During the first decade of the twenty-first century, a number of prominent leaders in the emerging church movement asserted that the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is tantamount to “cosmic child abuse.” At a time when men and women were finally starting to see the need to condemn every form of abuse that had been tolerated in our culture, the allegation seemed to be a powerful argument with which to drive people away from the longstanding teaching of the Christian church on the sufferings of Christ. The question of the atonement is not, however, settled by aspersions cast by contemporary theologians but by biblical exegesis and theological coherence.
While Jesus frequently taught His disciples about the certainty and necessity of His death on the cross (Matt. 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; 17:25; 22:22), He only explicitly tied those aspects of His death on the cross to its meaning on three occasions—in Mark 10:45, in the Good Shepherd discourse (John 10), and at the institution of the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19–20). In these places, Jesus taught the substitutionary nature of His death for the forgiveness of the sins of His people.
When we move from the Gospels to the Epistles, an explicit articulation of the substitutionary nature of the death of Christ appears. When one considers the many instances in which the Apostles explain the death of Christ, it is incontrovertible that the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is the Apostolic doctrine of the atonement. In what is perhaps the clearest exposition of the death of Christ, the Apostle Paul teaches the vicarious sacrifice of the Savior when he declares, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Likewise, the Apostle Peter explained that Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
Behind the Apostolic interpretation of the death of the Savior is the Old Testament teaching on the atonement. The prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the Suffering Servant, foretold of the sufferings that Jesus would undergo in the place of His people: “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). All of Israel’s prophets alluded to the substitutionary nature of the work of the Redeemer when they spoke of the work of redemption. This, of course, also has its foundation in the nature of Old Testament sacrifice.
In his Reformed Dogmatics, Herman Bavinck explains the significance of the old covenant sacrificial system for seeking to understand the sacrifice of Christ:

Many “conservatives” are only committed to conserving their own interests, nothing more. That’s why just as liberals have regressed into leftists, most conservatives have regressed into liberals. So don’t be surprised when most conservatives support gender theory, transgenderism, and public schools indoctrinating children with LGBTQ ideology in a few years. Most “conservatives” aren’t conservatives at all.

Most conservatives support Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” However, many of these supposed conservatives apparently support the bill for the wrong reasons.
Many conservatives do not care about protecting children from LGBTQ indoctrination, they only care about protecting children from leftist indoctrination.
Most “conservatives” today are heading toward the same direction as liberals and leftists—they’re simply progressing at a slower speed.
Christless conservatives hate leftism, not sin. We Christians shouldn’t forget that.
They are generally our political allies, but they are not our philosophical allies. Jesus said: “Whoever is not with me is against me.” (Matthew 12:30)
That applies to conservatives too. Leftists aren’t the only people who are against Jesus. Christless conservatives are against Jesus too. Therefore, Christless conservatives have more in common with leftists than they have with Christians.
So although leftists are a bigger threat to our soceity, Christless conservatives aren’t the solution. Actually, they are part of the problem.
Yesterday, Dave Rubin and the man he calls his husband announced they’re fathers of two children through surrogate mothers. Many supposed conservatives, including commentators and media outlets like Candace Owens, Prager University, and The Blaze—shared their support.
If you’re unfamiliar with Dave Rubin, he is a political commentator on his talk show, The Rubin Report. He occasionally refers to himself as a conservative, but he mostly describes himself as a classical liberal.
I actually admire Dave Rubin a lot. I mentioned The Rubin Report in an article about my top ten favourite podcasts two years ago. In that article, I said: “Dave Rubin is the most interesting podcaster I follow.”
His interviews with Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Larry Elder, Douglas Murray, and many more have been so helpful to me. His firsts interviews with Ben Shapiro and Larry Elder especially shaped a lot of my thinking on racial issues. The interviews encouraged me to do further research—research that strengthened my blog.
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All that we say and do and think is being noticed. That should help us to keep on the straight and narrow, and help us run the race with diligence and perseverance. It is too easy to be swayed by what we see and hear in this world, but we must be more conscious of what can be seen and heard in the next. 

The Christian is never alone. He is part of the Body of Christ. And what he does is always noticed, certainly by the Triune God. But one interesting passage of Scripture suggests that we are being watched by others as well. Consider what we find in Hebrews 12:1-2:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now when you find a ‘therefore’ in Scripture, you need to learn what it is there for. And the chapter preceding this one is of course the great hall of fame chapter where so many past men and women of faith are listed and praised. After reminding us of all these amazing believers, the writer of this book urges us to run the Christian race with endurance.
The idea is that we should take strong motivation from knowing about all those who have gone before and finished the race well. And there is a two-tiered witnessing taking place here. We witness what they have done (as we read Scripture or church history or Christian biography, etc), but they may also be witnessing us.
Perhaps the saints who have preceded us into eternity are sitting around and cheering us on. “Go Bill – you can do it! Keep going!” Knowing there are so many great champions of the faith who might be supporting us in this way should give us a renewed passion to keep on keeping on.
It is the same for everyone in this life. If you have practiced and worked hard at something – perhaps as a pianist or a golfer – there is real encouragement in knowing that there is a crowd of onlookers, wishing you well and cheering you on. And if you know that a great pianist or golfer is in the crowd while you do your thing, you will try even harder to impress that champion.
One expository commentator and pastor wrote in his remarks about these verses how in his first year of preaching, he was told that two famous and well-known English evangelical preachers were sitting in the church. That made him nervous, but it also made him want to do the very best he could. R. Kent Hughes said this about that Sunday morning:
Now, I always prepare as thoroughly as possible and have always tried to do my best regardless of the situation, but I do remember consciously crossing and dotting my homiletical “t’s” and “i’s” that morning – though it is to be feared that my sermon was eminently forgettable! But my point is, the presence of notable witnesses is motivating, whatever one’s activity may happen to be.
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