Does penal substituion downplay the importance of a heart change, really loving, and create a false sense of security? (I hope I’ve got this under the right topic, since it does have to do with what many think was the purpose of Christ’s death on the cross.)
This was a conversation on facebook I had with my former youth pastor, just recently. I was explaining to him that my experience has been that it’s difficult to gauge the heart and it’s often been the people I’ve thought are not followers of Christ, because they aren’t regular church attenders, smoke, etc., that really love and are the ones with real faith. For example, the case worker in my office that uses bad language, but really goes out of her way to help people get services, working well into her lunch every day, the smoker that treats clients with constant kindness, the non-church going friend that tells me how God put it in her heart to feed the homeless, share her tacos, during her lunch and my own sister, having difficulty with the church, but loving her enemies.And it’s been the Christians, often times, that I’ve watched sit around talking about how they would never find themselves in need of welfare. This was my pastor’s response to me about my believing that the heart is what God cares about: (He believes in penal substitution)
Just thought I’d share and see what you all have to think about this. I’m sure I asked way too many questions. And maybe I didn’t accurately portray his view? But, it did feel as if he was downplaying the importance of love in support of penal substitution being what really matters, something I’m sure he would not want to do, right?