La sustitución penal (a veces, especialmente en escritos más antiguos, llamada teoría forense)D. Smith, The atonement in the light of history and the modern spirit (London: Hodder and Stoughton), p. 96-7: 'THE FORENSIC THEORY...each successive period of history has produced its peculiar type of soteriological doctrine...the third period--the period ushered in by the Reformation.'Vincent Taylor, The Cross of Christ (London: Macmillan & Co, 1956), p. 71-2: '...the four main types, which have persisted throughout the centuries. The oldest theory is the Ransom Theory...It held sway for a thousand years. [...] The Forensic Theory is that of the Reformers and their successors.' es una teoría de la expiación dentro de la teología cristiana, que declara que Cristo, al someterse voluntariamente al plan de Dios Padre, fue castigado (penalizado) en el lugar de los pecadores (sustitución), satisfaciendo así las demandas de la justicia para que Dios pueda perdonar los pecados con justicia haciéndonos uno con Dios (expiación). Comenzó con Lutero y continuó desarrollándose con la tradición calvinistaJ. I. Packer, What did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution (Tyndale Biblical Theology Lecture, 1973): '... Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon and their reforming contemporaries were the pioneers in stating it [i.e. the penal substitutionary theory]...'H. N. Oxenham, The Catholic doctrine of the atonement (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865), p. 112-3,119: '...we may pause to sum up briefly the main points of teaching on Christ's work of redemption to be gathered from the patristic literature of the first three centuries as a whole. And first, as to what it does not contain. There is no trace, as we have seen, of the notions of vicarious satisfaction, in the sense of our sins being imputed to Christ and His obedience imputed to us, which some of the Reformers made the very essence of Christianity; or, again, of the kindred notion that God was angry with His Son for our sakes, and inflicted on Him the punishment due to us ; nor is Isaiah s prophecy interpreted in this sense, as afterwards by Luther; on the contrary, there is much which expressly negatives this line of thought. There is no mention of the justice of God, in the forensic sense of the word; the Incarnation is in variably exclusively ascribed to His love; the term satisfaction does not occur in this connection at all, and where Christ is said to suffer for us, huper (not anti) is the word always used. It is not the payment of a debt, as in St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, but the restoration of our fallen nature, that is prominent in the minds of these writers, as the main object of the Incarnation. They always speak, with Scripture, of our being reconciled to God, not of God being reconciled to us.' [p. 112-3]; 'His [Jesus'] death was now [in the Reformation period], moreover, for the first time viewed as a vicarious punishment, inflicted by God on Him instead of on us.' [p. 119] como una comprensión específica de la expiación sustitutiva, donde la naturaleza sustitutiva de la muerte de Jesús se entiende en el sentido de un cumplimiento sustitutivo de las demandas legales por los delitos de los pecados.
Definición La teoría de la sustitución penal enseña que Jesús sufrió la pena debida según la ira de Dios Padre por los pecados de la humanidad. La sustitución penal se deriva de la idea de que el perdón divino debe satisfacer la justicia divina, es decir, que Dios no quiere ni puede simplemente perdonar el pecado sin exigir primero una satisfacción por ello. Afirma que Dios se dio a sí mismo en la persona de su Hijo, Jesucristo, para sufrir la muerte, el castigo y la maldición debida a la humanidad caída como pago por nuestro pecado.
Importantes conceptos teológicos sobre la sustitución penal dependen de la doctrina de la Trinidad. Aquellos que creen que Jesús mismo era Dios, de acuerdo con la doctrina de la Trinidad, creen que Dios tomó el castigo sobre sí mismo en lugar de ponérselo a otra persona. En otras palabras, la doctrina de la unión con Cristo afirma que al tomar sobre sí mismo el castigo, Jesús cumple las exigencias de la justicia no para un tercero no relacionado sino para aquellos que se identifican con él. Si, en el sentido sustitutivo penal de la expiación, la muerte de Cristo trata del pecado y la injusticia, su resurrección es la renovación y restauración de la justicia.
Algunas otras teorías de la expiación son la teoría del rescate, que dice que la muerte de Cristo representa la derrota cósmica del diablo a quien se le tuvo que pagar un rescate, por ejemplo la teoría del Cristo Víctor, el rescate de la humanidad del poder del pecado y de la muerte, visión popularizada por Gustaf Aulén; y la teoría ejemplar, asociada con Pedro Abelardo y Hastings Rashdall, que argumenta que la cruz tuvo su efecto en los seres humanos, al establecer un ejemplo supremo de piedad que debemos seguir.
