Packer on Penal Substitution

The following are quotes from an article written by Jim Packer in this quarter's NB:news, the magazine for uccf staff and supporters

'...as i get older i want to tell everyone who will listen: 'i am so glad for the penal substitutionary death of Jesus, no hope without it'

...it was with His own will and His own love mirroring the Father's therefore that He took the place of human sinners exposed to divine judgement and laid down His life as a sacrifice for them, entering fully into the state and experience of death that was due to them. The He rose to death to reign by the Fathers appointment in the Kingdom of God. From His throne He sent the Spirit to enduce faith in Himself, and in the saving work He has done...

Since this was all planned by the holy Three in their eternal solidarity of mutual love, and since the Father's central purpose in it was and it the glorify and exalt the Son as Head and savior of a new humanity. smartypant's notions like 'divine child abuse' as a comment on the cross, are supremely silly, and as irrelevant and wrong as they possibly could be...

What is stated above is clearly revealed in God's own witness to Himself in the Bible and so must be given the status of non-negotiable fact...

Penal substitution therefore, will not be focused properly until it is recognised that God's redemptive love must not be conceived, misconcieved rather, as somehow replacing God's retributive justice, as if the Creator-Judge simply decided to let bygones be bygones. The measure of God's holy love for us is that 'while we were still sinners Christ died for us', and that 'He...did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all' (Romans 5:8; 8:32)