According to the apostle Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus are the “first things” of the gospel (1 Cor 15:3–4). [1] Christians have debated both of these first things throughout the history of the church. Regarding Jesus’ death, they have debated whether the New Testament teaches penal substitution and (if so) whether penal substitution should be understood as the central atonement model in the New Testament. [2]
Recent work on substitution has simply argued for the presence of substitution in the New Testament with specific reference to selected texts in Paul’s letters. [3] In this article, I argue that the New Testament teaches Jesus’ death was a penal substitute for sinners. Elsewhere I defined penal substitution in the following way:
Jesus died a violent, substitutionary death to be a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of Jews and Gentiles. By this death, Jesus took upon himself God’s righteous judgment and wrath against the sins of those for whom he died. By dying as their penal substitute, Jesus paid the penalty for their sins, and he therefore both propitiated God’s wrath against their sins and expiated their sins so that the sins of Jews and Gentiles would be forgiven and so that they would be
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