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As far as I can tell, Lutherans historically did not use the term “penal substitution” so much, but, rather, “vicarious satisfaction” and “reconciliation.” Of course the concept of penal substitution is not denied. Jesus paid the penalty we owed to God, as Luther says in article 2 of the Creed in the Large Catechism. But paying the penalty doesn’t say it all. In fact, there are those who have taught a theory of penal substitution while also denying that Jesus made satisfaction to God’s eternal will (law), such as Hugo Grotius and the New England Reformed theologians like Jonathan Edwards Jr. Instead, for them, Jesus simply paid the penalty to God’s governmental popular law merely so that God, as the governor of the universe, can now bring about the best possible result by making reconciliation available under the condition that we accept it by faith.
Instead, the term vicarious satisfaction means that Christ fulfilled the very heart of God. He fulfilled the law, not merely as a payment to some legal standard distinct from God’s nature, but as the fulfillment of God’s own righteousness summarized in loving God above all things and his neighbor as himself. Certainly this includes paying our penalty. But this penalty is payed not merely to some government run by God, but this is a penalty against God’s own personal righteousness. Certainly it is a legal, forensic transaction. But it isn’t simply a payment to make reconciliation a possibility for us. It is, instead, a fulfillment of the very heart and will of God, commending himself to God who judges justly, confessing his name, upholding his Word to give rest to sinful men, honoring his parents and all authority, giving his life for his neighbor and healing those who were sick and dead, living a chaste life while cleansing his bride the church, not stealing even what was his but taking the form of a servant, blessing those who cursed him, and being satisfied with all of what God gave him. This will of God, revealed in the Ten Commandments, is fulfilled to its very heart and weighty matters in mercy, faithfulness, and justice. This is the vicarious satisfaction, not merely a payment to make reconciliation possible, but a payment to the eternal, immutable will of God, satisfying every desire of God on behalf of every sinner. Here he has satisfied not merely some example of justice, but the personal wrath of God. The infinite will of God is fully contained in this body, blood, obedience, and satisfaction of the Son. This means that the peace of God toward all sinners is identified fully in this work of atonement, not in some invisible possibility of sovereign grace to which we must cognitively add Christ’s payment and our own faith. No, the fullness of satisfaction, rest, peace, and reconciliation is in Christ’s complete obedience.
Therefore this fullness of reconciliation is in the Word of the gospel, not in some invisible testimony of the Spirit. Just as Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit to God, so does this same Spirit fully testify this complete atonement through the gospel and sacraments. He takes what is Christ’s and declares it to us in full. He doesn’t merely lay out the conditions for reconciliation with Christ’s payment as only one of the parts of the equation. No, Christ satisfied all righteousness for all (Rom 5:18,19). This means that the gospel is already the fullness of God’s revealed pleasure toward sinners. Faith therefore rests on this, comes from this, and builds on this foundation.
So don’t rely on some theory. Don’t rely on an equation you make by adding your faith to what Christ merely made possible. Rely on the fullness of the gospel, which declares the complete obedience and satisfaction of Christ by which God’s personal anger is turned away and by which he has established peace with you. Amen.
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