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The Coherence of the Cross

MATT MARINO

As this is not a defense of the orthodox view of the atonement in general, we will be
assuming the truth of what is called the penal substitutionary (or satisfaction) model. The
argument will instead pertain to a difficulty of the logical sort. How exactly do the temporal
and creaturely dimensions of this work of Christ interact with the eternal and self-sufficient
aspects of the divine life? That the cross has its ultimate object of action in the heavenlies is
clear in the book of Hebrews. The inspired author speaks of Christ entering “not into holy
places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God on our behalf ” (9:24).
I will argue (1) that the satisfaction of the atonement objectively changed the
relationship between God and elect sinners, but (2) that this change of wrath to favor occurs
ad extra of the divine life and not in se. Toward this end, my argument will flow from (a)
relevant biblical texts on the Godward dimension of the atonement, to (b) reconciling divine
eternality with the temporal work of Christ, to (c) offering an explanation for the “point” or
“way” in which elect sinners pass from being objects of God’s wrath to his favor.
Christ’s work on the cross very directly affected the relationship between God and
sinners. If we take the orthodox view, the most basic design of the cross was not a moral
example, nor a spiritual influence on the heart, nor even a triumph over evil powers. Though
these rival atonement theories each communicate something that is true of the cross, the
satisfaction model drives to the core. Jesus Christ reconciled sinners to God by this work. It
was primarily aimed at God. Consequently, new difficulties emerge. In providing an answer,
we cannot ignore that several New Testament texts speak of wrath as abiding (Jn. 3:36) and as
revealed from heaven in the present (Rom. 1:18); nor the substitution of Christ, in the place of
that wrath, being “at the right time … [that] Christ died for the ungodly … while we were
sinners … while we were enemies” (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10)—all expressions of wrath and
reconciliation in the course of time.
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Biblical Texts on the Godward Dimension

Several New Testament texts are foundational to the Godward dimension. Let us
begin with the very notion of sacrifice. Although the sacrifices in the Old Covenant were
typological, we are still told that, “it will be accepted” (Lev. 1:4) and that it was “an aroma
pleasing to the LORD” (Lev. 1:9). The divine pleasure in the sacrifice is retained by Paul, “as
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:2).
Note the sense in which God is depicted as the object receiving the action. Hebrews 9:14 is
no less clear: “Christ … offered himself without blemish to God.” God is accepting sinners on
the basis of what his Son has accomplished.
Four places in the New Testament use some form of the noun hilasterion rendered
“propitiation” (cf. Rom. 3:25, Heb. 2:17, 1 Jn. 2:2, 4:10). The ordinary sense of propitiation is of
a religious sacrifice that appeases an offended deity. In Hebrews 2:17 and 1 John 2:2 there is a
link to Christ’s priestly intercession. He offers prayers to God on behalf of his people. We
may safely infer that these prayers are directed toward God on the basis of the sacrifice
which is equally directed toward God. The burden of proof is on anyone who would sever
that connection.
Even several texts that focus on divine initiative hint at the divine end. For instance,
“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against
them” (2 Cor. 5:19). The only obstacle mentioned here is human sin, which obstacle stands in
the way of divine acceptance. With the connection to divine appeasement firmly
established, we are prepared to face the theological dilemma.
What these passages teach us is that God received something from Christ’s sacrifice.
Whether we put that in Anselmian or Reformed terms matters little at this point. On the
surface of what I am calling the “classical” position, which takes satisfaction and penal
substitution together, it would seem that God is affected by Christ’s work. Several classically
conceived divine attributes are in play at this point: for instance, how there can be any
suffering in the impassible God. However, my focus is on eternality. How can a time-bound
payment translate into an eternal satisfaction complete?
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Temporal Appeasement of an Eternal Disposition?

It is assumed here that God has love and wrath. However love belongs to God in se
whereas wrath “is a function of God’s holiness against sin.”1 Mercy is likewise a function of
God’s love in the face of justice. In short, wrath and mercy both presuppose sin. This
implies that God eternally decreed both the objects of wrath and mercy as well as his
disposition toward them (Rom. 9:22-23). This may seem a tidy formulation until we consider
the Godward effect of the atonement. Here there are not simply two lines running parallel
from God’s decree to eternal blessedness and damnation. In this case there is an
interruption. In fact the lines seem to intersect, for wrath is aimed at all, and it seems as if
only after the work of Christ do the lines run parallel again. How can we speak of the
reconciliation of those for whom Christ died if these were elect in Christ from the start?
Modern religion, if it speaks of an unreconciled state at all, sees the hostility entirely
on man’s side and not on God’s. Donald Macleod suggests a reason for this in all the
passages where “the atonement is an expression of divine love, not its cause … Yet, while
never capricious, God’s love for us was an expression of the divine freedom.”2 In other
words, God does not love us in the same way as the Father loves the Son. Divine love for
humanity may be more essential than, or antecedent to, the atoning work; however it is not
absolutely necessary to the divine essence that he loves the creature. Now how does this help
us deal with the apparent change in God’s disposition toward the sinner? To set the stage for
the heart of the problem, let me turn to a very strong way of putting it.
Leon Morris goes as far to say that, “Clearly it is God’s demand that we live holy lives
that is the root cause of the problem. As long as he is angry with the selfishness, the
disregard of the needs of others and the general attitude of lovelessness that the Bible calls
sin, the attitude of God is going to be an important factor, indeed the important factor.”3
These authors are decisively answering one dilemma posed by modern liberal theologians.
However, due to the recent resurgence in the premodern doctrine of God, we may safely

1 Carson. 1999. 388.

2 Macleod. 2015. 244.
3 Morris. 1983. 137-138.
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anticipate the dilemma to which I am calling attention. What about this divine disposition
(or, to use Morris’ word, “attitude”)? How is God satisfied by such a work if he is eternal and
immutable? Most specifically, how is a temporal action of Christ upon the cross said to be
causal to a divine disposition if God transcends time? Theological mutualism resolves this by
conceiving of God in time per his relationships to the creature.4
Macleod stops short himself, opting for concession that the biblical language must
inform even our formulations of the divine attributes. Perhaps God is “not only proactive …
but reactive.”5 Two things may be said in reply: first, that the biblical language has a priority
on our formulations is granted, but it is also question-begging as to whether the scriptural
language actually does conflict; second, that God is both proactive and reactive need only
denote two divine acts within the same eternal decree. One act may often be subordinate in
relation to the other. God may “react” to that which he has decreed (e. g. a saint’s prayer),
both the existence of the prayer and divine response existing subordinately within the
higher decree. What matters is that no talk of “reaction” can imply potentiality in God.
Similarly in the case of the Godward effect of the cross, the dilemma is often set up
as if classical theologians reduce divine emotions by making them eternal and fixed. But the
reductionistic shoe is on the other foot. Do theological mutualists mean to suggest that
God only possesses emotions, or that divine emotions only acquire their intensity, in
relation to the creature? If so, then who is it that is really denying personal emotion to God?
Dolezal summarizes their larger operative principle: “A temporal effect can only proceed
from a temporal act of causation, and such acts can only go forth from temporal agents.”6
The classical position is also not denying the real vindication of justice, as in the “just
and justifier” truth set forth by Paul in Romans 3:26. Whether we cast the demands in terms
of offended honor (Anselm) or legal debt (Luther), what matters is that the effect of the
satisfaction addresses no insufficiency in the divine life. Even the pagan Socrates famously
recognized that a divine being could, strictly speaking, need nothing in the way of sacrifice.7

4 cf. Dolezal. 2017. 1.

5 Macleod. 2016. 248.
6 Dolezal. 2017. 96.
7 Plato. Euthyphro.13c, 15a
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But it is just in this defense of aseity that a confusion may exist. That justice requires
punishment of sin does not mean that the justice of God is “needy” in the divine life.
Speaking of a “demand” consequent to a divine attribute having been violated is again to
speak of a deficiency in the creature. The demand is squarely upon the creature in debt.
Where then is the satisfaction made? Another resource from which to draw is the
communicatio idiomatum. If we can use phrases like “blood of God” or “mother of God,” it is
because all that the humanity of the Son possesses may be spoken of the divine person; even if
not of the nature. So it is that the Son, in his human nature, can satisfy God’s demands,
through which God, in eternal act, determined to expiate the sins of his people. Turretin
gave the best summary of satisfaction: “He gives [satisfaction] as God-man … he receives it
as the Word … he gives it as Mediator and receives it as a Judge.”8

In what sense does the relationship between God and sinner change?

Paul says that even believers “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of
mankind” (Eph. 2:3). The classical position is not embarrassed to affirm this truth. The
argument is not that divine wrath was never looming over the elect. Rather it is that the
change affected by the cross was in the relationship between God and elect sinner and not a
change in the divine essence or decree. It may be objected, however, that this makes divine
wrath against the elect something less than real, personal anger. It may seem reduced to an
abstraction. But there is nothing “abstract” about the ordered matrix in the divine decree
wherein God accounted for satisfaction of what justice demands, out of a higher free choice
to love some for whom he would provide that satisfaction. To the extent that we can speak
of plural decrees within the singular decree of God, the logical relationships between the
higher and lower divine priorities are as real as the whole decree itself. The burden of proof
is on anyone who would argue that these are mere abstractions.
God loves all people in Adam (Jn. 3:16). God loves the elect in a more special way (1
Tim. 4:10). This special love is that which determines to satisfy the demands of divine
justice. So Paul writes that, “God has not destined us for wrath” (1 Tim. 5:9). Jesus gives us

8 Turretin. Institutes.II.436
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the most crucial statement at this juncture, making divine love the cause of averting wrath
and not the other way around: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down
his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13; cf. 1 Jn. 4:10). Propitiation of wrath does not initiate love.
Love deals with wrath by propitiation. Propitiation exercises a ceasing influence on wrath,
but it is not the case that God only began to love his people at that point. So it is precisely
in the biblical-temporal account that we find the priority of the eternal decree to save his
own through judgment. It is not that God experienced a change in his essence or decree. It
is that the relationship ad extra has undergone a change from real divine displeasure to an
even more real propitious standing.
Shedd seems to divide (1) propitiation per se and (2) the change in our relationship,
where the oblation is “wholly ab intra” since the two feelings, wrath and compassion, “exist
together in one and the same being,”9 yet this does not imply any change in either God’s
essence or decree, since he eternally decreed that wrath no longer abides.
It is in this way that the expression of Augustine makes sense: “Thus in a marvelous
and divine way he loved us even when he hated us.”10 This also informs how we relate
election and covenant to the gospel call. The author of Hebrews links the covenant death of
Christ to those who are called into it (9:15). But this is not to be construed as incompatible
with a universal offer to believe. All begin outside of the covenant with respect to our lives
as sinners. In regard to the eternal decree the number of the elect are fixed, yet in regard to
our temporal perspective, the identity of the elect are unknown. Thus we can call everyone
from God’s wrath to his love with a straight face: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). The
relationship between God and sinner really does change, and thus the sinner has a real
interest in appropriating the fitting means of repentance and faith.

9 Shedd. 2003. 704

10 Augustine quoted by Allen, STII Lecture Notes: “Humiliation,” 7
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WORKS CITED

Carson, D. A. “God’s Love and God’s Wrath,” Bibliotheca Sacra 156 (Oct-Dec 1999) 387-98

Dolezal, James. All That is In God. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage, 2017

Macleod, Donald, “The Work of Christ Accomplished,” Allen & Swain ed. Christian
Dogmatics. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016

Morris, Leon. The Atonement. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1983

Plato. Five Dialogues. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981

Shedd, W. G. T. Dogmatic Theology. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2003

Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume 2. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian &

Reformed, 1994
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