We strongly reject, therefore, every explanation of the death of Christ which does not have at its centre the principle of ‘satisfaction through substitution’, indeed divine self-satisfaction through divine self-substitution.

The cross was not:

a commercial bargain with the devil, let alone one which tricked and trapped him;

nor an exact equivalent, a quid pro quo to satisfy a code of honour or technical point of law;

nor a compulsory submission by God to some moral authority above him from which he could not otherwise escape;

nor a punishment of a meek Christ by a harsh and punitive Father;

nor a procurement of salvation by a loving Christ from a mean and reluctant Father;

nor an action of the Father which bypassed Christ as Mediator.

Instead, the righteous, loving Father humbled himself to become in and through his only Son flesh, sin and a curse for us, in order to redeem us without compromising his own character.

The theological words ‘satisfaction’ and ‘substitution’ need to be carefully defined and safeguarded, but they cannot in any circumstance be given up. The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us.

John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 159-160.

I'm glad the Bible isn't just 1 John 2:2

2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2

I am glad the Bible consists of more than just 1 John 2:2.  Of course, it wouldn't be called 1 John 2:2 if it were the only verse in the Bible, but that's not the point.  The point is, this single verse has at least three different interpretations argued by Arminians, Calvinists, and Universalists.  Let me show you what they are:

1. The Universalists say this verse shows Christ's atonement covers the sins of every individual in the whole world who has ever lived without condition.  This is because He (meaning, Christ) is the propitiation (meaning He is actively removing God's wrath) for our sins as well as the sins of the whole world (meaning, everyone everywhere who's ever lived).  They understand this to mean if Christ has actively removed the wrath of God from every individual who has ever lived then we're all saved and nobody is going to hell.
2. Like the Universalists, the Arminians say this verse shows Christ's atonement covers the sins of every individual in the whole world who has ever lived BUT due to other verses in the Bible that say there will be people who go to hell there must be an unstated assumption in the verse.  The unstated assumption is "if we have faith".  In other words, his atonement was intended for everyone but is only effective for those who have faith.  Some Arminians would even say Christ's sacrifice literally removed God's wrath from everyone in history for every sin except one: the sin of not accepting Christ's atonement.
3. The Calvinists say the phrase "He is the propitiation" means Christ already removed God's wrath for sins.  The question is "for whom?"  They interpret the intended audience of this verse (as referenced by the words "our" and "ours") to be Christians in the geographic locale where the letter was sent and, due to other verses in the Bible (John 11:52, for instance), "the whole world" to refer to Christians throughout the world.  In other words, Christ's sacrifice was intended to be the propitiation for the sins of the Christian elect, and only the elect, throughout the world.  His sacrifice was never intended to remove God's wrath from every person everywhere throughout history.

Being and still becoming holy

The only way something which is not holy becomes holy is through God making it holy.  In Leviticus 20:26, God says to His people,

You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.  Leviticus 20:26

It was God who separated His people from everyone else.  We do not become holy through our own initiative.  Holiness is dependent on God's action on our behalf.  This is the heart of the gospel.  Hebrews 10:10 says, "And by that will [that is, the will of God], we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

Notice verse 10 says "we have been made holy".  Now read verse 14:

14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

So in verse 10 "we have been made holy" and in verse 14 we "are being made holy".  This is the beauty of the gospel.  Through our faith in Christ we have both been made holy and yet still are being made holy.  How does this work?

The two key words you should know are justification and sanctification.

At the moment we first believed the gospel that Christ, the Son of God, came, died for our sins and was resurrected we became justified.  Christ's perfect obedience became our perfect obedience.  We were "made perfect forever" (vs 14).  The sin which made us unholy was forgiven because the penalty for our sin was fulfilled by Christ.  At that moment God became for us (He was previously against us), and God set us apart for His purposes (made us holy).

Our justification began the process of our sanctification in which we are now gradually being conformed to be like Christ.  Romans explains sanctification this way:

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  Romans 12:1-2

So once God set us apart (made us holy) we began the process of becoming more like Him (are being made holy).

I find the concept [of eternal conscious punishment in hell] intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterising their feelings or cracking under the strain. But our emotions are a fluctuating, unreliable guide to truth and must not be exalted to the place of supreme authority in determining it. As a committed Evangelical, my question must be -- and is -- not what does my heart tell me, but what does God's word say? (John Stott, Essentials, 314-15).

Why does sin go unpunished?

