“Substitution Theory”

The theory argues that it is providing a divine substitute for the sinner that God forgives the sinner and condemns the substitute. God, who is righteously angry with sinful humans, punishes sin in his righteousness. Jesus, who by essence is innocent acts as the substitute, and bears the due penalty for the sins of humankind.

The Substitution theory takes us back to Adam and Eve. Because of their disobedience to God’s precepts, humanity at large deserves God’s wrath. God, in his righteousness, could not let this disobedience go unpunished. Failure to do so would have undermined this intrinsically nature. To maintain his attribute as a just God, sin had to be punished and paid for. But he is not only a God who demands justice; He is also a God of love. How could he express simultaneously His Holiness in judgment and His love in pardon? It is by providing a divine substitute for the sinner so that the substitute would receive the judgment and the sinner the pardon.

The perfect substitute to undertake this endeavor was his begotten son Jesus Christ. Jesus could not, however, satisfy this demand as only God in nature or as only human. If he is substituted as God alone, this would have simply undermined the historical incarnation. If he is substituted as Christ-human-alone, this would have made him a third party between God and us.

He has to take this endeavor as fully God and fully human. By having these two attributes in him, Jesus was in a unique position to represent both God and man and to mediate between them.