Change one word. Please.

And when upon the cross He died
the wrath of God was satisfied. - Stuart Townsend, In Christ Alone

This is a great song, with which I have one quibble. Let's understand from the outset: I believe in the substitutional atonement. I'm just not sure that I believe the same things about it that other people who believe in the substitutional atonement do.

So when I hear people say things like "Jesus had to die to satisfy God's anger over our sin," I cringe. Maybe I'm wrong about this and misunderstand the nature of God. Certainly it's true that God is beyond our full comprehension. But I think that we'll inevitably misunderstand the motivation behind the historical blood sacrifice as atonement for sin so long as we insist on interpreting it according to how it was understood by those who lived in sacrificial times. Yes, Jesus did take the place that we deserve because of our sin, but to attribute that place as being due to the wrath of God represents yet another way in which we apply our own motivations to God.

When we sin, God doesn't get so angry at us that the only way to satisfy it for someone to pay with their lives; rather, I think that God gets angry for us, on our behalf as well as for the sake of those we've hurt, with a lamentation over what we have done that we too rarely enter into for ourselves.

Oh, I'm again falling short of conveying what is in my mind.

I believe that, when we die, we will see each thought and act of our lives as God sees them, and we will be deeply ashamed, knowing to the depths of our soul that we are not fit to enter into God's perfect presence. At that time, Jesus will remind us that he has given himself in our place, and welcome us home.

If I don't believe, exactly, that Jesus died to fulfill the ancient covenant and satisfy God's wrath, what do I believe? I think it's possible that God established the ancient covenant so that we would have the slightest hope of recognizing Jesus' fulfillment of it and responding to the love God has shown! What difference would the crucifixion of one man make for us if we were unable to recognize him as God's own Son fulfilling all that we know and that remains hidden?

There is so much more to be said about what Jesus has done for us that I should probably spend the rest of my life writing about this and nothing else. But to come back to the thought that prompted this post: I wouldn't feel that I must remain silent on this one line of this song that I otherwise love if it instead indicated that the plan of God was satisfied.

For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