In his Homilies on the Psalms 53.12, Hilary of Poitiers wrote:
Now in view of our repeated, nay our unbroken assertion
both that it was the Only-begotten Son of God Who was uplifted on the cross,
and that He was condemned to death Who is eternal by virtue of the origin which
is His by the nature which He derives from the eternal Father, it must be
clearly understood that He was subjected to suffering of no natural necessity,
but to accomplish the mystery of man’s salvation; that He submitted to
suffering of His own Will, and not under compulsion. And although this suffering
did not belong to His nature as eternal Son, the immutability of God being
proof against the assault of any derogatory disturbance, yet it was freely
undertaken, and was intended to fulfil a penal function without, however,
inflicting the pain of penalty upon the sufferer: not that the suffering in
question was not of a kind to cause pain, but because the divine Nature feels
no pain. God suffered, then, by voluntarily submitting to suffering; but
although He underwent the sufferings in all the fulness of their force, which
necessarily causes pain to the sufferers, yet He never so abandoned the powers
of His Nature as to feel pain.
Does this passage teach Penal
Substitution? Not according to William L. Hess who noted that:
In this passage, Hilary is speaking of the incarnation,
of the divine nature being combined with human nature, how the Divine Son
freely took on all the forms of man, including the ability to experience suffering.
IT is this suffering God Himself voluntarily submitted to in the “fullness of
their force.” Hilary then states that God never abandoned the power of
HIs divine nature to feel pain, but He merely chose the experience it
voluntarily. IT is this suffering that is “penal” in nature. Never does Hilary state
that it is God who punishes Him or that He was punished instead of us. Rather,
Hilary is saying Christ had to be able to suffer and die as a consequence of becoming
a human being. To be able to suffer is a penalty of being human. Hence, why God
said in Genesis, 3, “I will multiply your pain in childbirth,” or “cursed is
the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your
life.” At the incarnation, Jesus had to take on the form of man, with all
mankind’s frailty and flaws, in order that He might suffer the consequence of
being mortal. Because if He were not mortal, He could not die, and if He could
not die, He could not resurrect; if He could not resurrect, He could not
destroy death. Jesus did not experience the penalty of sin to appease the wrath
of God, He suffered the penalty to morality to “destroy the curse of the law”.
The curse of the law Hilary was referring to was the
curse of death, not the wrath of God or sin being metaphysically transferred to
Him. As Hilary states, “the sentence of the curse was pronounced on all who
broke the law,” but it was “from this curse that our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
us.” Therefore, the incarnate Messiah “offered Himself to the death of the accursed
that He might break the curse of the Law.”
It is at this point Hilary speaks of Jesus as offering Himself
as a “voluntary victim to God . . . that by means of a voluntary victim the
curse which attended the discontinuance of the regular victim might be removed.”
Hilary states that Christ was offered up as a victim to God. Not a
victim of God. With Hilary speaking on the sacrificial system
throughout, and discussing the “legal sacrifices” next, it becomes clear that
by “victim,” Hilary means “sacrifice.” Despite Christ’s innocence, He chose to
die and offer Himself up as a willing sacrifice, victimizing Himself on behalf
of mankind. He did this to secure “complete salvation for the human race.”
Although Hilary uses more “forensic language” (which was
common in the West) in his discussions on the atonement, his themes echo that
of his forefathers. The incarnate Son gave Himself on behalf of men, as sacrifice
to God, to destroy the powers of darkness restoring mankind. I am certain that
some of this forensic and legal language used in the Western church is the very
seedbed by which satisfaction models of the atonement grew later in church
history. However, I think upon inspection the claim that Hilary taught PSA is
left waning, as he never states Jesus was struck down by the Father, satisfied wrath
or justice, nor was punished in place of sinners. Rather, He emphasizes how
Christ destroyed the curse of the Law by handing Himself over to mortal death
and resurrected to destroy death’s power over man.
It is important to know people can use similar verbiage
when discussing the atonement while referring to entirely different concepts.
Just because a church father mentions the notion of sacrifice, offering
substitute, or penalty, does not necessarily mean they are referring to the
doctrine of PSA as normally defined. In the case of St. Hilary, it becomes abundantly
clear at the end of His Homily when he believes took place with Christ’s
atoning work. (William L. Hess, Crushing the Great Serpent: Did God Punish
Jesus? [2024], 274-76)
Hess then quotes the
following from Hilary (the remaining portion of the work quoted earlier):
It is true that in order to take the whole of our nature
upon Him He submitted to death, that is to the apparent severance of soul and
body, and made His way even to the realms below, the debt which man must
manifestly pay: but He rose again and abides for ever and looks down with an
eye that death cannot dim upon His enemies, being exalted unto the glory of God
and born once more Son of God after becoming Son of Man, as He had been Son of
God when He first became Son of Man, by the glory of His resurrection. He looks
down upon His enemies to whom He once said: Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will build it up. And so, now that this
temple of His body has been built again, He surveys from His throne on high
those who sought after His soul, and, set far beyond the power of human death,
He looks down from heaven upon those who wrought His death, He who suffered
death, yet could not die, the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed
for ever and ever. Amen.
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