodox view of the Atonement:

One might see a bandit or criminal being punished, and the king himself give his beloved, only-begotten, and legitimate son, who was not like that, to be put to death, transferring the guilt from the wicked man to the son in order to save the condemned criminal and rid him from an evil reputation. (Augsburg and Constantinople, First Exchange, pg 41) 

The foregoing from the Patriarch, having quoted from St. John Chrysostom's homily on 2 Corinthians, is one of the oldest and most common examples of penal substitutionary atonement. In it we see one who is being justly punished according to the king's law, but instead of final destruction the king rather puts in that criminal’s place his own innocent son, to receive the condemned man's guilt and be punished in his place in order to save him. This is obviously an illustration of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, where the Father places His willing Son onto the Cross, the place of the cursed criminal, in order to undergo that criminal’s just punishment, and in order to set him free. The Patriarch continued:

If, then, after these things the son were raised up to great authority after he had saved [the offender], and then he was insulted in his unspeakable glory by the one on whose behalf he had been punished, would not the latter prefer to die a thousand deaths, if he had any intelligence, rather to appear to be responsible for such great ingratitude? (ibid)

Not only does Patriarch Jeremiah not distance himself from PSA, he expressly casts it in terms of salvation and being punished on the criminal’s behalf. This is clearly a vicarious atonement, one which is legal and therefore forensic, and it is substitutionary in that it is in the criminal’s place and undergoing the criminal’s own punishment. The Son of God was punished with the just punishment of sinners, willingly standing in the place of the condemned, out of love, and in order to redeem them. Rather than refuting a so-called Protestant notion of Penal Substitutionary Atonement, the Patriarch presents it as the Orthodox view. Rooted in the Old Testament sacrificial system, according to the Orthodox view presented to the Lutherans: 

The slaying of animals and the golden and silver vessels were offered to God by the ancients. The body of Christ clearly includes both. For He was slain for the glory of the Father. (ibid, 66)

The foregoing not only affirms that Christ’s death must be understood in terms of the legal and substitutionary sacrifice for sin, and so penal in nature, it is also presented in the context of an explanation of the Eucharist. In this way it is the sacrificial system of the Old Testament which provides the framework of meaning for holy Communion, and so holy Communion itself is understood in terms of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. Christ is the sacrificial Lamb “consecrated to God from the beginning. He was an offering to Him because He is the only-begotten, and because the bread is changed into the very body of Christ” (ibid). The bread is changed into the Body of fallen man’s penal Substitute. 

The issue is so non-controversial for the Patriarch between the Orthodox and the Lutherans, that despite two additional exchanges where points of contention are maintained and discussed at length, the question of Christ being our Penal Substitute is dropped, never once figuring as a point of disagreement. It is, moreover, these exchanges which inform and are absorbed as part of the Confession of Dositheus as affirmed in the Synod of Jerusalem (1672). Again, Penal Substitutionary Atonement is a non-issue, and in the 8th Decree it is tacitly presumed as part of the Orthodox understanding of the Atonement. Christ, as Mediator: 

In giving Himself a ransom for all He hath through His own Blood made a reconciliation between God and man, and that Himself having a care for His own is advocate and propitiation for our sins. (Decree 8)

Again, in light of the known teachings of the Reformers, Dositheus affirms that Christ is the propitiation for our sins, that He hath given Himself sacrificially, and that through His blood He hath made a reconciliation between God and man. This is all penal substitutionary language, and in light of his awareness of Patriarch Jeremiah’s prior exchanges, Dositheus not only does not distance Orthodoxy from PSA, he rather continues to present it as normative. Dositheus affirms that the Eucharist itself, being the Body and Blood Christ, “is a true and propitiatory Sacrifice offered for all Orthodox” (Decree 22). In other words, although not suggesting that the Eucharist is a “second” or “re-” sacrificing of Christ, the sacrifice of the Eucharist must be understood in terms of that type of sacrifice which propitiates God’s just wrath against sin. The legal and sacrificial aspect of Christ’s death is thus again shown to be informed at a basic level by PSA, and to be incorporated into the Orthodox understanding of holy Communion itself.

Later, Peter Mogila in the 17th Century, again confirmed PSA as part of Orthodox understanding of the Atonement. From his Answer to Question 24:

He calls Christ a Priest, because he offered himself to God and the Father : saying, Who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without Spot to God. And again, So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many.

In other words, Christ bore our sins. He not only bore death, but sins. And He offered Himself a spotless sacrifice for those sins according to the forensic logic of the Old Covenant sacrificial system, which is penal and substitutionary. And again showing the connection with the Eucharist, in question 107 he answers:

The Fruits of this Mystery are chiefly these : — First, A Commemoration of the Sufferings and of the Death of Christ ; wherewith he was afflicted, not for his own, but for our Transgressions : As saith the Scripture (I Cor. xi. 26), As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup, ye do shew the Lord's Death till he come. Secondly, This Mystery is a Propitiation, or Atonement with God, for our Sins.

The very Eucharist is in this way intimately bound up with PSA. Propitiation and Atonement are even made to be as if synonymous. Lastly, although it is a longer quote, in answer to Question 47 Mogila answers in terms again clearly within the framework of PSA:

That the Death of Christ was abundantly more excelled, and of far greater Benefits, than could be the Death of all other Men: For these especial Reasons. First, Because of the heavy Burden of our Sins, as saith the Prophet (Isaiah 53:4), He hath home our Griefs and carried our Sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our Transgressions, he was bruised for our Iniquities. Also the Prophet Jeremiah, speaking in the Person of Christ (Lamentations 1:12), Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow, which is done unto me. Secondly, For that on the Cross he fulfilled his priestly Office, offering himself to God and the Father, for the Redemption of Mankind : as the Apostle speaks concerning him (1 Timothy 6:6), Who gave himself a Ransom for all. And again (Ephesians 5:2), Christ loved us, and hath given himself for us, an Offering and a Sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling Savour. Also in another Place (Romans 5:8), While we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us. Thirdly, Because on the Cross he completed the Reconciliation which he had undertaken between God and Man; as the Apostle just mentioned declareth (Colossians 1:20 and 2:14), By him to reconcile all Things unto himself, having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross; Blotting out the Handwriting of Ordinances that was against us ; which was contrary to us; and took it out of the Way, nailing it to the Cross.

To conclude, not only do these 16th Century Orthodox responses to Protestantism not distance themselves from PSA, they positively incorporate it as a natural part of Orthodox teaching on the Atonement. Peter Mogila in the 17th Century also clearly maintains this Orthodox understanding in the same era of controversy with the Protestants. Although in the very context in which a denial of PSA would have been called for, it is was yet affirmed and maintained by Patriarch Jeremiah, Patriarch Dositheus, and Metropolitan Peter Mogila. In light of this and the previous studies, it has been conclusively shown that PSA is natural to Orthodoxy, historically, theologically, and sacramentally. What is therefore unnatural is the contemporary attempt at seeking to erase it from the memory of Orthodox Christians and to represent it as a foreign, modern, and heterodox development. Nothing is further from the truth, and as such the attack against PSA is an attack against the Orthodox understanding of the Gospel. 

-Fr. Joshua Schooping