Call Us: 423 661-4734 | Email: requests@comeandreason.com      
Penal Substitution versus Design Law – What’s the Difference?

Penal Substitution versus Design Law – What’s the Difference?

An online listener wrote:

What is the difference between penal substitution and design law? How do we explain the difference and reason with someone who believes in penal substitution?

Design laws are the laws upon which our Creator God constructed reality to operate. These are laws such as the law of gravity, laws of physics, laws of health, and also God’s moral laws. Deviations from design laws always damage those who break them and will result in death, unless the Designer intervenes to heal and restore. Thus the Bible teaches:

  • The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)
  • sin grows and brings death. (James 1:15 NCV)
  • The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction (Gal 6:8)

Examples of violations of design law are:

  • Jump off a building—die
  • Smoke regularly—ruin one’s health and die younger
  • Commit adultery—sear conscience, harden heart, form character of a cheat, and, if no repentance and healing from God, die eternally

Thus, the plan of salvation is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to heal and restore their creation back into harmony with their design—ridding the universe of sin. In this view, sin (which is being out of harmony with God’s design law, the design protocols for life) is the source of pain, suffering, and death. God is the source of healing and life.

Humans cannot create space, time, energy, matter, or life, thus we cannot create or change God’s design laws. What we can do is make up rules that we call laws and then threaten to punish people who don’t keep our rules. This is the way of sinful beings. This is Satan’s view and Satan’s way. One Bible commentator put it this way:

In the opening of the great controversy, Satan had declared that the law of God could not be obeyed, that justice was inconsistent with mercy, and that, should the law be broken, it would be impossible for the sinner to be pardoned. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan; (Desire of Ages 761)

 

God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found only under Satan’s government. The Lord’s principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s government is moral, and truth and love are to be the prevailing power.  (Desire of Ages 759)

 

This is the way of the beastly systems—human governments which will always coerce, force, and even kill those who disagree or rebel against them. And this type of law is always arbitrarily imposed. The book The Acts of the Apostles puts it like this:

“Whereunto,” asked Christ, “shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?” Mark 4:30. He could not employ the kingdoms of the world as a similitude. In society He found nothing with which to compare it. Earthly kingdoms rule by the ascendancy of physical power; but from Christ’s kingdom every carnal weapon, every instrument of coercion, is banished. (p. 12)

 

Penal adherents deny sin itself causes death and instead teach that sin causes a legal problem with the heavenly administration, requiring God to inflict death as an imposed punishment. They teach this, because they have accepted the lie that God’s law functions no differently than human law; imposed rules requiring imposed punishment.

Under imposed law models, there is nothing inherently wrong with breaking the law. Going 50-mph in a 45-mph zone doesn’t naturally result in any injury or harm to the violator of the law. The violator must be caught by the authorities, have their deeds recorded, their case presented before a judge, and then receive an arbitrarily determined penalty inflicted as punishment. This is human law, not Creator law. This is the way of sinful beings, not a sinless God. This idea of law is the basis of penal substitution theology. It is founded on a lie about God’s law and presents a view of God’s government that is functionally no different that sinful human governments.

In the penal view, God becomes the source of inflicted pain, suffering, and death. It is taught, in the penal view, that God’s use of power to torture and kill is “justice,” because sin must be punished. Such bad theology is the fruit of accepting Satan’s lie about God’s law and that God, in order to be just, must punish sin. In this view, rather than God working to heal and save the spiritually terminal, God becomes the one from whom we need to be protected, resulting in theologies that have, as their function, the sole purpose of hiding and protecting us from God, rather than heal us to be fit to live in His presence.

Consider the many ideas taught in Christianity that have, as their function, the purpose of hiding us from God. Why? Because people wrongly believe that if God saw their sin and their sinfulness, that He would be required to lash out with wrath and anger to inflict pain and suffering to punish them for their sin. This is exactly what Satan wants people to think, because this idea keeps people hiding themselves from God.

But David of old prayed, “search me and see the wicked way in me.” He didn’t want to hide his sinfulness from God, because he knew God wouldn’t punish him, but was the only One who could heal him, so he prayed, “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.”

God’s end-time people are to present a message to the world that calls them back to worship the Designer, and to worship “him who made the heavens, earth, sea and foundations of water.” (Rev 14:7) This is a call to reject the dictator-views of God and embrace the Creator, Designer, and Builder of reality! This means we must reject imposed law and all the false penal legal theology upon which it is founded.