Desarrollo La teoría de la sustitución penal es una interpretación específica de la expiación vicaria (sustitutiva), que a su vez se remonta al judaísmo del Segundo Templo, aunque algunos evangélicos como William Lane Craig citan la oferta de Moisés de la muerte de sí mismo en lugar del pueblo de Israel (Éxodo 32:30-34) como ejemplo de esta sustitución. Fue desarrollado durante la Reforma protestante del ,J. I. Packer, What did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution (Tyndale Biblical Theology Lecture, 1973): '... Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Melanchthon and their reforming contemporaries were the pioneers in stating it [i.e. the penal substitutionary theory]...'Gregg Allison, 'A History of the Doctrine of the Atonement' in Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 11.2 (Summer 2007): 4-19: 'The Reformers introduced another view of the atonement, generally called the penal substitutionary theory ' (p. 10); '...the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement, originated by the Reformers and developed by their successors' (p. 14-15).D. Smith, The atonement in the light of history and the modern spirit (London: Hodder and Stoughton), p. 96-7: 'THE FORENSIC THEORY...each successive period of history has produced its peculiar type of soteriological doctrine...the third period--the period ushered in by the Reformation.'Vincent Taylor, The Cross of Christ (London: Macmillan & Co, 1956), p. 71-2: '...the four main types, which have persisted throughout the centuries. The oldest theory is the Ransom Theory...It held sway for a thousand years. [...] The Forensic Theory is that of the Reformers and their successors.'H. N. Oxenham, The Catholic doctrine of the atonement (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865), p. 112-3,119: '...we may pause to sum up briefly the main points of teaching on Christ's work of redemption to be gathered from the patristic literature of the first three centuries as a whole. And first, as to what it does not contain. There is no trace, as we have seen, of the notions of vicarious satisfaction, in the sense of our sins being imputed to Christ and His obedience imputed to us, which some of the Reformers made the very essence of Christianity; or, again, of the kindred notion that God was angry with His Son for our sakes, and inflicted on Him the punishment due to us ; nor is Isaiah s prophecy interpreted in this sense, as afterwards by Luther; on the contrary, there is much which expressly negatives this line of thought. There is no mention of the justice of God, in the forensic sense of the word; the Incarnation is in variably exclusively ascribed to His love; the term satisfaction does not occur in this connection at all, and where Christ is said to suffer for us, huper (not anti) is the word always used. It is not the payment of a debt, as in St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, but the restoration of our fallen nature, that is prominent in the minds of these writers, as the main object of the Incarnation. They always speak, with Scripture, of our being reconciled to God, not of God being reconciled to us.' [p. 112-3]; 'His [Jesus'] death was now [in the Reformation period], moreover, for the first time viewed as a vicarious punishment, inflicted by God on Him instead of on us.' [p. 119]Gustaf Aulen, Christus Victor (1931) (London: SPCK), p.143: 'The history of the doctrine of the Atonement is a history of three types of view, which emerge in turn. The classic idea emerges with Christianity itself, and remains the dominant type for of teaching for a thousand years. The origin of the Latin doctrine can be exactly determined...'J. F. Bethune-Baker, An introduction to the early history of Christian doctrine to the time of the Council of Chalcedon (London: Methuen & Co, 1903), p. 328, 351-2: 'Of the various aspects of the Atonement which are represented in the pages of the New Testament, the early Fathers chiefly dwell on those of sacrifice (and obedience), reconciliation, illumination by knowledge, and ransom. Not till a later time was the idea of satisfaction followed up' [p. 328]; 'The only satisfaction which was thought of was the satisfaction which the penitent himself makes. There is no suggestion of any satisfaction of the divine justice through the sufferings of Christ. ' [p. 328, n. 3]; 'From this review of the teaching of the Church it will be seen that there is only the most slender support to be found in the earliest centuries for some of the views that became current at a later time. It is at least clear that the sufferings of Christ were not regarded as an exchange or substitution of penalty, or as punishment inflicted on him by the Father for our sins. There is, that is to say, no idea of vicarious satisfaction, either in the sense that our sins are imputed to Christ and his obedience to us, or in the sense that God was angry with him for our sakes and inflicted on him punishment due to us.' [p. 351-2]. siendo defendido por Martín Lutero y Juan Calvino.'The roots of the penal substitution view are discernible in the writings of John Calvin (1509-1564), though it was left to later expositors to systematize and emphasize it in its more robust forms.' (Paul R. Eddy and James Beilby, 'The Atonement: An Introduction', in P. R. Eddy and J. Beilby [eds], The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views [Downers Grove: IVP, 2006], p. 17) Fue formulado más concretamente por el teólogo reformado Charles Hodge (1797-1878). Los defensores de la sustitución penal argumentan que el concepto tiene una base bíblica'But 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.' Isaiah 53:5 ESV y tiene sus raíces en las tradiciones históricas de la Iglesia cristiana.
Expiación vicaria
La idea de la expiación vicaria fluye del judaísmo. Isaías 53:4-6, 10, 11 se refiere al "siervo sufriente":
Nuevo Testamento Los autores del Nuevo Testamento usaron varias metáforas para explicar e interpretar la muerte y resurrección de Jesús. Según C. Marvin Pate, "hay tres aspectos de la expiación de Cristo según la Iglesia primitiva: expiación vicaria [expiación sustitutiva], la derrota escatológica de Satanás [Cristo el Vencedor] y la imitación de Cristo [participación en la muerte y resurrección de Jesús]". Pate señala además que estos tres aspectos estaban entrelazados en los primeros escritos cristianos, pero que este entrelazamiento se perdió desde los tiempos patrísticos.
Las referencias clave del Nuevo Testamento que pueden interpretarse para reflejar una expiación vicaria de la muerte y resurrección de Jesús incluyen: