The Journey Continues: Yes, Jesus came to die for our sins

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." — 1st John 4:10 ESV

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” — Mark 10:45 ESV

Several years ago, I joined a Facebook group that promoted progressive Christian ideologies. I cannot say exactly why I joined, other than it felt attractive to me at the time; I was on a journey of discerning what God's call was in my life.

However, over time, I began to notice that many of the group's posts did not align with what I had believed for years, nor did they match what I was discovering through my own reading of scripture. One specific point of friction was the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA). Occasionally, group members would post assertions that Jesus actually did not come to die for our sins.

I have thought about writing about this for a couple of years now. The issue felt serious enough to demand that I immerse myself deeper in scripture, so that I could present a compelling defense of what the cross truly accomplished. This morning, during my devotions, the two passages of scripture cited above finally compelled me to put pen to paper.

| The Need: Our Guilt

"and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." — Isaiah 53:6b ESV

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us..." — Galatians 3:13a ESV

Denying the doctrine of PSA ultimately denies that we are, by nature, sinners. To me, that denial sounds like a statement full of pride and conceit. It essentially claims that we do not need a Savior to come down and rescue us—that we don't truly need God's Grace.

This viewpoint ignores the reality that sin is a massive, objective burden. The scriptures show that we were sinners trapped under a legal curse, and Jesus willingly took that exact curse upon Himself.

| The Nature: A Willing, Direct Substitute

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit," — 1st Peter 3:18 ESV

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." — 2nd Corinthians 5:21 ESV

In the passage from Mark that I cited earlier, the Greek word for "ransom" carries the explicit meaning of "in place of." Jesus was clearly stating that He was giving His own life instead of ours.

He didn't simply die a tragic death or serve as an abstract moral example. He actively traded places with us—the guilty parties. Paul underscores this "great exchange" in 2nd Corinthians, stating clearly that Jesus, who was entirely sinless, was made sin for our sakes so we could be made righteous.

| The Result: Justice Satisfied (Propitiation)

"but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." — Romans 5:8-9 ESV

The word used in the 1st John passage—propitiation—refers to the act of satisfying or turning away righteous anger through a sacrifice. By taking our sins upon Himself and dying a substitutionary death, Jesus successfully satisfied divine justice and turned away God's holy wrath toward our sins.

Paul argues this exact point in Romans: we have been justified by His blood, and because of that sacrifice, we are saved from wrath.

I find it strange that certain groups go so far as to say Jesus did not come to die for our sins. They often construct arguments that sound compelling to those who may be theologically uninformed, but when tested against the breadth of scripture, it simply does not ring true to me.

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I would be very interested in your thoughts on this. If you do wish to present or argue the progressive perspective in the comments, please provide the specific scriptures that support your belief.