Redemption, reconciliation, adoption, healing, conquest – all these are ways the Bible talks about the victory Christ won on the cross. That does not, however, mean that penal substitution is just one image of the cross among many, and that we may pick and choose which one we want to emphasize. The Bible’s images of atonement don’t work like that; they are not an all-you-can-preach buffet. Actually, each of the images the Bible uses to describe the atonement finally finds its resolution in the fact that Jesus died in the place of His people. If you trace down the reality that lies behind the images, that is, if you ask enough how and why questions, what you find at the bottom of every single one of them is penal substitution.
— Greg Gilbert (b. 1977), Pastor, Buchautor, Sprecher
Topics: Grace & Redemption, The Bible & the Word of God
Occasions: For Reflection
Greg Gilbert
Greg Gilbert (* 1977) ist ein US-amerikanischer reformiert-baptistischer Pastor und Buchautor, der seit 2010 die Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville (Kentucky) leitet. Bekannt wurde er durch Schriften wie „Was ist das Evangelium?“, in denen er ein reformatorisches Heilsverständnis vertritt und den Auftrag der Kirche primär auf Evangelisation und Jüngerschaft statt auf gesellschaftliche Transformation festlegt. Für Bibelleser bieten seine Werke eine systematische Auslegung biblischer Grundbegriffe, die wegen ihrer strikt calvinistischen Zuspitzung und Abgrenzung zu weiter gefassten Missionsverständnissen auch kontrovers diskutiert wird.
All quotes by Greg Gilbert (5)
It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was love.
Max Lucado
Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.
Philip Yancey
In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
Henri Nouwen
God does not love us because we are lovable, but because his nature is love.
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers
God counts on your failure far more than you do yourself.
Hans Peter Royer
Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.
Henri Nouwen
The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
Tim Keller