ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 16, 2026
So in Sunday’s sermon, I talked about Anselm and his substitutionary atonement theory, which technically was incorrect. Anselm’s theory is probably better described as satisfaction atonement theory. As a side note, I might have mixed some of that up in graduate school, and thus the reason for my B in the class on Christian History During the Middle Ages. In both theories, the concern is God’s wrath and how human beings avoid it. Though plenty of folks will line up to disagree with me, I don’t believe in God’s wrath, at least as others have throughout Christian history. There is no question that there are Biblical passages that speak to divine wrath as God’s anger being poured out on sinners or the unrighteous. Fear of wrath has been a driving force for people choosing good behavior. Yet in the Gospels, we read how God allows for the rain to fall on both the righteous and the unrighteous. And then in 1st John 4, there is a whole discussion about fear and its connection to punishment. Yet it goes on to say that perfect love casts out all fear, and since God is perfect love, wouldn’t it come to reason that there would be no punishment from the One who is perfect love? I tend to believe that what is often described as wrath is in fact the natural consequences of our actions. When we make a bad choice, there are some situations where there are no real consequences. But how often has a bad choice come back to bite you? Maybe not immediately, but even the delayed bite was painful. Proverbs 26:27 reads, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.” Wrath isn’t God unleashing anger to make us suffer, but is the natural consequences of poor choices (sinful choices) coming back to trip us up. I know this isn’t always good news for the ears of those who have known the hurt of betrayal or the injuries of injustice. We’d much rather speak of a God unleashing a can holy whoop ass on the perpetrators, but so often the one who wronged us goes on with a happy life unaware or unconcerned. In those cases, people look for a delayed wrath that comes during the afterlife when they believe there is real and eternal punishment. That raises significant issues, though I’ve addressed those in previous Etchings.
But let’s look at part of the passage from Sunday’s message (Romans 5:6-9),
While we were still weak, at the right moment, Christ died for ungodly people. It isn’t often that someone will die for a righteous person, though maybe someone might dare to die for a good person. But God shows his love for us, because while we were still sinners Christ died for us. So, now that we have been made righteous by his blood, we can be even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.
Some people might be quick to point out how these words appear to reinforce a satisfaction or substitutionary approach to salvation (and avoidance of wrath), but at no point does it really say the death of Jesus satisfied or substituted something that was needed/required for God to withdraw the wrath. There is no question that Paul was describing a situation where we have acted contrary to God (ungodly) and sinned (missed the mark), but Jesus’ death (execution) was a demonstration of faithfulness to the way of love. Wrath is simply the natural consequences of living lives contrary to the way of God (love), and though it is not some response of anger, the consequences are still very real… but maybe not so much on the individual as it is on the community or creation itself. Notice that throughout the passage, and all of chapter 5, it is the collective ‘we’ that is both the recipient of the good and the beneficiary of the suffering. God’s unconditional and unrelenting love seeks, by the very nature of love, to restore, heal, make right, reconcile, and save. And when we read the phrase “his blood,” it is a reference to the embodiment of that love in Jesus, including the cross. We learn in him of a God who does not seek to punish, but heal; does not desire to chastise humanity, but guide them toward true transformation. Fear of punishment does not introduce us to that God, only love does. And that is, in my opinion, the purpose of the church.
When so many push and even appear to enjoy a theology of wrath and anger, attaching such attributes to you, Merciful God, I pray for another way. Though the Bible is far from univocal, help me to explore the many stories and metaphors used to describe you… including those that do not appear to uphold a vision of your love that is eternal, limitless, and given without condition. Help me to struggle with the fullness of scripture, while also showing me how best to bring that love into my life and to share it as Jesus did. Amen.
