by Pastor James Noriega

Centrality of the Cross | Penal Substitution from Mars Hill Church | West Seattle on Vimeo.

I am going to spend the next couple of weeks talking about how the atonement works in counseling and in our lives as Christians. When we look at Scripture with a biblical theology lens, from Genesis to Revelation, everything points to the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is where transformation occurs and change happens. As I said last week, we view counseling as the great commission, making disciples out of men.

In future blogs, I will be writing on themes of the atonement like Christus Victor, Christus Exemplar, reconciliation, propitiation, expiation, ransom, and redemption. As penal substitution is the foundational truth of the cross from which all other themes stem, it will be my focus this week.

Just as the atonement is at the heart of the Christian faith, penal substitution is at the heart of the atonement. What is penal substitution? It is the Lord Jesus Christ–on the cross of Calvary, taking the sinner’s place, bearing the burden of man’s sin and guilt. Christ suffered in our place, accepting the punishment that we rightly deserve. He bore the penalty of human sin on the cross, suffering in the place of the sinner, the just for the unjust, the holy Son of God for the guilty. All atonement themes stem from this central truth of Jesus as our substitution.

One of the predominant lies and distortions seen in counseling as well as in the everyday lives of believers is that the Christian still has guilt and shame from sin. In counseling we listen for those distortions and replace them with the truth of Jesus as our substitute. It is not as simple as giving them a certain scripture as a band-aid, but we journey with them in their distortions as they tell us what life looks like for them.

See, the beautiful thing is God reveals himself to us. We see when Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You’re the Christ, son of the living God.” Jesus tells him, “Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father in heaven did.” Through this we see that God reveals himself to us. In counseling, when someone is listening to a lie or being hospitable to the distortion of unremoved guilt and shame, we depend on the Holy Spirit to replace the truth of Jesus as our substitution for the lie of guilt and shame–to the point where they actually embody that truth and thus are transformed. When shame and guilt are present, they are felt–experienced, even to the point of physical illness. So if sin reveals itself this way, why wouldn’t God show up in the same experiential “felt” way? Not that we just need to “feel” God; I’m saying that it is way more than just knowing the truth of Christ as our substitute. It is the absolute, certain confidence and belief that Christ absolutely died in place of you, absolutely was buried, absolutely resurrected, absolutely removed your guilt and shame, thus absolutely leaving you in the presence of our living God, transformed and whole, this side of the dirt.

Pastor James is a Biblical Living Pastor at Mars Hill Church West Seattle. He currently oversees counseling for the campus, and is responsible for equipping and training volunteer biblical counselors and leaders at all levels.

If you are hurting and would like to speak with a counselor, please email westseattlecare@marshillchurch.org

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This was the third post in the series Bringing Counseling Back Into The Church
To read the other posts in the series click HERE.