But be prepared for the legal adherents to throw another lie at you. Be prepared for them to allege things like:

  • Jennings doesn’t believe in the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death
  • Come and Reason Ministries denies Christ had to die for our salvation
  • Jennings doesn’t believe in the blood atonement
  • Come and Reason teaches Moral Influence Theory

All of these allegations are false and are, in fact, diagnostic (evidence revealing) of the mindset of those who make the allegations. Just like Jesus said, “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (Mat 12:34,35), those who say such things reveal they are stuck in the false, imposed-law model of thinking. Their words are evidence against themselves, not against what we teach.

We do teach Christ is our substitute, but as the Bible teaches it, not as the false legal system does. And how does the Bible teach it? “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Cor 5:21)

Christ became sin, i.e. substitute, for us, so that (note the Bible reason) we might become righteous! Christ substitution was NOT to pay a legal penalty, but was to provide remedy to heal and fix what sin has done to His creation!

It was not possible for human beings to be healed/saved without the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. No human being could accomplish what was necessary. Thus, we do believe in blood atonement, in which the “life is in the blood” (Lev 17:11) and atonement is at-one-ment—restoring sinful humans to oneness with God. Thus, the perfect sinless human life of Jesus, that He developed singly and alone, becomes the healing remedy that we partake of, so that “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20) We become “partakers of the divine nature” (1Pet 1:4).

We do not teach Moral Influence Theory, which basically says the purpose of Christ’s death was to reveal the truth about God to win us back to trust and no more. We acknowledge that part of Christ’s mission was to reveal the truth to win us to trust, but we needed more. We needed a new nature, a new, perfect, human character that no sinful human could develop. Thus, Christ became human to, as a human, be “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Heb 4:15), so that “once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” (Heb 5:9)

Wasn’t Jesus always perfect? Jesus was always sinless! However, Bible perfection refers to a mature, sinless character. Character cannot be created by God. It can only be developed by the freewill choices of the intelligent being. Thus, after Adam sinned, no human could develop a sinless character. This is what Christ did for us! Praise God!

Thus, Come and Reason Ministries teaches Healing Substitution—Jesus became our substitute in order to save and to heal!

Reject the false, legal view of God’s law, with its false view of God as the imposer of pain, suffering, and death. Return to worship the Creator, whose law is design law and who is the source of life, love, and all that is good and who will heal you if you trust Him!

 

 

Email me the blog whenever a new one is published.

Donate online, securely via PayPal using your credit or debit card (no PayPal account needed, unless you want to set up a monthly, recurring payment).


cancel recurring payment

 

Want to use zelle instead?
See how on our
Support and Donations page.

Upcoming Events

calendar

Testimonial Post Slider

Testimony 26

Your teachings about our heavenly Father have changed my life. Thank you sooooooo very very much! I know He’s doing some serious healing in my heart and life and I look forward to each new day to learn something new about Him and to just hear you speak about Him. Thank you, forever.

Nancy S.

 

Testimony 70

I have been watching you for many years and have learned to love God with all my heart. I was raised by a loving Christian mother that had been lied to about who God really was, so our religious upbringing was hell fire and damnation. As soon as I was old enough and moved out, I not only left the church, I ran as fast as I could to get away from it. Sad to say, it wasn’t until the past couple of years that I learned and understand who my Father really is and how much He loves me. I understand God’s Design Laws (which make sense) and when I’m teaching my church Bible study class, I’m able to really put to use the things I’ve been learning and Holy Spirit is leading. Thank you for introducing me to my Father of true, pure love. Everyday with Him is new and exciting. One thing that breaks my heart is that I didn’t know Him sooner. God Bless you and your ministry!

Judy Phelps, Reno, NV, USA

Testimony 13

I borrowed “Healing The Mind” DVDs from a friend and showed them at my home for a small gathering of women friends. Neither of my friends are Adventist, but they both enjoyed and embraced the messages you taught. In fact, one of the ladies prayed out loud in our group and that was the first time she had ever had public prayer.

J.B. ,Dalles, OR, USA

 

Testimony 17

The blessings of clarity and understanding you and your class inspire me to take from the word of God have impressed upon me so greatly the true, loving character of our Creator. I have found amazing freedom and joy through building a stronger, more intentional relationship with Him. What is new is that this is now a relationship built on love, reverence and respect rather than fear and obligation, and as such my eyes have been slammed OPEN as I am continually impressed by the manifestations of God’s true character in His provisions for fallen man.

T.E.H., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

 

Testimony 72

I am blown away by the truth that you present. God’s Design Law makes so much sense! You have validated my impression that, if God is love, He would not kill those who don’t want to know him. If God gives us choice, then how can He destroy us if our choice is not to follow him. Thank you for opening my eyes and heart to the pure love of God seen through Jesus. The love I now have for Jesus is deeper and free from condemnation. My heart has been opened to love others as Jesus loves me. May God continue to bless your God-given insight into His word and your ministry. The truth has set me free!