God is the enforcer of His own holiness.  God's holy nature means He cannot let sin go unpunished.  In fact, if He could He would not only be unholy but he would be unloving to allow injustice to go unfettered.  This begs the question though: why, if God cannot let sin go unpunished do we see sin go unpunished each and every day?  The Psalmist spoke to this exact question in Psalm 73:  "For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (Psalm 73:3)

The quick answer to this question is God is patient.  He desires that all should repent and so He gives them time (2 Peter 3:9).  His patience with sin is part of His kindness which is intended to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4).  God's patience with sin is only possible, however, because His wrath and punishment for sin was sufficiently poured out on his faultless Son through his death on the cross. Paul explains this in Romans when he says,

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Romans 3:23-26, emphasis mine

Notice Paul says God "passed over former sins" in his "divine forbearance".  "Forbearance" literally means "to delay enforcement."  So God was able to delay the enforcement of the penalty for our sins because Christ adequately satisfied God's righteousness for those who have (or will have) faith in Christ.  So God's forbearance is primarily intended to benefit those who will put faith in Christ, but it temporarily benefits those who will not put faith in Christ.  This is why 1 Timothy 4:10 says God is "the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe."  This does not mean that all people are saved from judgement, but that judgement is graciously delayed.  All people benefit from Christ's sacrifice, but not all in the same way.

Charles Hodge on 2 Corinthians 5:21

"There is probably no passage in the Scriptures in which the doctrine of justification is more concisely or clearly stated than [this]. Our sins were imputed to Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to us. He bore our sins; we are clothed in his righteousness... Christ bearing our sins did not make him morally a sinner... nor does Christ's righteousness become subjectively ours, it is not the moral quality of our souls... Our sins were the judicial ground of the sufferings of Christ, so that they were a satisfaction of justice; and his righteousness is the judicial ground of our acceptance with God." (Hodge's commentary on 2 Corinthians (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, n.d.), pp. 150-151)

Holy, Holy, Holy

God is love. (1 John 4:16)
God is spirit. (John 4:24)
God is light. (1 John 1:5)
God is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:29)

Consider this:  the only thrice-repeated attribute of God in the whole of the Bible is that He is "holy, holy, holy" (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).  And yet, this is an often ignored and neglected attribute.  Why is this?  I have three complementary reasons.

First, we have become ignorant to what "holy" means and how it affects us.  We don't usually speak of things being holy and so it's a foreign concept.  As we go here I hope to clarify the idea of holiness.

Second, people ignore and neglect God's holiness because we are naturally alienated by the idea of holiness and people do not enjoy being alienated.  "Holiness" by definition means "separate" and "set apart".  Revelation 15:4 says God alone is holy:

Who will not fear, O Lord,
    and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
    All nations will come
    and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.

So God is holy and we are not and because of that there is a natural separation between us.  God's holiness means there is no evil in Him.  There is no sin in Him.  Yet we are sinful and so we are separated from God.  The Bible says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  "Fall short" literally means "lack", so all have sinned and lack the glory of God.

The truth is we have become so comfortable and familiar with our sin that holiness rubs us the wrong way.  Yet this is not an indictment of holiness--it is an indictment of the condition of our hearts.  We are like short-sighted children with a cut on our knee and rather than feel the cleansing sting of alcohol we embrace the infection.  To the degree we love our sin we will hate God's holiness.  This is because God hates our sin and so long as we embrace and love our sin we are in conflict with God.  When we begin to hate our sin we join God's team.

The third reason why we neglect and ignore the holiness of God is because holiness requires respect.  We want others to respect us but we have a hard time respecting others.  I was pulled over for speeding one time and I became so angry I wanted to verbally abuse the police officer who caught me.  That was until I saw the gun on his hip.  I respect the gun, and I respect the one who wields it as an enforcer of the law.

God is the enforcer of His own holiness.  God's holy nature means He cannot let sin go unpunished.  In fact, if He could He would not only be unholy but he would be unloving to allow injustice to go on unfettered.  The sin in me recoils at the thought of punishment and so rather than embrace God's holiness I want to run from it.  My nature does not want to respect God, but rather wants God to respect me.  It's all about me, me, me.  I have the right to do what I want to do (or so I think).  I want God to respect my right to do what's right in my own eyes.

When a king sits on his throne his subjects bow in respect.  The truth is, everyone will respect God in the end.  As Romans 14:11 says,

It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
    every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

The takeaway here is that God's holiness is good.  We should embrace it, not run from it.  If it rubs us the wrong way it's because our sin hates it, but we should not.  When we embrace the God described in the Bible, we must embrace ALL of Him.  God is not a buffet that we can pick and choose what we want and leave the rest.  God is not whoever we want Him to be.  His name is "I Am Who I Am", not "I Am Who You Want Me To Be" (Exodus 3:14).  Let's ask God to forgive us of our sinful hearts and help us to embrace Him in His entirety.