Christ's Sacrifice and Penal Substitutionary Atonement

 I would argue, as I have, that Christ's death on the cross was a sacrifice. There's no question about that. It was a sacrifice for sin. There's no question about that either. But was it a sacrifice so God could forgive individual sins? That's where I'm coming to disagree. 

     I would argue that His sacrifice was meant to enable us to not have to sin, something we're completely incapable of doing on our own. I would argue that He died on the cross so He could include us into His death and resurrection, grafting us to Himself at that point in time and space, to grant us another source or origin for our behaviors and responses. I'm coming to understand that this was the chief concept Paul was describing in the first eight chapters of Romans. He is certainly the sacrificial lamb of God who removes the sin from the world, but he removes the sin itself not just the consequences of it, this is the whole purpose of the sacrifice. 

     Because of Christ's death and resurrection, we who are joined to Him don't have to be slaves to our sin nature any longer like we did before said joining. By demanding that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross be chiefly (and at times only) about God needing blood in order to forgive, we fail to understand the true nature of the Gospel that He has freed us from enslavement to our own sin natures, and now it is our choice whether we sin or not, whether we offer ourselves to God through Jesus Christ as slaves to doing what's right, or whether we offer ourselves as slaves to our own sinful flesh with the end result being ruin and death. 

     The bigger concern with the emphasis on "Penal Substitutionary Atonement" is that it encourages people to not follow what Jesus taught, to not live as He lived and walk as He walked. By camping on mere "forgiveness of sins" there appears for "Christians" to have no need or desire to actually be disciples, and also no need for us to disciple or even baptize, which things Jesus Himself commanded. By making salvation all about "forgiveness of sins" we miss the true salvation from the very real internal problem we all have, and have practically consigned all new Christians to permanent infancy as they see no need to love, forgive, turn the other cheek, or let go of anything that impedes one's discipleship as He taught, and cripples their understanding of His teachings and the teachings of Scripture as they try to apply the idea of salvation only being about "forgiveness of sins" to His actual teachings, or Peter's, or Paul's, and come up with some abomination about needing to follow a New Testament moral code in order to be "saved." 

     Jesus Christ died for us to free us from our very real internal problem, and by declaring this was all about God needing Jesus' death to forgive us, we squander that precious gift and relegate it to a curiosity only pursued by Saints and legends. Challenge me, call me heretic, call me whatever you want, but every word and conclusion on this subject is observable in the churches today.