On The Penal Satisfaction Theory of the Atonement

The [penal satisfaction] theory [of the atonement] for three hundred years widely prevailed in both branches of orthodoxy — Calvinism and Arminianism — although it logically belongs to that branch which teaches an unconditional election and a particular or limited atonement.

It is grounded upon the necessity of satisfying that moral attribute of God called exact, or distributive, justice, defined by Webster as that "which gives every man his exact deserts." This principle of essential justice, or eternal right, demands punishment for violated law. If the sinner is exempted from penalty, it must be inflicted upon some substitute who is personally not worthy of punishment; otherwise, if himself guilty, he could not be a substitute for the guilty. He must suffer for his own sins.

Now there are several reasons why I have never been able to preach this theory of the atonement.

Is Tithing a Requirement for Christians?

QUESTION: Are Christians by the New Testament required to give a tenth, even if they have a small income?

ANSWER: Systematic giving is very desirable. Some could give more than a tenth, and some less. This matter is left by Christ as a voluntary exercise of our benevolent sensibilities. In the Acts, where we look for an application of Christ's precepts, we find no requirement of the tithe. When Paul raised money for the poor, though educated as a Pharisee, he said nothing about the tithe, but "let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper." Christianity is a bundle of principles rather than a code of minute rules. This is what makes the Gospel the law of liberty and not servility.

— Steele's Answers, p. 69, 70.

Directly to Heaven?

QUESTION: Does the soul of the Christian go direct to heaven?

ANSWER: To the penitent and believing thief, Jesus said: "Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise." Paul says: "Having a desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better." To be with Christ is my heaven. Again Paul says: "Willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." "If any man," says Christ, "serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be." This is a very comforting doctrine.

— Steele's Answers, p. 69.

Spiritual Crucifixion

The difficulty with average Christians is that they faint beneath the cross on the via dolorosa, the way of grief, and never reach their Calvary. They do not by faith gird on strength for the hour when they must be stretched upon the cross. They shrink from the torturing spike and from the spear aimed at the heart of their self-life. This betokens weakness of faith.

But when the promise is grasped with the grip of a giant — no terrors, no agonies, can daunt the soul. In confidence that there will be, after the crucifixion, a glorious resurrection to spiritual life and blessedness, the believer yields his hand to the nail, and his head to the thorn crown. That flinty center of the personality, the will, which has up to this hour stood forth in resistance to the complete will of God, suddenly flows down, a molten stream under the furnace blast of Divine love, melted into oneness with the "sweet will of God." After such a death there is always a resurrection unto life. An interval of hours, or even of days, may take place before the angel shall descend and roll away the stone from the sepulchre of the crucified soul, and the pulsations of a new and blissful life be felt through every fiber and atom of the being. It is not the old life that rises, but a new life is breathed forth by the Holy Ghost. The believer can then truly say that he is "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ."

Put Yourself Into Christ's Hands

A friend of the writer, travelling abroad, became sick in Paris. He sent for the most eminent physician in the city, who, after a careful diagnosis, informed his patient that he was attacked with a fatal fever then prevailing in the French capital. Said he to him, "You will soon lose your reason, and then sink into a state of insensibility, from which it is not certain that you will rally. But I will do my best to carry you safely through the deadly disease. Make your will, and deposit it with me. Put into my hands your trunk and its key, your watch, your purse, your clothes, your passport, and every thing else which you prize." The sick man was thunderstruck at such demands by an entire stranger, who might administer a dose of poison, and send the patient's body to the potter's field, and appropriate the surrendered treasures to his own use. A moment's reflection taught him that the demand was made out of pure benevolence, and that it was more safe to trust himself and his possessions to the hands of a man of high professional repute than to run the risk of being plundered by the hungry horde of hotel servants. He surrendered all his goods and himself into the charge of the physician. He sat by his bedside, saw his prophecy fulfilled, reason go out in delirium, and intelligence sink into stupor. He watched the ebbing tide of life with all the solicitude of a brother. At length he saw the tide turn, and detected the first faint refluent wave which was to bring the sick man back to the shores of life. He recovered, and found his purse and all his treasures restored to him.

Thus must you do if you would avail yourself of the skill of the all-healing Physician, Jesus Christ. Make your will, and give it to him. Commit your purse to his keeping. A consecrated pocket-book always attends a sanctified heart. Without this attendant, the heart-work is not real and genuine. Put yourself, your possessions, your reputation, your future, into Christ's hands by an act of consecration, and then BELIEVE that he will do his work without any assistance from you. You cannot improve your own condition. You cannot expel the dire disease of sin from its hold upon your very vitals. Jesus only can free you.

"His precious Blood both wounds and heals,
When faith the balm applies,
My peace restores, my pardon seals,
My nature sanctifies.
His precious Blood the life inspires
Which angels live above,
And fills my infinite desires,
And turns me all to love." 

— from Love Enthroned, Chapter  21.

Conscript Christians

Let me illustrate the difference between law-service and love-service by the conscript and the volunteer soldier.

The impulse which thrusts the former into the field is fear of the law reinforcing his feeble patriotism. When the news comes that his name has been drawn out from the wheel of fortune, and that the strong arm of the law has seized him to push him into the front of the battle, his cheeks turn pale and his heart sinks within him. Nevertheless, he puts on the military uniform, and shoulders his knapsack, though it seems to weigh a ton. Reluctantly he leaves the old homestead, and wearily journeys to the conscript camp, strongly tempted to slip away from the officer and escape from the country; but the fear of the law, and his weak love for his native land, overcome this temptation. He murmurs at the hardness of his rations, discomforts of the camp, the severity of the discipline. Yet he bravely does his duty. The law, like a bayonet behind him, drives him into the battle, where he fights like a hero. Yet he does not enjoy the privations and perils of the service. He cannot overcome its irksomeness. Every hour he wishes that he could avoid the disagreeable duties of a soldier's life.

Wrestling Jacob

Having chosen the higher path, do not be discouraged by the obstacles in the way of your entering and walking therein. You are not to remove them by your own strength. You have an almighty and complete Saviour, "able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by him." With a submissive will and believing soul, "pray that you may know the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe." Pray, and faint not. 

Take into your closet Charles Wesley's great dramatic lyric of a struggling and victorious soul, "Wrestling Jacob," and pray its words till the intensity of the expressions kindle your soul with earnestness and unconquerable persistence.

A Theme That Satan Hates

Satan, who seeks to plunder the Gospel of that element which gives it the highest efficiency in its warfare with his kingdom, blinds the eyes of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shine unto them.

He succeeds so well with unbelievers that he applies the same method to believers, blinding their eyes to their highest Gospel privilege, the fullness of the Spirit, lest the light of this blessing should gladden their eyes, strengthen their hearts, and intensify their zeal against his kingdom. Says John Wesley, in a letter to a Christian woman respecting her preacher, in 1771:

Washed, Sanctified, Justified

QUESTION: Explain 1 Cor. 6:11: "But ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God."

ANSWER: The only difficulty is in putting washing and sanctification before justification. This inversion of the order of clauses, called Chiasmus, from the letter χ, was by the Greeks considered a rhetorical elegance. An English writer would have said justified in the name of Jesus Christ and washed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

— from Steele's Answers, pp. 68, 69.

Hireling ministry

QUESTION: What do you understand by a hireling ministry?

ANSWER: Those who are in the ministry "for the money there is in it." The Quakers used to call those who had a fixed salary hirelings. I think they are more charitable in these days.

— from Steele's Answers, p. 68.