As Christians remember the darkness that covers Good Friday, let us prepare ourselves for the light of Christ’s Resurrection.
I am not always encouraged by how he interacts with other points of view, on non-essential doctrines, but in this 90-second video, promoting his latest book, California pastor John MacArthur draws out a key verse from Isaiah 53, to explain the heart of the Gospel, the death of Christ. The only thing I would tweak would be to clarify that the Son of God was in complete union with the Father, such that the Father and Son fully gave together, to satisfy the requirements to deal with sin, and reconcile us to God.
Veracity 
April 5th, 2018 at 4:31 pm
In defense of John MacArthur here, it is really difficult to outline the themes of substitutionary atonement in 90 seconds 🙂
To clarify, my only hesitation with what MacArthur says here is that he sort of opens the door to the idea that the Father must punish the Son, for our sakes, which might lead to the impression that the “good” Son is satisfying the anger of the “wrathful” Father. This has led critics of penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) to conclude that PSA is somehow “barbaric,” to quote former bishop John Shelby Spong.
But this can not be the case, since both the Son and the Father, co-equal with one another, are both wrathful against sin, while at the same time, both are loving of the human sinner. The Father and the Son work in concert together, to accomplish the work of our reconciliation.
In my mind, John R. W. Stott’s classic book, _The Cross of Christ_, beautifully explains penal substitutionary atonement, while bearing in mind this potential critique.
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