H. Miller, Centereach, NY

Testimony 51

I Love This Ministry!!!!!!! I see first hand how this message is desperately needed, how erroneous beliefs about God and His Character negatively affect humanity at every level. I thank God for your ministry, as I was searching on my own and was discovering some of your same beliefs and was blown away when I found your ministry. I know you hear it all the time, but it is truly life changing. May God continue to reveal His Will to you and Bless you!

Eric S., Sanford, FL, USA

 

Testimony 73

I have been truly blessed by your blogs and other resources. They have helped me to see things in a much brighter light and to reason things out better. Thank you so much for your ministry. Whenever I have the opportunity I pass along your material to my friends.

R. Noseworthy, Newfoundland, Canada

Testimony 67

I was introduced to Come And Reason by a friend of my mother-in-law, who gave me several CD’s of Dr. Jennings. The clarity of the message and recognition that God’s is a God of love was so clear, advancing beyond Dr. Maxwell’s message. However, grappled with Maxwell saying God used emergency measures for the fallen world. Now after several years of being a regular listener of the Come And Reasoning bible study class and attending Jennings’ meetings in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, things are becoming clearer for me. Design law versus imposed law has added so much to my personal understanding of theology. This message has really impacted my work in counseling so many people miserable because they are searching for and trusting human governments to create order and peace or believing in a God who says love Me or I will kill you. I am grateful that I have an alternative view to offer my clients that makes sense. I teach a bible study class on a semi-regular basis and I value the materials that Come And Reason so freely offers to aid me in presenting this vital message. Thank you for continuing to provide advancement in our very limited understanding of a Infinite God that is rational and believable.

Dr. Roger D, Arlington, TX, USA

 

Testimony 25

I just want to say thank you so much for your conversations via YouTube. I regularly tune in to your lectures, “Let’s Talk” sessions, and many others. Through these I’ve found greater depth and meaning to God’s word. Thanks for all that you do and please continue. I’m currently working in the middle of Silicon Valley at Stanford University. I feel like God really has me in the right place right now and I’m sensing that your teachings might be part of it.

B. F., Silicon Valley, CA, USA

 

Testimony 43

Two years ago I stumbled upon your book, “Could It Be This Simple,” and then found “The God-Shaped Brain” videos on YouTube, your bible study class, and the ‘Come And Reason’ mobile app. I shared your book with a friend and after nine months of showing love, patience, and kindness this person has been changed by the love of God, too. The same love that healed me, I now express to other women in tangible ways, such as to a Baptist woman with high anxiety and childhood trauma. She was extremely happy and relieved when I shared about the so-called “judgment of God” and burning in hell. She had no desire to serve a God that was so harsh. I have repeated the phrase dozens of times to her. “What we believe has power over us, but we have power over what we believe…”

This message that you are sharing has changed my life. I will continue to serve other women and bring this message of God’s healing love to their lives by sharing your books, YouTube videos, and The Remedy Bible app. Keep up the good work. Don’t be discouraged. God is doing a mighty work in and through this ministry!

Jill L., Midwest, USA

 

Testimony 6

I got the book “Could It Be This Simple?” a few months ago and the reading was wonderful and I was fascinated. I lent the book to a friend at work. She is having a difficult time and the book is helping her to find Jesus and I found this very exciting. She has asked me questions and I can see her life changing.

H. S., Australia

 

Testimony 61

I grew up in a prominent protestant church and had what I like to call religious anxiety. I’ve always had questions about God and Salvation that no one could seem to answer.  I didn’t know how to find resolution. During 2020, at the height of my anxiety, I fell to my knees and begged God to show me truth and light and to give me the hope that I’ve been longing for. Days later, I stumbled upon your online videos and it was like a veil was lifted and EVERYTHING made sense! For the first time in my almost 39 years of life, my religious/spiritual anxiety has lessened. I feel a sense of freedom and peace I’ve NEVER had before… and it’s all because my view of God has changed. Thank you!

Ashleighn C.

 

Testimony 14

We really appreciate your views on the judgment and they make good sense considering our free choice.

Anonymous

 

Testimony 45

I have been confused for years about what [christianity] calls [its] most disgusting teaching. It has never made much sense to me and for that reason has been evermore empty. I have listened to your class off and on and have struggled determining what is truth, because of the resistance design law encounters in the church. So, I thank God for your ministry. What you teach makes sense. It’s logical and backed up by the power of love. I have never seen that in Christ until now. I am astounded by the insight that is found when we look at God’s ministry through design law. All strength to this message, as I believe it to be the power of God.

Brendon S.

 

Testimony 8

Thank you for the ministry you are sharing with us, it is a real blessing to us and especially to my husband and myself! You are encouraging us to think for ourselves and not just to except everything, without thinking it through, with God’s word!

M.K., USA